Professional athletes and their coaches have long known that to perform well in the heat you have to train in the heat, for weeks in advance. So what does this mean for beginners like us? Well if you get the chance to run in the heat, take it! whether on holiday, business travel or a heat wave at home. It can boost your fitness. Here are the facts. The Impact of Heat When athletes train in higher temperatures than they’re used to, their...

When you begin running you can often be stuck between finding a comfortable pace and knowing at what pace you should be running. After all, if you are an absolute beginner the whole experience is new. You don’t know what a comfortable pace should feel like. But don’t fret. As you build experience and become a more seasoned runner  (it won’t take that long, trust me) you’ll settle into a comfortable pace. But there are...

Running with good form is more than just getting your footfall and stride right. Running is about propelling your whole body forward at speed and your whole body stays involved, for better or worse. Just take a look at professional sprinters and how much upper body muscle they have. Plently! and they need that strength to burst into and power through a sprint. Now, lets take a step back into our non-athlete parallel universe. We are...

Maintaining a good level of flexibility is important for our overall fitness and health. It doesn’t matter how far we can run, or how much weight we lose. If we end up not being able to touch our toes, I am sure that we would feel that we’d  missed out on something. If you are already running regularly and clocking up a couple of hours a week of run time, then you should definitely be including these basic stretches and more. If you...

By starting to run, or starting any exercise program for that matter, you are going to subject your body to new stresses and strains. As long as the level of those stresses are sensible, that’s a good thing! Our bodies react and adapt in response to those stresses by getting stronger and making us fitter. Remember, the overall plan is to: Raise base fitness levels Make small adjustments to eating habits Lose lots of weight,...

After you have been running for a while mixing some variety into your routes is essential. Why? Stopping boredom is a big factor, taking advantage of your run to relax and take in some views is another. There are solid training reasons too; mixing up different terrain, different surfaces, adding in hills sections and so on. But right now you need to put all of this to the back of your mind. As you are just starting out and especially if you are...