-turned-triathlete and the author of The Triathlete's Training Bible (VeloPress, 2004). "Swimming tends to stretch you out, whereas running tends to compress you." Running, of course, is a high-impact, primarily lower-body activity, while swimming is a full-body activity that

running. In a study at Purdue University in the USA, runners who added three cycling sessions per week to their training schedule improved their 5K race times as much as runners who added three additional runs to their weekly regimen. So whether you

finding that you're injuring yourself more frequently than seems normal.And even if you're lucky enough to avoid injury or dejection, you may simply be finding that your training runs have become boring. Whatever the situation, you need to do something

Monday: three-hour bike ride; 90-minutes weights; 40-minute swim. Tuesday: 60-minute swim; 90-minute run. Wednesday: two-hour bike ride; 60-minute swim. That might be the start of the training week for a professional triathlete. But they don't have

Training for a marathon is tough and time-consuming enough, but at least you're not short of advice on training schedules. But the increasingly popular ultra marathon is quite another matter, as one reader has found. If you've got experience

Train smarterWhen the weather turns cold, wet and icy, training suddenly seems a lot less enjoyable, so you can grit your teeth and face whatever nature throws at you, or grind out the miles on the treadmill and the turbo trainer. Or you could

Monday: three-hour bike ride; 90-minutes weights; 40-minute swim. Tuesday: 60-minute swim; 90-minute run. Wednesday: two-hour bike ride; 60-minute swim. That might be the start of the training week for a professional triathlete. But they don't have

of some of the country's finest athletes and a sports scientist, we've come up with a list of the most common training and race-day misdemeanours and the tips you need to tackle or avoid them. These people have experienced them all, so now you don't have

Hard Training Q&AsTRAINING GENERAL• Do I need to take an "easy week" when my average mileage isn’t that high? • Should you try and break through ‘the wall’ in training? • Is it just the cold weather, or am I getting fitter? • How do I overcome

1983 London Marathon winner Mike Gratton has been voluntarily advising runners live on our forums since 2004. This marathon training programme forms the core of his advice for anyone seeking to run seven days a week. It's suitable for men and women