Downhill courses seem to be popular for runners looking to PR. They are often designed to appeal to people seeking to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Under Boston’s rules, a gravity advantage is not considered cheating; a controversial subject with some runners. Some courses, notably the St. George (Utah) Marathon and the Tucson Marathon, drop more than 2,000 feet. At the other extreme are hill-a-thons on which it seems virtually impossible to score a personal best. In both cases, everyone has the same question: How much do these courses help or hinder your time?

One of the most well-known scientists to explore the use of heart rate for the purpose of athletic improvement was Francesco Conconi. His research resulted in what is known as the "Conconi Test". As part of this test, athletes monitor heart rate response to increases in speed. Conconi thought when heart rate and speed were are plotted on a graph, lactate threshold occurred when heart rate no longer climbed in a linear relation to speed. He believed this is the point was directly related to the accumulation of lactate in the body.

Tackling your first marathon can be an overwhelming feat. Events of this distance or duration take as much metal strength as they do physical strength. After mile 20, the run becomes exponentially more difficult for various reasons. Your brain becomes overloaded with messages from your body. The best type of luck is good preparation. To help you prepare for your first marathon consider the following guidelines.

VO2 Max is the maximum volume of oxygen the body can consume during intense exercise while breathing air at sea level. This is different than the amount of oxygen the lungs can inhale. VO2 is a measurement of how much of the oxygen inhaled the body uses. The volume is expressed as a rate either in liters per minute (L/min) or milliliters per kg body weight (ml/kg/min).

The first two decades of the fifth century B.C. marked one of the great turning points in world history. These were the years of the Persian and Greek wars. The powerful Persian Empire in 546 B.C. extended from Asia to Eygpt to what is now Turkey. This great empire built the first Suez Canal which linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. Greece on the other hand, consisted of a scattering of independent city-states, called poleis. These early city-states spawned the democratic ideas that have persisted into modern times. Athens eventually became the largest and most prosperous polis. Another Greek polis, Sparta, was not so democratic. They kept their kings and maintained a conservative, regimented society built around military training and the art of war.