of training, Kerry Neale, Philippa Braidwood and Phil Wilson are still training and making great progress to boot. It hasn’t been a case of simply going out for a run after work, though: all three have agreed to completely reshape their lifestyles. Under

call from the wife telling you she has set fire to the kitchen. Arrive home to find family alive (thank God!) and spend afternoon separating burned clothes from melted laundry basket. Travel to Bedfordshire for mother-in-law's 50th birthday. Wake up

cannot fail. Just turning up and doing a race is a good achievement in itself. – Jonathan BurkeImagine your worst-case scenario, then find the silver lining I sometimes don’t know why we put ourselves through it all. I too feel a wee bit sick before a

Ten (Middlesex, April 6) Proof that you don’t need to travel too far out of London for charming, waterside vistas - this pancake-flat ten-miler along the banks of the Thames is set against the delightful backdrop of Kew Royal Botanical Gardens

and all five toes are pressing down. The left leg should be travelling straight back from the hip and not angled off to the left. Sliding the leg further back increases the intensity of this stretch.4.   Lower the outside of your right buttock to the floor

20 per cent faster than breaststroke and this difference becomes more pronounced over longer distances.What holds true for the world's greatest swimmers also holds true for amateurs: breaststroke is the slowest of all swim strokes. Jodi Cossor

your session in. And morning running has the added benefit of raising your metabolism – so you will burn more fat all day long. “Exercise at 8am and your metabolism will be elevated till nine or 10pm,” says Marshall. “But if you train at 6pm, you only

. And sleeping. And sitting around with family and friends. After all that, how many minutes are left for a run? On too many days, none. And that’s precisely why we started researching this article. To make sure you never utter the ‘not enough time’ excuse again

training, and each week it had been getting worse and worse. In reality, my marathon training wasn’t productive at all because of it – I was either having to cut my long runs short or take two or three days off after each one to even walk properly, and my

and to sip on an isotonic drink all the way round, plus take water at all the stops. I was full of optimism and nervously stood at the start line, but within the first few miles was ticking over nicely at about 8:45. Then disaster struck at around the five