Q I’m a 33-year-old female, and after being collected by the ‘slow police’ after 19 miles in last year’s Berlin Marathon, I’m desperate to get my time down in this autumn’s race. I guess I should do speedwork but I don’t know what my targets should

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

as they would a straight running event." Do regular brick sessions by cycling at a high cadence for 15 minutes. Immediately shift into 10 minutes of fast-paced running, rest for five minutes and repeat three times. Aim to build to your race pace - the average

easyand RUN for 20 minutes easy SWIM for 10 minutes easy; CYCLE for 10 minutes easy Sun Strength train for 20 minutes Strength train for 20 minutes Strength train for 20 minutes Race Day KeyBilateral Breathing to both sides

pacing strategies affect race results. They asked 11 experienced female runners to run 5K on a treadmill to determine their average for the distance. The runners were then asked to run 5K again, but tackling the first 1.63K at different speeds: once

, and the 4x15 were fitted around commuting – running to and from the train station twice a week. I think all the talk about 'mental toughness' is a bit of snake oil. Ultras aren't that hard. Running 100 miles slowly is much, much easier than running 26.2

of the participants running a 62-mile race consumed 14,000 millilitres of liquid; another who ran only 26 miles, drank only 280 millilitres. The latter runner, not surprisingly, showed the most loss of vascular fluid, resulting in thickened blood plasma and impaired

- breathing on both sides) 12 x 25m, done as a 25m drill with a 10-second rest followed by 25m full stroke and a 10-second rest• Main-set pyramid (all with 20-30-second recovery) 8 x 25m, 4 x 50m, 2 x 100m, 1 x 200m, 2 x 100m, 4 x 50m, 8 x 25m.Keep to the same

pacing strategies affect race results. They asked 11 experienced female runners to run 5K on a treadmill to determine their average for the distance. The runners were then asked to run 5K again, but tackling the first 1.63K at different speeds: once

at the Institute for Physiology and Anatomy in Germany. Leyk recently examined age-related changes in marathon performance among 300,757 runners, and found that among top-10 finishers, running times slowed by about 10.5 per cent per decade for men and 14.8 per cent