2012 is drawing to a close and with Singapore’s premier running event now a (not too) distant memory, it’s time for some R&R (recovery and reflection). Athletes require time away from structured training to recover. It involves a focus on sleep, good food and being active away from their primary sport.

It is often regarded that the easiest, most effective way to get better at running is to do more training and to do that training a lot harder. What proves to be interesting is although you may achieve some success at shaving seconds or even minutes off your personal best, it is often short-lived due to the onset of fatigue leading to injury or illness.

The art of staying lean takes a fair amount of discipline and practice, but from experience it is not that difficult to become a master of managing your body composition. So if you would like to achieve this, consider again whether it is time, finally, to do something about it. If yes, you’ll need to think through the best approach, so to get you started here are 5 tips to help you succeed.

Where you get your improvement is when you are sitting on the couch eating and drinking after your run, or when you’re asleep in bed. You see, it is not the training that makes you a better runner but the recovery from the training.

Technique sets the upper limit for where training can take you. With this in mind here is what you need to be thinking about to enhance your running form. How you hold your head when you run is key to your overall posture and determines how effectively you will run. Aim to hold your chin parallel to the ground and let your gaze guide you. By scanning the horizon, you will straighten your neck and back, bringing them into alignment.

The long run should be the anchor to every runner’s weekly training plan. This is because it helps to condition the muscles to delay the onset of muscle fatigue, something very important to the long distance runner.

How you eat directly affects what you are able to get out of your body. Your body has specific responses to different foods, depending on the type, quantity and frequency of consumption. Not all foods going into your body will help you get the most out of it from an endurance standpoint and this could be the difference between racing a personal best performance or falling by the wayside.

Being able to burn fat as our primary fuel source is crucial to be able to complete an endurance event in fine fashion. Through the lifestyle choices we make on a daily basis the majority of us have turned ourselves into carbohydrate burners and are not tapping into our fat supply.