1. Sleep well"In reality, trying to sleep well the night before a race never works," says triathlon coach Rick Kiddle (www.rickkiddle.com). "The best sleep will be the night before the night before. Many athletes can survive with little sleep
of the taper, you disregard race plans and get carried along too fast. Anyone can feel great at 10 miles, but the key to running a successful marathon is to still feel vaguely okay at 23-25 miles. Other errors are drinking too little or too much, not cutting
edge on your prodigious fitness to smash your 10K and half-marathon PBs. (After a fortnight's recovery, Bruce Tulloh suggests easing into weekly speedwork such as 4-6 x 800m for half-marathons, and 8-12 x 400m for 10Ks, and thinking about racing from
or three intervals with five-minute recoveries) or do a continuous 25-minute tempo run at a pace thatÂ’s 12-15 seconds per mile slower than your usual 10K race pace.Getty ImagesRule 5: Increase your leg muscle strength and powerThis is one area that is often
're training six to eight weeks before the race, include hills and pushing big gears to build pace and cycle some sections at race pace. To make the most of this race preparation, practise eating and drinking what you plan to consume in the race as well
to recovery. How to make your first race a day to remember.Forum: My first race - will I be last?Forum: First-race nervesPredict your pace Calculate your pace Use one race time to predict another - or see how fast you'd need to run to hit a target time
at the London Marathon (2:46, 2:43, 2:46, 2:43 [his quickest in last 20 years] and 2:47). Over the years, he estimates he's run about 2,000 races.Read the whole forum debateQ. Most marathon schedules are based on past performances but my opinion is that you
potential in time for your races.For most of us, summer is a reminder of why we took up triathlons in the first place. Coach Dan Bullock (www.swimfortri.com) says, "It's just great to be outside. When the time comes to get away from the chlorine and straight
comes too, so we sprint when we see a squirrel and we stop when we need a drink from a muddy puddle.However, in opposition to that I'm pretty competitive when it comes to racing and do quite well, except in the marathon. My best half time is 1.28, yet my
