, thankful that the ground wasn't giving way at each step as it will be on the sand.I finished proud of myself and feeling like the desert can bring it on! After Hastings I had no more long runs planned, just a sensible taper of five 7-8 mile runs with my bag

of the schedule. The training reaches a peak in terms of volume and mileage. But once you’ve reached week 13, you have the stimulus of knowing that the worst is over and you can start tapering for the big day.As ever, the most important parts of the schedule

Standfirst: The focus of weeks 13-15 of your 15-week scheduleAuthor:Pics:Issue date: Feb-May01 / xref Ultimate schedsKeywords:uan126--In weeks 13-15... you taper… and race!You’ve done nearly all the hard work now – after your final long run in Week

the 1070 and the 2070 are the same as between their predecessors last year – the 2070 still has more cushioning, and more stability from a longer medial post and the IGS heel-strike system, and the 1070 still has a more tapered, less roomy forefoot fit

with our quicker weartesters. The Prevail keeps the same midsole and outsole as that shoe (it was called the Preside), and twins it with a narrower, more tapered upper, which gave a glove-like fit for some runners and ruined it for others. As before

of Saucony’s GTO cushioning material, and the fully-looped lacing system and tapered shape made for a slightly pinched forefoot fit on some testers. But on the positive side, the Jazz GTO was smooth, light and flexible and the lugged grip was good both

, and too tapered in the forefoot for some. But if that doesn’t cause you problems, and you have no extreme weight or stability demands, you’re unlikely to find a shoe to better the soft, smooth, light and stable GT-2080.Put the 2070 on one foot and the 2080

on Birdcage Walk and the Mall. My time? A truly pedestrian 6.13 - almost 90 minutes outside my only other marathon time. The chest infection picked up during the taper had not cleared and I started coughing up lots of gunk at Horse Guards and haven't stopped

without getting fed up of endless bowls of pasta to mental strategies to get through the taper with sanity intact. Steal some tips for these crucial later stages of your spring marathon training. ASICS PRO Team sports psychologist Dr Victor Thompson tells

then won the event at the Pan-Am Games in July and competed in the World Championships in Athletics at the end of August. All these peaks were the result of what I call reloading and reducing, or a work-taper cycle that balances bolstering fitness and fine