I've lived in London for 12 years now. And like most people who live here I have moments of loving it and being frustrated with the city. In those 12 years I've lived in most postcodes and zones from 1 to 3. It's a big place, but running and cycling around it makes it feel [...]
A few weeks ago I took a walk round Wimbledon Common with Kate Lewis and her son Bertie. While Bertie slept, Kate and I talked about running during and after pregnancy. She shared her experience of running through her two pregnancies and returning to running after birth. I mention a US athlete called Sarah Brown [...]
I've used the treadmill quite a bit this year. I know a lot of people hate running on treadmills, and I was formerly in Team Treadmill Haters. But not anymore. While a run outside, somewhere scenic would always be my number one choice, sometimes the treadmill is the more realistic option for me. This past [...]
There will always be an excuse not to do something. I really didn't want to run yesterday. I was hungover, I was tired, I'd got a train back from a wedding, a late night of drinking and dancing the night before and I wanted to sit on the sofa and do nothing. It took me [...]
How do you choose a target time for a race? It's a tricky thing to do. Too ambitious and you set yourself up to crash and burn (and possibly get injured) but too safe and you don't reach your full potential. I had a question about this very subject left on one of my blogs [...]
We've made it to week seven and (I think) this is my first missed workout. I cut one short the week I hurt my back but this week there was no speed work. Oh well. I knew there was a chance this would happen. I was away from Thursday to Monday having a great weekend [...]
This week I was running through the park when a conker fell from a tree missing me by about a foot. My first thought was 'that would have really hurt' swiftly followed by 'Oh crap, it's nearly Autumn'. The Great Eastern Run isn't the only sporting event taking place in Peterborough in early October. The [...]
When my sister finished her first half marathon, she said to me: "I don't think I want to do a marathon. Can I just stick to shorter races?" And, of course the answer to this is, HELL YES! You make your own rules, chase your own goals and do what excites you when it comes [...]
When I write training plans for runners, I ask them for the holidays, weekends away and busy weeks they've got in their personal life over the months ahead. Because if you're gong to tick off all your runs, a bit of forward planning and a realistic approach to run-life balance is needed. In the run [...]
A couple of weeks ago I asked you to submit a problem for me and my friend Liz to try and help you with. Thank you so much for your responses. We got more than we were able to answer in one podcast, but we picked three that we hope will resonate most with other [...]
