When people sign up for my beginners' running group I send them an email with some FAQs in it. And one of those is about what kit they'll need. Contrary to what most magazines will say, I tell them not to bother getting any new kit, just to turn up in what they have and [...]
The weeks since I got back from holiday seem to have flown by in a blur of training plans and rainy runs. In fact I think one week I wrote more training plans that I ran miles - a combination of sensible marathon recovery and bad weather coinciding with a lot of runners getting their [...]
In this podcast, I speak to Marina Ranger who is about to run 500k across Holland with her running buddy Lucja Leonard. A tough challenge for even the best of running pals. Then in the second half, I catch up with a few of my run buddies in the pub where we chat about the [...]
On Sunday I ran the British 10k London and then supported at the Bastion iron-distance triathlon, but this is a blog about neither. It's a blog about being a runner and part of a community. Let me explain. I was running the British 10k and then had to hotfoot it to Victoria Station to meet [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
