Runners' World

"There's no secret in our training programme", says Deena "...what really makes the athlete stand out from the next -- at an elite level -- is the amount of time you put into the exemplary things, the ancillary work, the stretching, massage therapy, the work in the gym, all the other things to make us a more well-rounded athlete."

I don't usually disagree with Dr Ross Tucker, my South African mate, about the technical stuff he features on his Science of Sport blog, but this time....

Ross has picked up on some recently published research from Japan, in which scientists set up a high speed camera at the 15km mark of the 2004 Sapporro International Half Marathon, observed the foot strike of 248 men and 35 women, and characterized them as either heel-strikers, mid-foot or forefoot strikers.

"Peak endurance performance is maintained until ~35 years of age, followed by modest decreases until 50-60 years of age", says a new University of Texas report, which concludes that masters runners "remain a fascinating model of 'exceptionally successful aging' ".