What do you need to start running? Running is a pretty simple activity and, despite what advertisers would have you believe, you really need very little in order to get started. Like starting anything new, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the array of equipment on offer and use this as an excuse to put [...]
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone This Year I love running marathons. It wasn’t always that way. For a long time I loved sitting on my sofa, watching TV. I still do to an extent, but I do it a lot less now. Now my spare time is filled with running, cycling and going to [...]
Train with me for your first 5k I'm on maternity leave right now, which means that for the first time in several years, I'm not out in local parks coaching new runners to their first 5k. So I've come up with a plan - I'm going to help those who'd like to start running this [...]
10 Reasons to Start Running After years of inactivity and hating exercise, I took up running and, to my surprise, found a sport that not only made me fitter and stronger, but that I actually started to enjoy. Here’s 10 reasons why you should give running a chance this year and learn to love it. [...]
Running and exercise during pregnancy: my experience Early this year I asked four women to share their experience of exercise during pregnancy. Unbeknownst to them, I was pregnant at the time. So it’s only fair that I share my own... I came into pregnancy with no expectations of how long I’d keep running for, but [...]
Your Running Goals For 2018 Have you thought about what you want to achieve next year? Runners are used to having a goal and a plan for getting there, so it's no surprise that as the calendar ticks over to another year, we might spend a little (or a lot of) time thinking about what [...]
How to pace a run: 3 ways to get it just right I've written before about why it's important to run your easy and long runs at the right pace - and how most runners are guilty of running these far too fast. And I'll keep banging on about it because there's huge benefits to [...]
See you in 2018 I'm now on maternity leave! It's been a whirlwind year and I'll now be (hopefully) taking a few weeks off before the next big event. I'm basically planning a pre-baby taper. I've got a few posts scheduled for the next few months, so look out for those - particularly if you're [...]
Are you a running perfectionist? We all know the saying: practice makes perfect. But what we often forget is the other part that's inherent in this statement - that practice itself ISN'T perfect. And yet we expect it to be. As runners, when we look at our training plan at the start of a training [...]
Building confidence along with fitness When I write a training plan for a runner, it will be made up of many of the familiar elements you'll have seen on your own: easy runs, long runs, tempo runs and intervals. Sessions organised neatly over the weeks, building towards a race, all with their own goals helping [...]
