progress, maintaining quality is crucial. Fatigue shouldn’t set in at any point to allow for full optimum development. If you start to tire and compromise the precision of your movement, then you need to take it back a stage.”Rests between sets should

and resting in the final pre-race stage.4. Recovery phase (four to six weeks), with two weeks of complete rest, and then two to four weeks of gentle activity.—George Gandy, Director of Athletics at Loughborough University

-confidence. If children have enough space, they’ll be running and walking every day as part of general play anyway. In truth, a child as young as seven could probably cope with covering a total of five miles a day in this manner at their own pace. If children can only

is also strengthened. Most of these adaptations occur in the latter stages of a longer run, which is why long runs are so important. If you are racing distances up to 10K, try to fit in a weekly training run of between 90 minutes and two hours. A further

www.andrewheadingphotography.comThere are plenty of fit, accomplished runners who think that ultra-marathons (races beyond marathon distance) are something ‘other people’ do. Thirty-nine-year-old Jane Riley was one such runner, until the beginning

self-esteem is higher when we are running well. If you are building up for a big race in 12 weeks time, the best period for a training camp is in the third or fourth week, so that you can build on the increased fitness in later weeks. The fact that you

think the UK's general change to racing on a Sunday from Saturdays makes it more difficult to race as frequently as we did in the 80s, and still get the long runs in. I raced most weekends, and often mid-week in the summer - relays and track races

much...maybe ease up for a few more races as I think I could have run a much faster 10km than I did but it was always compromised by training for marathons and taken more rest post marathon - I ran the fifth-fastest time at the National 12-Stage relay 6

, runners who began to slow down during the latter stages of a race couldn’t possibly sprint the last 100 yards or so. "Athletes can often surge during the latter stages of a race, knowing that they won’t have to continue once they cross the finish line

marathon your recovery period can be up to a month.Rob SpeddingTHE SHIRT Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race, 2004Finishing this event gave me one of the biggest buzzes I've ever received from running. Sure, the Himalayan 100 is a fantastic event – magnificent