1. I believe that running fast is a skill that everyone can learn

2. I believe that life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.

3. I believe that my family are the most important thing in my life.

4. I believe that hard work and dedication are qualities that are seriously undervalued in today’s world.

5. I believe it is better to educate and encourage than it is to bully and belittle.

6. I believe that there is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells out the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

7. I believe that there are few greater pleasures than the sensation of running fast with the sun on your face and the wind in your hair.

8. I believe that smiling is contagious.

9. I believe that everyone would be healthier if supermarkets did not exist

10. I believe that Paula Radcliffe will win gold in the 2012 London Olympic marathon

People have been running competitively for many years and during that time, an acquired wisdom has built up over running training and what you need to do to be successful. Over the years, trends have come and gone – following Zatopek’s success, everyone was running intervals; following the success of Arthur Lydiard’s runners, everyone ran 100 miles per week. So is the wisdom of previous years still valid today?

‘Lore of Running’ is a mighty tome authored by one of the world’s leading experts on distance running Tim Noakes. In it he describes the 15 Laws of Training based on the records of Arthur Newton, a competitive runner in the 1920s and 1930s. Can something developed before performance laboratories, sports science and modern diet and equipment still be valid today? There are a couple of these laws that some coaches might disagree with but in principle they are a sound basis for training today.

If that is the case, what about all the scientific studies that we read about in running and fitness magazines? How valid are they?

Although there is some excellent research carried out around the world, it is not always reported accurately or in an unbiased fashion. Before accepting a new piece of research and changing you whole training plan, check the small print rather than the headlines.

• Who was the research carried out on? - rats? Non runners? Experienced runners? Quite often it will be students as there are an abundant resource on university campuses where most of this research is carried out
• What was the study intended to demonstrate? If a study is funded by a company who want it to show how effective their new product is, how much trust will you place in it?

• How applicable is it to your situation? A couple of years ago, many fitness professionals and fitness magazines were recommending Tabata intervals as the fastest way to get fit. If you read the level of intensity Tabata had his subjects perform at, you already needed to be pretty fit to start the programme. For most of the audience, it was beyond their capability.

• What control measures are there? The placebo effect occurs where the mind believes the hype about what the body is trialling and consequently performs far better. Unless there is a control group who provide a comparison (the best studies have double blind protocols – neither the subject nor the researcher know who is getting the good gear and who is getting the fake) I would not trust the results.

However, science has been able to measure why many of the training effects that Newton and other runners like him obtained occurred. With that knowledge, it is possible to target more specifically those areas we would like to improve.

So, I believe in incorporating traditional running wisdom and modern scientific information in designing a training plan.

Train Smart!