the Virgin London Marathon 2011 - hot and heaving!After a pre-race pep talk from the Runner's World crew (no weaving, hit your mile times, no listening to music - and enjoy it!), we set off for our pens. I was 11-minute/miling and starting from the very last

Q I’m not running the Flora London Marathon this year, opting for a summer marathon instead. I have run under 3:30, am pretty sure that I can manage a sub-3:10, but would really love a crack at sub-3:00. How do I know what to aim for, and am I

in those three months. I was in great shape before I took time off work.  If I had stayed at work for those three months and trained sensibly I could have won it."There are plenty of busy people who do manage to train and race to their full potential

by running coach Jack Daniels. For every race distance, Daniels has calculated the aerobic power necessary to run a specific time. This capacity is expressed in a 'VDOT' number determined by exhaustive human-performance lab studies and a mathematical formula

Do you fly through transition with practised ease or are you a fumbler, juggling your gels as you struggle to find your second sock?One thing that's sure to help you slash seconds off your race time is a smooth and fast transition from swim to bike

day a week I try to keep clear. "If you are committing yourself to the marathon and you want to run a decent time – I wanted to run under three hours and I eventually managed 2:52:04 on my watch – then you have to tell yourself that you are going

and can only read one article, make it this one: 10 Ways To 5K Success (non-subscriber preview) One distance – some very different approaches. We’ve got 5K wisdom for racers with aims from run-walk to record time.BEGINNERS 5K is a perfectly manageable

for that. Energy gels every five miles helped in training and racing, but there were no real secrets to what I was doing, except for hard work.”­Kevin Wood, 43. Youth justice manager, Greenwich, London. 2:59:27, London 1999How I Beat... 4:00“I’m not a fast

will help you enjoy the day (do this this week, well before race day), as this is your stated goal.Q. I'm a first-time marathoner who has missed almost five weeks of training due to injury. I’m still going to do the VLM, with a run-walk plan and absolutely

You've run countless miles, spent hours in the pool and pedalled until your bike feels like it's a part of your body, but unless you put yourself through some training sessions designed to help you hit your peak in time for race day, your efforts