Bush reveals running secrets

Mr Bush runs three miles almost every day

By Justin Webb BBC Washington correspondent

US President George W Bush has given the first exclusive full-length magazine interview since he took office.

Since the war began I have been running with a little more intensity

George W Bush

The interview is with Running magazine, and gives an insight into the president's punishing fitness schedule.

Mr Bush, who is 56, began running as a young man who needed to clear his head after drinking sessions, but at the age of 40 he gave up drink and became a self-confessed fitness fanatic.

He told Running magazine: "I'm convinced that running helped me quit drinking and smoking."

Room for improvement

Mr Bush tries to run three miles in under 21 minutes, six days a week.

In the interview he reveals that his times have improved since the war on terrorism began.

"They were pretty fast all along, but since the war began I have been running with a little more intensity," he says.

The interview will have pleased the White House - Iraq was not mentioned - but Running magazine is not entirely uncritical.

The president's running style, the magazine concedes, is perfect in the upper body - but it complains that he needs to tilt his hips forward a couple of degrees to achieve maximum efficiency.