– the difficult one is swimming. In a race we cannot keep looking at our heart-rate monitor or stopwatch,” says Bill Black, who coached the GB Men’s Triathlon Team at the Sydney Olympics. “But if we train at a certain pace in the pool we can keep cross

and freshly motivated with every step you make towards your end goal.Setting realistic time targets also helps. If you fancy losing a stone "one day", you'll find it easy to keep making excuses. Instead, start a weight-loss plan now with the aim of dropping

Setting challenging yet attainable goals is key to maintaining a long-term running career. After all, you’re more likely to stay motivated when you have something to work towards and can measure your progress at regular intervals. But picking

training log...and keep it up all year! Plot your improvement over 2010, and just think how proud you'll be when you look back in December.A training log is unbeatable for motivation – it'll help you focus on long-term goals, and you'll notice

; you are not just training for training's sake.        Quality training also has a plan behind it, so that the training progresses over time and includes recovery time. Junk training is where you do the same sessions week in week out with no overall

Andy Dixon, Editor-in-ChiefRunner since: 2007Biggest running achievement in 2011: Achieving a new marathon PB (3:08:33) at Boston in April. I trained hard for four months, gave up booze and organised weekends around long runs, so it was nice when

, consider including some new details.Beyond reason "When you log your training, it's always worth having a motivational reminder on each page to tell you why you are putting in the effort," says Smythe. This might be anything from "marathon in September

.Review your training planIf you had a training plan, how well did you follow it? How can you improve your plan for next time? Does it need to be more realistic - you're probably never going to be able to do 20 hours' training every week. Review your races

of their training sessions. So, for example, the next time their training plan features a long run in the depths of winter, they know exactly why it’s in there and how it fits into the bigger picture.”There are a few methods Darren uses to help his athletes set

,000 expert tips on nutrition, motivation, training and more.Whether you're a complete beginner or already have your sights set on a PB, this 300-page book can help you train and run better. The Complete Guide to Running is divided into 10 key chapters