Avoiding the training comparison trap I've been to the gym. It was a short session tacked onto the end of a 4-mile run. I was doing some single leg deadlifts, balancing on one leg and lowering a weight to the floor. I was facing the mirror, trying to keep everything in line and not wobble. [...]
After much recovery, some slow miles and a gradual return to the gym, my legs were ready to run fast again. For me, the summer is about fun miles with friends, warm evenings at the track and some shorter races. So last week I took my legs to the Finsbury Park parkrun. It's embarrassing how [...]
It's been six months since I stopped working full-time for a charity and started working for myself full-time. It's gone really quickly, I can't really believe it's June already. There's no such thing as a typical week for me as it depends a lot on what clients I've got booked in and what writing projects [...]
Marathon recovery: 10 tips to recovering like a pro Recovery is a subject that doesn't get as much attention as the training and racing, but it's an important one. After Edinburgh 2016, I'd booked a holiday to Mallorca for two weeks, where I like to think I nailed the recovery part of that marathon cycle. [...]
I'll shut up about Edinburgh Marathon soon, but first a post about mental aspect of running a marathon. It's the part that we often don't prepare for as well as we could. That's not to say we don't prepare for it, because every run you do in training involves an element of mental preparation for [...]
Marathon training tips: Winter base training So you want to run a marathon? Maybe your first, maybe your second. Great. Got yourself a training plan? Stuck it to the fridge? Ready to start training for it 16 or 20 weeks out? Great. But your training plan doesn't start for a month or two. What are [...]
I asked one of my runners about going from non-runner to doing her first 5k. Here's Clare's story... My running ‘career’ has got off to several false starts… beginning with the nightmare and embarrassment of the school cross country! Of course even the worst memories fade so a few years ago I found myself signed [...]
A few days before Edinburgh marathon, I was cycling along to meet my runners and a feather fell out of the sky. It floated down in front of me like that scene in Forest Gump and I thought to myself "It's a sign!" Then I thought, "I should catch it and make a wish, or [...]
I speak to my friend Cathy Drew who is in the middle of training for an iron-distance triathlon. Hard enough but add in travelling to Asia for work a lot and it's a logistical challenge. Whatever you're training for, Cathy discusses how she makes sure her training doesn't get derailed by life, work or anything [...]
I kept fairly quiet about Edinburgh Marathon in the build up to it, so I'm now going to backtrack and do a couple of posts about the preparations that took place. Because, I don't want the silence in the lead up to the race to mislead anyone into thinking I didn't train for it and [...]
