To be a good athlete you must have good training practices. Traing is not just the way you approach running on the track but the way you approach your day to day living.

Coaching – Seeking out someone with more experience then you is always a good idea. Why re-invent the wheel, follow a tried and tested training method that has worked well for others.

Be Open – A huge part to becoming an experienced athlete is to keep your mind open, both to new ideas and to feedback. Let others give you feedback and advice. As a beginner (or even as an expert) you can not know everything recognise this and learn from your peers otr those that are more experienced.

Take it slow – Set reasonable goals. Do not expect to make the Olympics if you are a couple of times a week runner. Motiavation is a key element to training and the secret to this is in setting yourself realistic and achievable goals. Pushing yourself to far and fast in your traing schedule will result burn out.

Injury Prevention – I don’t know of any great athlete that hasn’t suffered a injury at one point in their career, and knows how devastating it can be. Even a simple injury can put an end to your training or even kill your career. Prevent injury by warming up and being smart in your training.

Use the right equipment – Why take the risk of training in year old running shoes when it’s recommended to buy new ones every 6 months? Also consider a HRM or a running watch, such as the garmin forerunner 405cx . The garmin 405cx not only records your training session but with its inbuilt GPS can map your exact route.

Proper warm up and cool downs – can greatly decrease your risk of injury. One of the biggest mistakes is not warming up before exercise. It can be dangerous. Simply stretching or other muscle warm up exercises will prepare you for your session.

If you take these things into consideration I have no doubt that you will have success in for what ever it is you are training and if you invest in the 405cx you can record your progress and save and analyse it all on your PC to map your progress.

Good Luck in your next race or marathon and remember to have fun!