April: Heft

   Even running magazines now feature flawless half-naked bodies on their covers in order to make you hate your own body and cough up $5 for the magazine. The logic is perverse but effective. There's even some truth to its insidious come-on: running improves your appearance - regardless of your physique, genetic predisposition, eating habits, or particular training program. No doubt about it, toned muscle makes eye candy.

   There’s no embarrassment in running for vanity's sake, though programs driven solely by this goal tend to fail (it requires too much effort). Bitterness awaits those who seek to resemble magazine models, most of whom are genetic freaks. Running will help you shed pounds and tone muscle. It won't give you Claudia Schiffer's rump. If appearance is important to why you run, you should begin by making peace with your body, its quirks and disappointments, its glorious capacity for change.

   Raising the total mileage of your workouts can actually undercut your quest for a flat tummy and beautiful buns, since distance training makes you more efficient at burning fuel. Far better is speed work. Interval training is the most effective tool underfoot. But you needn't go at it as if you're atoning for mortal sins. Simply adding speed bursts to your regular long run works nicely; just be sure to allow for plenty of recovery time between bursts. The speed you reach matters less than the number of bursts you add to your workout and the amount of time at which you maintain the faster pace. Gradually increase these over weeks.

   You'll also see better results if you break a long workout into morning and afternoon sessions. The trick is to kick your metabolism into a high burn rate twice a day. It stays in overdrive for up to two hours after your workout, which extends the total time at which your buff body incinerates calories. You'll find yourself exerting greater amounts of effort in these shortened distances as well. Of course, two-a-day workouts consume much more time (not to mention towels) than a single hard run. The best strategy is to strive for one demanding workout a day, squeaking in a second when your schedule permits.

   Finally, add weight training to your running; the results tend to be astonishing. You'll get more natural definition by working all your major muscle groups: don't try to sculpt individual body parts. Weight trainers will invariably urge you to increase the loads you lift, even though runners benefit more from adding repetitions of relatively light weights - this builds core strength, the large muscle groups in your torso, back, arms, and legs, which contribute, often indirectly, to your' running performance. If possible, do your strength-building exercises using a balance ball, now popular at many gyms.

   However you go about making your body gorgeous, don't let a mirror guide your goals - you'll grow impatient with the pace of the results. Instead, seek a training regimen that you can sustain, one that brings happiness to many parts of your life. As with fad diets, weight-loss running programs become tyrannical and dull. With no joy in your workouts, the pounds can't wait to return.