indefinitely. Ignore them, and… well, you know. You reap what you sow.Follow a straight and even pathThe best surfaces for running are firm but not too hard, relatively flat (without camber) and smooth (without ruts or holes). Generally, roads make fine running

's not possible, then walk down them, since they pound the legs more than level or uphill surfaces.Be careful when you run with your friends. After your lay-off, they're probably much fitter than you and may pull you along faster or further than you should go

Select and organise the running kit you need the night before a morning run. And keep a complete bag of running gear (and a dry shirt and towel) in the boot of your car or under your desk. You never know when you'll he able to use them.Run on different surfacesSee how

-lightweight road-racing shoes on a few trail-running events and watch them disintegrate before your eyes. Gritty and stony surfaces will damage a road-racing shoe, which is built for flat, even, asphalt surfaces. Get yourself a trail shoe designed for the rough

running will feel. More about running surfaces.I always feel out of breath when I run. Is something wrong?Running causes you to breathe harder than usual, so some amount of huffing and puffing is normal. Most of that out-of-breath feeling diminishes as you

with this by dilating capillaries close to the skin. This allows more blood to get close to the surface to help cooling. Your heart rate will often rise whether you're exercising or not. When you are running, the muscular work you're doing increases your body

There’s no single 'best shoe' – everyone has different needs. All sorts of things - your biomechanics, your weight, the surfaces you run on, and obviously, the shape of your feet - mean that one person's ideal shoe can be terrible

-span suspension bridge. Its architect had to take into account the curvature of the Earth’s surface.Away to the left, the financial district of Manhattan glittered in the precise autumn sunlight. It seemed dauntingly distant, and I felt like the Cowardly Lion

of the hill.Don’t just hammer out the miles on roads or pavements. By training off-road on trails or sand, your legs will work harder to keep you moving, and you’ll put less stress on joints. You can even include races on different surfaces in your training

problems in your back, they often come to the surface when you start running because it is quite a compressive sport,” says Leach. “You need to make sure the biomechanics of your lower back are working at 100 per cent.” If there are mechanical weaknesses