The Women's Running Podcast

In this episode Holly and I are talking about how doing this podcast is our therapy (sorry for that). We also talk about how incredibly awful netball is, and the old “thank you marshall” email rears its head again. We are firmly in two minds here. Then I get the chance to debrief the trail run at the weekend that allows me to officially describe myself as an ultrarunner. In short, it was ace – find out more about my first ever just-about ultra, and the best way to start doing this too. We also talk about the Vitality 10K, which is coming up next week (more of that on the next podcast), which I’ll be running with the rest of the Celebrate You crowd. That neatly segues into our next podcast happily enough, because NEXT WEEK we have some very special guests – the wonderful Scummy Mummies, who are not only funny but they’re also runners. And if you like this podcast, you’ll love Women’s Running magazine. You can read every issue – and we make 12 a year – direct on your phone with our digital membership, which is just £2.99 a month. Use this code at the checkout to claim this fab offer: WR SPR 22 PODWe’ve launched ourselves on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us at with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. You can support us from as little as £2 a month – and every patron helps us continue to produce a podcast that has at least 10% running content in it in every episode. --This episode is Sponsored by Lucy Locket Loves. Fall in love with their amazing activewear, snuggly hoodies and jumpers, funky dungarees and so much more. Whether you're running marathons, going to the movies or playing in the park with the little ones, Lucy Locket Loves has something for everyone. Check out their full range at www.locketloves.com. And for a whopping 20% off, you can use the code RUN20 at the checkout. -- LINKSThis is the beautiful Bath Beat I ran over the weekend. And here is the Long Distance Walkers Association, in which they include Challenge Events, many of which (perhaps all) are open to runners. Here is the Vitality 10,0000 I’m running next week as part of the Celebrate You wave – although it’s too late to sign up to the in-person event, you can run virtually if you sign up before this Friday 29th. Join me virtually!Holly is very excitedly going to be taking on one of these Conqueror virtual events in the meantime for a brilliant medal.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Holly and I are chatting utter nonsense as ever, as well as a bit of running chat you’ll be pleased to hear, from tales of woe around her poorly foot, to my nerves ahead of a fast approaching trail marathon.I interrupt our gassing to have a lovely chat with Anna-Marie Watson, an ultrarunner like no one I’ve ever met before. Over the last ten years she’s trained and raced across the globe, and has achieved podium positions at multiple ultras, and has competed in three Ironman World Championships. Since the arrival of Covid she’s switched her attention to the pursuit of Fastest Known Times (FKTs) from her doorstep in Wiltshire. And this is why I wanted to talk to her, as it’s on my doorstep too. I got in touch after watching Eight White Horses, the incredible film that she’d had made of her FKT attempt to run the white horses of Wiltshire. She is astonishing.Holly and I come back after my chat with Anna-Marie to talk through some more of your running annoyances – mostly, it turns out, it’s still other people. But because we like to think of ourselves as unbiased (ahem), we also include an email from a listener who has provided the other half of the story, and we find ourselves thoroughly chastised as a result. Maybe we shouldn’t hate people so much? Also we discuss our new topic: embarrassing moments, and a listener’s personal moment with a pesky front zip fastening. Do please email uswith your own stories!This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Forestry England. Forestry England cares for more land and trees than any other organisation in England - growing, shaping and caring for more than 1500 of our nations’ forests. It has built over 1,800 miles of running, walking and cycling trails. From 1km to 10km route lengths, their waymarked running trails have been designed with both beginners and seasoned runners in mind. They provide an opportunity to run on safe, off-road, traffic-free trails in beautiful forest locations. Start your running journey or find inspiration for beating your personal best with Forestry England. Find out more about the beautiful forest trails you can run right now. LINKSDiscover your own epic trails courtesy of Forestry England.Watch Anna-Marie’s epic FKT in Eight White Horses. Try out Women’s Running magazine for just £2.99 a month, using this code at checkout: WRSPR22POD.Please support us on Patreon for just £2 a month!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is our special we’ve-just-got-back-from-Berlin podcast. Holly and I have a LOT to talk about, so brace yourselves. We start off with Drag Race – standard – and then move on swiftly to a whistle-stop tour of our exciting trip to Berlin with Sports Tours International. We talk about hotel etiquette – and most importantly, the concern about which loo to poo in to be the most neighbourly. And we talk about our impressions of Berlin itself – and let me say right here, it’s absolutely bloody AMAZING, what a wonderful city. And then we chat about the half marathon itself, and what that was like to experience as a runner (me) and as part of the cheer squad (Holly). Oddly enough, we have had such an exciting adventure that the run was really just a minor part of it, and that really helped with race day nerves. If you can bear it, listen right to the end for a revolting European revelation.This Podcast is Sponsored by Lucy Locket Loves. Fall in love with their amazing activewear, snuggly hoodies and jumpers, funky dungarees and so much more. Whether you're running marathons, going to the movies or playing in the park with the little ones, Lucy Locket Loves has something for everyone. Check out their full range here. Listen in to the podcast for an exclusive discount code.If you like this podcast, you will love Women’s Running magazine. And right now we have a bit of a treat for you. You can read each issue every month right on your phone for just £2.99 a month. That gives you instant access even if you’re running a race in Berlin, and you can read all our back issues too. All for just £2.99 a month! We’re practically giving it away! Use the following code at checkout for this brilliant offer – WRSPR22POD.In case you’ve not noticed, we’ve launched ourselves on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. And some of you have already started supporting us, which is LOVELY. You can support us from as little as £2 a month – every little helps! Go on your own Berlin adventure with the super-flat marathon this autumn with Sports Tours International. Or pick from any number of brilliant city races to suit you.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Holly and I are talking about how our running is going in the lead up to the Berlin Half. It’s a game of two halves really, as you’ll soon find out. Changes are afoot, but never fear, we’re still lacing up our lederhosen in anticipation.We also want to talk about the Bath Half controversy – as you might know, this is a race that’s dear to our hearts, being our local half and the first half marathon that both of us have ever done – albeit about 15 years apart. It has been postponed again, which feels a little bit cruel. So we talk through that, and the local response to it. If any listeners want to run it on its new date on 16th October (through a charity place) or the one in 2023, which I believe will still be in March as usual, find out more here.We then, prompted by listeners who are totally on our side, get properly cross about poor use of pedestrian areas – aimless people walking out of shops, cyclists on pavements. We have loved having a rant about our pet running peeves, and hearing all of yours – it’s been very cathartic!But we’re changing the assignment – we want you to tell us your embarrassing running stories, and we promise to tell you ours in return! Email us at [email protected] with all those things that have embarrassed you on a run. Go on, dare you!---This Podcast is Sponsored by Lucy Locket Loves. Fall in love with their amazing activewear, snuggly hoodies and jumpers, funky dungarees and so much more. Whether you're running marathons, going to the movies or playing in the park with the little ones, Lucy Locket Loves has something for everyone. Check out their full range here. Listen in to the podcast for an exclusive money off code, too!--- We’ve launched ourselves on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. And some of you have already started supporting us, which is LOVELY. You can support us from as little as £2 a month – every little helps! Over on our Instagram page we’ve launched #Run4Ukraine because we want to do whatever we can to support people who need it most right now. It’s really simple to get involved: just run or walk 4K, donate £4 to the Red Cross and encourage 4 friends to do the same thing. Tag us, use the hashtag #run4ukraine, and raise some cash. Please help. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re talking hormones. Well, first of all we’re talking about creepy blokes in spinning classes, swiftly followed by Wordle tactics. It’s all going on. At one point, we even start talking about running. Then after a bit, I have a chat with Dr Nicky Keay from Forth who offer blood tests to track your hormones. This can be massively beneficial for women runners, as she explains. She talks to me about how mapping your hormones over the course of a month can benefit your general health and your training. I had a female hormone mapping test with them, and for me it indicated what I know – that I’m firmly perimenopausal. But Dr Nicky explains how the test can diagnose perimenopause and also RED-s, which can often show up with the same symptoms. So lots of chat about menopause, hormones, and owning your periods. Then it’s back to Holly and me to talk about even MORE running annoyances with some emails we’ve had in from listeners. We thought we were going to be ostracised by the running community, but it turns out we’ve hit a nerve!Over on our Instagram page we’ve launched #Run4Ukraine because we want to do whatever we can to support people who need it most right now. It’s really simple to get involved: just run or walk 4K, donate £4 to the Red Cross and encourage 4 friends to do the same thing. Tag us, use the hashtag @run4ukraine, and raise some cash. Please help. In case you’ve not noticed, we’ve launched ourselves on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. And some of you have already started supporting us, which is LOVELY. A big shout out to the very brilliant Jodie Price and Carly Evans, who are two of our newest Silver Patrons!This episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel and Hydration. I love finding out more about how we can fuel ourselves better on our long runs, and it’s been brilliant getting to know Precision Fuel & Hydration's scientific approach to what we should eat and drink during training and races. Their tools and products are firmly built on scientific evidence and are designed to help you personalise your hydration and fuelling strategy for whatever you're training for. Head over to precisionfuelandhydration.com and take their free online Sweat Test and Quick Carb Calculator to understand your own needs. You can also book a free hydration and fuelling strategy video consultation. Missed the discount code during the show? Drop the Precision Fuel & Hydration team an email at [email protected] and they'll be happy to help. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Holly and I are talking all sorts of rubbish, and we start off discussing coffee, disappointments at yoga, and other random stuff until we eventually get into running. Mine is going well, the hip niggle appears to have subsided, and Holly has actually jeffed, and jeffed brilliantly, thank you very much. Both of us are running to feel – neither of us feel like doing hill sprints, so we’re jolly well not doing them. But, gloriously, we are enjoying running - and so much more than we have done recently. I’m hoping this is the beginning of me trying to stop thinking about times, and to instead enjoy the journey a bit more. That’s the ambition in any case. We also talk about getting annoyed at runners who carry on running after the race has finished, and also Holly’s disgust at anyone wearing a Cheltenham Harriers singlet. We have a bit of a chat about periods and hormones because I’ve had a hormone test to see what’s going on with my ovaries, and the quick answer is – not much. So we chat all things sluggish ovaries. More on that in the next episode when I’m talking to a doctor from Forth about how hormonal blood tests can give us useful insights for our running and our health.Then just a few more things: firstly, in case you’ve not noticed, we’ve launched ourselves on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. And some of you have already started supporting us, which is just LOVELY. A big shout out to Ulrike Schlesiger, Kim Racon and Katie Fraser. Thank you!Over on our Instagram page we’ve launched #Run4Ukraine because we want to do whatever we can to support people who need it most right now. It’s really simple to get involved: just run or walk 4K, donate £4 to the Red Cross and encourage 4 friends to do the same thing. Tag us, use the hashtag @run4ukraine, and raise some cash. Please help. ---This episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel and Hydration. We recently welcomed Sports Scientist Abby Coleman onto the show as we discussed the importance of personalising your carb, fluid and sodium intake for training and racing. Precision Fuel & Hydration help runners refine their own individual hydration and fuelling strategies for whatever you're training for.Head to precisionfuelandhydration.com to use their free online Sweat Test and Quick Carb Calculator to understand your individual needs, and then book a free one-to-one video consultation with Abby or one of the team to refine your strategy for your next race. Listen in to the episode for an exclusive discount code!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 83 of the Women’s Running podcast. Today, Holly and I are (belatedly) celebrating International Women’s Day with a bit of random ramblings including the joy of Drag Race, and whether or not Harry Styles or Morten Harket would fancy us. We also talk about more running related stuff, including practising our jeffing, listening to our hips and being kind to ourselves and our training. In a lovely, sweaty interlude I speak to Abby, head scientist from Precision Fuel and Hydration, about how we can better hydrate ourselves before, during and after a run. I had a sweat test with Abby at the National Running Show, and she is keen to talk through my results, which are less disgusting than that sounds. She tells me how we can measure how much we sweat to ensure that we’re taking on the right amount of water and electrolytes when we run. Importantly, she also tells us whether we can or can’t drink coffee and booze. There is some good news here. Some. After that, we come back to Holly and me talking about the biggest thing that annoys me when I run – and I’ve tried not to ostracise all people here, but I have a worrying suspicion that I might have done! Spoiler: it’s about dogs. Which naturally leads into a discussion of what kind of animal we both are. Answers on a postcard – or to [email protected] please.Then just two more things: firstly, in case you’ve not noticed, we’ve launched ourselves in a slightly abashed way on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. Last things last. Over on our Instagram page, we’ve launched #Run4Ukraine because we want to do whatever we can to support people who need it most right now. It’s really simple to get involved: just run or walk 4K, donate £4 to the Red Cross and encourage 4 friends to do the same thing. Tag us, use #run4ukraine, and raise some cash. Please help. This episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration, who offer a range of tools and products to help you personalise your fuelling and hydration strategy so that you can perform at your best.Everyone sweats differently and the amount of fuel we require varies depending on factors like the duration and intensity of our activity, so a one-size-fits-all approach to fuelling and hydration just doesn’t cut it.Head to precisionfuelandhydration.com and use their free online Sweat Test and Quick Carb Calculator to understand your fluid, electrolyte and carbohydrate needs during training and racing. Then book a free one-to-one video consultation with the team to refine your hydration and fuelling strategy for your next race.As a listener of the show you can get 15% off your first order of fuelling and hydration. Missed the discount code during the show? No worries, drop the Precision Fuel & Hydration team an email at [email protected] and they'll be happy to help.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the workshop we have a lot to get off our collective chests. The big news is that Holly has tested negative TODAY and is feeling super happy and looking forward to her first trip to Sainsbury’s, and also her first post-Covid run. We talk about how she should approach that, and how we can both train and run our half marathon in berlin sensibly, so that we enjoy it and don’t collapse. So yes, we start wanging on about the walk/run method, and I get all finger waggy with Holly about this. I also have a bit of a race report having completed the Brighton half marathon which, through no fault of its own was a bit of an uncomfortable run for me – so we talk about injuries here too. We also, because of my experience here, talk about the things we have inadvertently said out loud while running. We also finish this one up by talking about some of the things that annoy us while we run – I have quite a long list, so I’ve kept mine short. And in fact, this is something we’re going to revisit next time: please let us know your own running grievances, we would love to know we’re not the only ones! Tell us your big hates!Then just a few more things: firstly, in case you’ve not noticed, we’ve launched ourselves in a slightly abashed way on to Patreon as we need your help to keep going. Please support us with whatever you can and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks. And some of you have already started supporting us, which is just LOVELY. So a big shout out to Rachel Stevens, Mary G, Naomi Corrieri-Hobbs and Fabiola Garay. Thank you!Over on our Instagram page we’ve launched #Run4Ukraine because we want to do whatever we can to support people who need it most right now. It’s really simple to get involved: just run or walk 4K, donate £4 to the Red Cross and encourage 4 friends to do the same thing. Tag us, use the hashtag @run4ukraine, and raise some cash. Please help. Today's show is brought to you by Precision Fuel & Hydration, who help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies so that they can perform at their best. Everyone loses a different amount of sodium in their sweat and that's why a one-size-fits all approach to hydration simply doesn't work. Check out their free online Sweat Test to get some personalised advice. As a listener of the show, you can get 15% off your first order of electrolytes and fuel. Missed the discount code during the show? No worries, drop the Precision Fuel & Hydration team an email at [email protected] and they'll be happy to help.The National Running Show is a home for runners, no matter how far or fast you go. Join us at Farnborough International on the 7-8 May for inspirational speakers such as Paula Radcliffe, Shakira Akabusi and Jo Pavey, the latest kit, cutting-edge technology, expert coaches, the best races and a host of tasty nutrition all under one roof. Just enter the code ANTHEM here for free tickets to attend.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Chrissie Wellington. Chrissie is so enormously famous in the world of running (and cycling and swimming) that she really needs no introduction. Chrissie is actually part of the Women’s Running family – if you read the magazine you may have noticed her crop up in our annual Product Awards, in which she plays a big part. So we’ve spoken before, and it is to my utter shame she hasn’t appeared on the podcast to this date. We talk about her meteoric rise into professional sport – how she made the leap in the first place, how her coach saw her potential in the ironman distance, and how in fact she didn’t really come from nowhere, as everyone says – it was just an unconventional start with tons of experience of endurance, even if that was cycling around Nepal rather than around a track. She also talks passionately about the unifying and empowering force of sport, a belief that has moved with her from the world of professional sport to her current day job as Global Head of Health and Wellbeing at parkrun. She is super inspiring and happily overlooked the Zoom call from hell – we’ve done our best with this one, but do please bear with a slightly glitchy call in places. It gets better!We love making this podcast for you, and we hope you love it just as much. If you do, we’re asking for your support so that we can continue making it. We’ve joined up with Patreon to do that awkward thing of asking for money. But the thing is, we’re only asking you to donate as little as £2 a month. For that we’re offering you some lovely perks and, if you’re very generous, a free subscription to the digital magazine too. Come and be part of the Women’s Running podcast and we will love you forever!This episode of the podcast is sponsored by The North Face. Flight Vectiv from The North Face is an incredibly responsive trail shoe. Ultra light and breathable, it’s been designed for speed and agility. The Vectiv technology combines a 3D carbon fibre plate and rocker midsole to turn energy into momentum to propel you forward. A bio-based outsole rubber compound provides superior traction and durability, while the upper is durable, flexible, light and protective. All the things! The Vectic range of brilliant trail shoes enables you to power further. Available now at The North Face. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 80 of the Women’s Running podcast. Holly is in the house – but not my actual house, because she has actual COVID. She’s been dancing around the Covid lurgy for the past couple of weeks, but now it has firmly struck. She’s feeling okay, though, so I cracked the whip and we did this podcast despite the virus. So we talk about that, and we talk about other things that have put the kibosh on our running, including my self diagnosed hip bursitis, which is worrying me ahead of the Brighton half marathon this weekend. I’ve decided not to run at all in the week beforehand, which I find very concerning, but I’m trying to find some confidence from within. We chat about how we as women, and as runners, can tap into that innate confidence men have, and use it to feel better at start lines – and in life. We also talk about something closely linked with that – Imposter Syndrome. And how we both suffer hugely from it, but how that isn’t a massive surprise because we are WOMEN. So not much about actual running here, and more about the mental tricks our minds play to prevent us from running, or entering races, or feeling good when we do run. We don’t have the answers, but we do have ALL the empathy.We love making this podcast for you, and we hope you love it just as much. If you do, we’re asking for your support so that we can continue making it. We’ve joined up with Patreon to do that awkward thing of asking for money. But the thing is, we’re only asking you to donate as little as £2 a month. For that we’re offering you some lovely perks and, if you’re very generous, a free subscription to the digital magazine too. Come and be part of the Women’s Running podcast and we will love you forever!Right now, you can become a member of Women’s Running Plus, which includes a subscription to the magazine and tons of great benefits for just £9.99 every 3 months, saving a third off the cover price. Just go to shop.womensrunning.co.uk and enter FEB22WRPOD at the checkout.This episode of the podcast is sponsored by The North Face. Flight Vectiv from The North Face is an incredibly responsive trail shoe. Ultra light and breathable, it’s been designed for speed and agility. The Vectiv technology combines a 3D carbon fibre plate and rocker midsole to turn energy into momentum to propel you forward. A bio-based outsole rubber compound provides superior traction and durability, while the upper is durable, flexible, light and protective. All the things! The Vectic range of brilliant trail shoes enables you to power further. Available now at The North Face. Find out more about the Brighton half marathon I’m running this weekend.Run the London Landmarks Half on 3rd April.Please support us on Patreon!For more information on how to help strengthen and support your hips, listen to this episode of the podcast all about hips!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special edition, we speak to Hannah Beecham, the founder of RED Together to find out the answer to the biggest question of all: how we can all attempt to be active every day. I did RED January this year, something I’ve felt increasingly confident about doing because of the shift in recent years from Run Every Day to Active Every Day. We have a lovely, and enormously inspiring (and moving) chat, as Hannah tells me about how she started it all up to support her mum, who had been struggling with her mental health. So the roots of the thing has always been about managing mental health rather than achieving some kind of peak physical fitness, and I think this is HUGE. And marks what I hope is a shift in thinking in terms of sport and including it in our lives as a habit based on how it makes us feel as opposed to how it might make us look. It’s the only way we’re going to get more people moving, by understanding that sport and running isn’t punishment, and in fact can be something that people who hated exercise will end up loving and rearranging their lives to include. Because Hannah is at the heart of that movement, I thought it was so important to speak to her and find out what she’s done differently, and her thoughts on how we can all fit in being active every day, and enjoy it!This episode is sponsored by Yeo Valley Kefir - lovingly made with only the best organic British milk and 14 distinctive strains of lactic cultures for maximum gut flora diversity. Creamy and lightly tangy it literally packs billions of live bacteria in every spoonful. Available in Natural, Mango & Passion Fruit, Blueberry and Strawberry flavours, the daily boost you need to try is in the yoghurt aisle at all the major supermarkets. Find out more at Yeo Valley. We love making this podcast for you, and we hope you love it just as much. If you do, we’re asking for your support so that we can continue making it. We’ve joined up with Patreon to do that awkward thing of asking for money. But the thing is, we’re only asking you to donate less than a very average cup of coffee a month. You can become a patron of the Women’s Running Podcast for as little as £2 a month. £2! I mean, that’s nothing, right? And for that you get four whole new podcasts a month AND we’re offering you some lovely perks and, if you’re very generous, a free subscription to the digital magazine too. It’s just 50p a podcast! We’re worth that, right? Right? Come and be part of the Women’s Running podcast and we will love you forever. If you enjoy this podcast, you will love Women’s Running magazine. Right now, you can become a member of Women’s Running Plus, which includes a subscription to the magazine and tons of great benefits for just £9.99 every 3 months, saving a third off the cover price. Just enter FEB22WRPOD at the checkout.@REDJanuaryUK on Instagram, Facebook and TwitterFind out more information at redtogether.co.uk Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Holly and I are talking about a load of running bits and pieces that have got us incensed recently. First up: spin classes (which we love) with seats made for men (which we hate). Who out there is going to make a bike seat that doesn’t bruise our undercarriages? It seems ridiculous that in order to boost our cardiovascular health we also have to bruise our vulvas. Second on the list is motivation: we talk about how to keep trucking in the face of race postponement, and – thanks to a listener – ingenious ways we can get our mojo going again if we’ve fallen out of love with running a bit. Our big discussion point this issue, however, is stress incontinence. We talk about how we need to normalise the conversation about it, as so many women can experience it and it is particularly prevalent in women runners, but that doesn’t mean we need to accept it as a fact of life. Yes, it’s common – and that’s why we need to talk about it – but it’s not ‘normal’ and it can be fixed. If you suffer from stress incontinence, do please go and speak to your GP, who will be sympathetic and, in most cases be able to suggest a way forward that will lessen the symptoms or stop them altogether. Now: let’s talk about weeing!This episode is sponsored by Yeo Valley Kefir - lovingly made with only the best organic British milk and 14 distinctive strains of lactic cultures for maximum gut flora diversity. Creamy and lightly tangy it literally packs billions of live bacteria in every spoonful. Available in Natural, Mango & Passion Fruit, Blueberry and Strawberry flavours, the daily boost you need to try is in the yoghurt aisle at all the major supermarkets. Find out more at Yeo Valley. If you enjoy this podcast, you will love Women’s Running magazine. Right now, you can become a member of Women’s Running Plus, which includes a subscription to the magazine and tons of great benefits for just £9.99 every 3 months, saving a third off the cover price. Just enter FEB22WRPOD at the checkout.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Paula Radcliffe, my biggest running hero. Paula’s record breaking win in 2003 is something I think will always stay with me as not only a highlight in the world of athletics, but an inspiration for women everywhere. So I was a bit giddy to be speaking to her. We talk about her marathon achievements, and what it was like to nab that record on that day. We also talked about what it felt like to have that record taken 17 years later. I also ask her about her first love: cross country – what she loves about it, and why she keeps returning to it, and also her thoughts on equal distances for men and women in that sport. We also have a chat about RunFestRun – the running festival she’s been an integral part of since its inception: how meaningful it is as a concept to combine a festival about running, family and fun, how much her own children have loved it, and what she’s looking forward to this year. OMG, it’s Paula! And she is LOVELY.Join us at RunFestRun! You can camp! You can bring the kids! (Or you can leave them at home...) And you can run!Join Paula’s Families on Track waves at RunFestRun or at various events nationwide.Sign up to Women’s Running magazine this February for just £9.99 every 3 months. Just enter the code FEB22WRPOD at the checkout. Happy running!This episode is sponsored by Run 4 All. This year, set yourself the ultimate running challenge and join the thousands of runners who will be taking to the streets of York on Sunday 16th October for the Yorkshire Marathon. If you’re not quite ready to tackle a marathon, you can also try the Yorkshire 10 Mile. Taking place on the same day, this popular event will allow you to experience the atmosphere and sights of the Yorkshire Marathon while tackling a shorter distance. Enter today!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the workshop, Holly and I are hugely excitable about several things all at once. Holly’s running has been going brilliantly, so she’s feeling hugely positive about that. Mine isn’t too bad either – I’ve even done some hills, so am feeling a little bit smug. But all that positivity is against a backdrop of the disappointment of our half marathon being postponed, which we’re both gutted about – although we are still looking forward to running it in May. But as far as our training is going, all is not lost – as Holly confesses in her Big Announcement. No spoilers here. We also talk about alternatives to weekend parkruns, the universal truth of the last mile of any run being awful, no matter how long or short it is, and the lack of good public loos basically being a feminist subject. We also talk about an email we’ve had in from a listener who has a running issue that deserves masses of air time, and a solution. We have one idea, but if you have any other ideas on good places to go, or brands to visit, who can help women run who have had mastectomies, then do please let us know at [email protected] loved the National Running Show – find out about the next show in May!Check out Sports Tours International to book a half marathon in a beautiful cityGo to Boobydoo for expert bra fitting advice and guidanceBuy some flapjacks from Flapjackery – I’ve just finished the vegan one and it was IMMENSE (they do not have a pecan version btw, but they do have a dangerously addictive hazelnut one)This episode is sponsored by Run 4 All. This year, set yourself the ultimate running challenge and join the thousands of runners who will be taking to the streets of York on Sunday 16th October for the Yorkshire Marathon. If you’re not quite ready to tackle a marathon, you can also try the Yorkshire 10 Mile. Taking place on the same day, this popular event will allow you to experience the atmosphere and sights of the Yorkshire Marathon while tackling a shorter distance. Enter today!Don’t forget to sign up to Women’s Running magazine this January for just £2.99 a month. . Just enter the code JAN22WRPOD at the checkout. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode, Holly and I are chatting to Kate, who is not only our digital assistant on Women’s Running, but she’s also - very usefully – an F45 instructor AND a yoga instructor. And she runs! So she is perfectly place to answer all our questions about cross training, basically. Holly and I are a bit rubbish about doing anything other than running, and we know that cross training is the sensible way forward, but we have lots of questions: WHAT should we be doing, how OFTEN should we be doing it, how much EFFORT do we need to put in, do we need to join a gym, and how do we keep our motivation up? It’s so hard to get that motivation going in the first place, especially if you’re trying to persuade yourself to do something that you don’t think you’re going to enjoy. My personal tips, if this sounds like you, is to first of all find something that you DO enjoy. If you’re happy to do squats while you’re brushing your teeth, and you’re dedicated enough to do lunges during work breaks, then that is GREAT. If you start the week with good intentions, but have given up by Wednesday, consider a class or meeting up with a friend to do these moves instead. If you have to part with money, or put a proper cast iron date in the diary, you are way more likely to do it. Thank you for listening. Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or any running stories, as we’d love to include them in a future podcast. If you run you’re your dog, look at the brilliant range of super nutritious food at ORIJEN. Don’t forget to sign up to Women’s Running magazine this January for just £2.99 a month. Just enter the code JAN22WRPOD at the checkout. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Holly and I are chatting about running recovery and our experiences with diets. You find us in the middle of chatting about my new haircut, so sorry about that, but I included a bit because it segues brilliantly to a comment we’ve had on the podcast, as you’ll discover. We also talk about running through illness when you should actually be recovering. We talk about how we need to be mindful of the recovery period as much as the running period, both when we’re in training and when we’re unwell. Something I have not abided by over Christmas unfortunately. We talk about our relationships with food and diet, a conversation we started in the previous workshop as it’s something we wanted to continue, and how we are trying to amend the way we think about what we eat and how we perceive ourselves. Essentially we want to appreciate our bodies for what they’ve done rather than how they look. We’d be interested to hear what you think about this, and your relationships with food and your body and if running has had a positive impact on that. In the meantime, happy running and I hope you enjoy the episode!This episode is sponsored by ORIJEN. As many of us will be getting into new running routines to start off the year, did you know that two-thirds of us want to get our dogs in on the workout fun too? ORIJEN pet food provides nourishment as nature intended – it’s biologically appropriate, and provides an authentic wholeprey diet, with the first five ingredients always being fresh or raw quality animal ingredients, to give them all the nutrition they need. Find out more at ORIJEN.If you love our podcast, you will adore Women’s Running magazine. This January you can bag a membership to our brilliant mag for just £2.99 a month. Just enter the code JAN22WRPOD at the checkout. Happy running!Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re having a chat with Nell McAndrew, who just happens to be gracing the cover of our January issue right at this very minute. Have you got your copy yet? We are so chuffed to have bagged Nell on our cover - now you might remember Nell from back in the 90s when she transformed into Lara Croft and ended up on many a bedroom wall. But these days, she’s better known as a marathon and fitness superstar. She bagged an impressive marathon sub-3 PB back in 2012 at the London Marathon, and has continued to run and strength train and inspire the rest of us since then. I talk to her about what it’s like to run when you’re a well-known person, and also how she started in the first place. And now that she’s in her 40s, we also talk about why it’s lovely to run for running’s sake rather than chasing a PB all the time. She talks to me about running for charities that are close to her heart, wanting to run parkrun when she’s 80, and how her training for a marathon would be a whole lot different these days now that she knows more about nutrition. She’s an absolute legend on Instagram, and I have loved being inspired by her fitness sets during lockdown, and her unwavering enthusiasm for the joy of the run – you’ll be inspired too, just you wait!Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. If you love our podcast, you will adore Women’s Running magazine. And this January you can bag a membership to our brilliant mag for just £2.99 a month! £2.99! I mean, that’s cheaper than a large Americano! Just enter the code JAN22WRPOD at the checkout. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the Workshop Holly and I are talking about this in-between week, the perineum of Christmas. We have a chat about sitting around in your pants watching The Two Ronnies, and getting up off your bum for a new year’s day run. We chat about the anxiety of thinking people are looking at us while we’re running, and general imposter syndrome. We get a bit philosophical in this episode, because we’re looking towards the new year and we know that a lot of people will be adopting a new fitness regime to change their selves in some way. So we talk about aiming for body neutrality, about diets, and we talk about a world in which women are complimented for their strength rather than their looks. We also talk about our new year’s resolutions: for both of us, they’re not big and they’re achievable, and we’re making them public, so you can hold us accountable. Fingers crossed by the next episode we’ll at least have kept our resolutions for two weeks, but we’ve never been good at keeping our promises, so your guess is as good as mine. I hope you enjoy the episode, and a very happy new year!Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And guess what, if you like this podcast, you’ll love Women’s Running magazine! If you join Women’s Running Plus right now, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE long sleeve technical top from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 71 of the Women’s Running Workshop, and we’re treating you to a bonus Workshop Pro episode just before Christmas. I’m your host Esther Newman, and in this episode Holly and I are on the receiving end of much wisdom from running coach Laura Fountain. Laura has worked with Women’s Running for YEARS. She writes a column every month for us, and she’s the brains behind all of our training plans. If you’ve torn one of these out of the mag in the last few years, you have Laura to thank for making it to the start line. We have a chat with Laura this time because we want her expertise to make us better runners. First of all, we find out how she started her running journey – which is comparatively recently – and how she got into coaching. I want all her advice on setting up my own running group, and Holly wants to know how to join a group without feeling nervous about being at the back. We then ask her about our goals and how to achieve them: Holly wants to make the time to run more regularly, and I want to know if I can run double A races in March (spoiler: I can’t). We’re going to be running one Workshop Pro a month with a revolving door of coaches, nutritionists and health experts – so do please drop us a line with any questions you might have.Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And guess what, if you like this podcast, you’ll love Women’s Running magazine! If you join Women’s Running Plus right now, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 70 of the Women’s Running Podcast, and in this workshop Holly and I are on the countdown to Christmas. I start this one super hungover, so I use my delicate state to introduce the idea of running and booze. We talk about how covid has changed our drinking, with some big confessions on both sides – Hol and I are coming from very different angles on this. And we also talk about how we are going to manage booze and running over Christmas, which can be a tough thing to do. The key phrase here is that we’re going to be kind to ourselves, and that we will be adjusting our expectations – because the run is the thing. Sometimes, we don’t need to be “in training” – sometimes it’s fine to just go for a run. Here’s a bit more guidance on booze, sleep and food.There are some other things we’ve done to help our running, and one surprising thing is a bit of self care that Holly suggests (a good idea for a Christmas present for a runner). But this is on the proviso that you don’t mind wearing paper pants. So it’s definitely not one for me! I also have a big announcement to make at the end of the podcast, with a very exciting race to look forward to in the new year. Thanks to Sports Tours International for that one... By the way, Hol drops the F-bomb in this one: you have been warned.Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. Also if you join Women’s Running Plus in time for Chrimbo, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Or ask someone who loves you to do it for you!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I have a chat with Suzanne Shaw. Yes, that Suzanne Shaw from Hear’Say. Suzanne is currently gracing the cover of Women’s Running – available now in actual shops – and she’s there for a reason. It’s not just because she was a member of a band that provided the soundtrack to some regrettable moments in my 20s. It’s because she made some very big decisions a couple of years ago that ended up being pretty life-changing. She gave up the booze, she embraced plant-based eating, and – guess what – she started running! But more than that, she rapidly went from couch to ultra, running for 19 hours, all by herself during lockdown, while raising money and awareness for the Samaritans. In her journey to that date, and ever since, she has thrown herself into the running community – and has discovered new passions that have enhanced her life immeasurably. Listen up to hear her story right now. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. Also here’s a thing: it’s almost Christmas! Yes it is, there’s no point hiding from it. And if you’re searching for the perfect present, then we’ve got just the thing. If you join Women’s Running Plus in time for Chrimbo, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Or ask someone who loves you to do it for you!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 68 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and this is another workshop with me and Holly. I’m not sure why we can even pretend to call this one a workshop, because basically we cackle pretty much all the way through it. So what we’re here to talk about is the massive secret joy that is that we’ve won an actual award – for this actual podcast! One we couldn’t even begin to imagine we would win, so we are utterly thrilled. The award is the PPA Independent Publishing Awards 2021 Podcast of the Year. I know! We won it! Just with us rambling on about not much at all! So we are overjoyed about that: listen in to hear about how we celebrated last Friday... We segue from that seamlessly to how our running is going and how bad we both are at the eight-times table. We then introduce an email from a listener, so we spend a bit of time talking about what she’s told us, and that includes topics such as Covid, our immune systems, recovery and being kind to ourselves. Something specific to that email, but some key points that we can all learn from. Let’s be kind to ourselves.Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. Also here’s a thing: it’s almost Christmas! And if you’re searching for the perfect present, then we’ve got just the thing. If you join Women’s Running Plus in time for Chrimbo, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Or ask someone who loves you to do it for you!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Holly and I have brought out the big guns to help us with our training for our half marathon next year, as we both have big goals. The big guns are Tina Chantrey. Tina is our Women’s Running Fitness Editor and she’s a running coach. She basically knows everything there is to know about running. So we wanted her to come on to the podcast to throw loads of questions at her about our training, among which are – should we be aiming for a time for our next race, or should we just run for fun? How do we run a race without having that past time in our heads? And if we do run to get a PB, how on earth do we do that? The answer, it turns out, is by putting the work in – but none of it is that scary, but it does include everything you’d expect: intervals, tempos and hills. But Tina is a kind taskmaster, telling us that three runs a week is FINE, but just to make sure each one of them is right. And what’s more with our long run, to consider it as a mental health run, and take the pace right down – like right down. Pure running wisdom. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Find out more about Tina’s coaching.Follow her on Instagram.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode’s chat with Holly is very much a mixed bag. A game of three parts (is that a thing?) we talk about our running, then we talk about a bit of gear that we’ve been running in, and THEN we introduce a brand new feature in which we have a chat about an email we’ve had from a listener. But first, we start with some general Covid chat, because I’m bracing myself for the onslaught and it’s all I can talk about. Then we move swiftly on to running, in which Holly tries to distinguish between podiatry and orthodontics – it makes more sense when you listen in (I think). We also talk about me setting up my very own run group – and I need a name for it, that’s a bit better than Esther’s Harriers. Answers on a postcard please! Kit-wise, we talk through the very best bras and leggings we’ve been running in – great ideas for Christmas presents here.And starting from this episode we wanted to include you a bit more – so we’re discussing an email we got in from a lovely listener based in New Zealand, who tells us about what running means to her. She also tells us how lovely the podcast is, and that seriously influenced our choice of email. Just saying.You can get in touch with us and let us know what you think, or if you have any running questions – if we can’t answer them, I’ll get an expert to help us out.More information about Crohn’s and Colitis right here.Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Carla Molinaro. Carla is a runner and adventurer of epic proportions – and even more importantly, if you read the magazine, you might remember her adorning the cover of our April issue this year. She first came to my attention in 2020 when she smashed the Land’s End to John O’Groats record by about 10 hours during lockdown. Turns out this wasn’t her first adventure by a very long chalk. She tells me about her start in running, which actually came from triathlon, and how she found her running ‘niche’. She has loads of running advice for us here too, as happily she’s also a running coach who has a passionate belief in strength and conditioning for runners, and in fact runs a course that does exactly that – details below. She also tells me some of her adventuring stories, such as her ridiculous tapering plan before the Comrades, taking on the Lejog challenge with just 3 months training, and attempting an ultramarathon with a quiche tucked in her pocket. She also bigs up hill training - if you want to run faster, she says, run up hills, it’s the perfect way to become a better runner. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re talking gear. And there’s a reason for this – We’ve just stumbled past Halloween, and you interrupt us having a giggle about that, and then next up it’s firework night, and before you know it, it’ll be Christmas. Don’t hate me for saying that. So if you’ve got some favours to pull in, it’s worth thinking about those big ticket items first, so you get exactly what you want on Christmas Day. And by that, I mean shoes and jackets. So this is us having a chat about the shoes we’re currently running in, and the jackets we’re wearing to keep the wind and rain away. Both these things are equally important right now – we need shoes that enable us to keep our mileage up during the winter, and jackets have suddenly become indispensable overnight. Like, what’s going on with the weather? Holly chats about her favourites and I talk about mine, and all the things we discuss are good – promise. We’ve run in everything, and really tested them to their limits, which is what we like to do here at Women’s Running. So if you’re on the lookout for that perfect running jacket that keeps you protected from downpours without making you clammy, then listen in!Here are all the things we talk about:New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v11, London edition £145Brooks Hyperion Tempo, £140Brooks Ghost 14, £120HOKA ONE ONE Rincon 3, £105Inov-8 Trailshell waterproof jacket, £127.50Inov-8 Thermoshell Pro Insulated jacket, £210Montane Spine waterproof jacket, £250Showers Pass Cloudburst jacket, £175 Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout for your exclusive Podcast shaped deal.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Episode 63 of the Women’s Running Podcast. This is one of our hybrid episodes – it’s part workshop chat with me and Holly, and part chat with one of our favourite people to give us some advice. Our expert this week is the very lovely Anna Harding from the Running Channel. She’s been on here before – way back in the mists of time in episode 8. Check that out to hear all about how she started running in the first place, and her journey from non-runner to running expert. In this episode it’s a game of two halves. I wanted to talk to her about her recent efforts to achieve a Boston Qualifying time, which was documented on the Running Channel – links to that are in the show notes, you must watch it. She definitely went on one of those journeys we talk about here so often, but has survived to tell the tale, and here she is to tell us all about it. And here’s a treat for you, I’ve asked Anna to tell us all about it in the January issue of Women’s Running, so remember to pick up that issue, when it’s out just before Christmas to read her story in full. It’s a perfect stocking filler fyi.And then Holly and I want to pick her brains about winter running and how we motivate ourselves to get out there – and her tips here are nothing short of genius. Pants on the radiator for the win. This, and more super top tips are right this way. Just to forewarn you, Anna has a very beautiful dog called Ralph (who has his own Insta page by the way), who introduces himself to us fairly early on, and enjoys keeping us on our toes - I decided to keep all his little barks in because he’s a beauty and deserves our support and affection.Watch Anna’s attempt to Boston Qualify – be warned, it’s a weeper.Follow Anna and Ralph! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Holly and I are talking about parkrun. Yes, we actually went after talking about it for months. After a bit of an early start, and some not inconsiderable nerves, we got Holly through her very first parkrun – and only my second since lockdown lifted, so it felt very new to both of us. We talk about our experiences, but most specifically Holly’s – how she found the course, the experience itself, and how she feels now. It turns out she was quite overwhelmed by it, in a good way, and loved the marshalls around the course, who cheered us on in such a lovely way that by the halfway point, she’d decided to volunteer herself! We talk about the caring nature of the volunteer team, getting lots of special claps (not a euphemism), Holly feeling “glowy”, and meeting an actual podcast listener at the end, which made it all feel very special indeed. We then have a bit of a chat about running more visibly now that the days are shorter – along with our own safety, we really need to be mindful of pedestrians as it can be a bit of a nasty shock if someone passes you unexpectedly, especially if they’re wearing dark clothing. Ban the black leggings till February! Coming up in a future episode, we’ll talk about the best winter kit to make sure you’re seen and warm This episode is sponsored by Marcy. The Marcy ME-702 upright bike is the deserving winner of the Women’s Running Editor’s Choice award in the cardio training category. With 13 different programs and 4 user settings, it’s perfect for every kind of gym bunny. You can pick one up today from Costco or Exercise.co.uk for only £399, where it’s also available on 0% finance. And if you love this podcast, you’ll totally love our brilliant magazine. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40 as well as our gorgeous mag delivered to your door once a month, all for just 39.99. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout for your exclusive offer.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I speak to Nikki Love, runner, adventurer and menopause goddess. I love talking to women who speak frankly about their bodies and their experiences of the weirdnesses being female can throw at us, and Nikki does all of that and then some. We pile straight into the menopause, as Nikki’s experience is pretty grim listening, but also incredibly inspiring for those of us staring menopause in the face. She talks about the stuff that she had to push for with her GP, as traditional HRT wasn’t working for her, and she also talks about the link between nutrition and menopause, which is fascinating. Now you might be wondering what all this has to do with running – and the thing here is that Nikki isn’t just your average plodder. When she runs, she really runs. She pretty much went from couch to 63 marathons in 63 days, and since that epic adventure, she has just tried to find more ways to push herself to the limits of her endurance. Those limits were tested earlier this year when she attempted 100 marathons in 100 days and ended up with a gruesome injury as a result. But, as optimistic as ever, Nikki picked herself up and adjusted her training to suit. She talks to me about how she found out she was good at all this endurance stuff, how she’s being kinder to herself these days -and certainly pragmatic, and the adventures she has up her sleeve. She’s just a superwoman. This episode is sponsored by Marcy, winners in the Best Strength Category for their Inspire FTX Trainer in this year’s Women’s Running Product Awards. The FTX Trainer is a fantastic home gym that’s perfect for the whole family. It comes with two independent pulley systems, quick adjust sliders and 30 positions, giving you the freedom of doing practically any exercise you want. The FTX Trainer is available for £2,199, or with 0% finance. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout for your exclusive offer.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the 60th episode of the Women’s Running Podcast, and our 22nd Workshop. Goodness we’ve done a lot of podcasts! In this episode Holly and I have a lot to catch up on. We’re talking the day after the London Marathon and we have had ALL the feels about that iconic race, particularly because I didn’t get to run it as planned. We talk about how inspiring it is, how weepy it is, how nerve-wracking it is, and how – sort of secretly – we’d both like to take it on next year. We also talk about the races that we have signed up to, or would like to – including a lovely trail run in April that we’re hoping to sign up for. And then we’re on to the really big news in Esther and Holly Land: our trip to Club La Santa a fortnight ago, which didn’t quite go as planned. Spoiler: I went on my own and Holly stayed at home, staring mournfully at a PCR test. So the latter half of this episode is all about me and my trip to Lanzarote to a place that is essentially a Runners’ Paradise. And, much like Women’s Running, it’s a place for all kinds of runners too – perfect for those who love a bit of track running, those who want to push their pace, lonely goats who want to beat their own path, or social runners who want to head out in a chatty gang. They’re all there. And you can do so many other things to support your running too: you can book yourself into hundreds of exercise classes, you can take on bouldering, you can cycle up volcanoes, you can learn how to windsurf, you can have a running analysis, you can eat and drink the most incredible food, and you can even just eat ice cream. It’s all up for grabs. Stick with me for a bit of autumnal sunshine. Club La Santa deetsFind out more about holidays at Club La Santa on the Club La Santa website, and stay in touch on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Running week at Club La Santa 21st – 27th January 2022Join experienced coaches for a week filled with training, education and sore legs. They will challenge you to improve your fitness as you build your winter training towards your running goals of 2022. Find out more at Club La Santa.Sponsor messageThis episode of the Women’s Running Podcast is sponsored by Marcy, the winner of three awards in the 2021 Women’s Running Product Awards. The Inspire IC1.5 Indoor Cycle Bike won the Women’s Running Best Cardio award. Check it out at Costco today for only £879.99.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Elise Downing. I first heard of Elise when her brilliant book Coasting landed on my doormat. Elise is the youngest person ever to run the coast of Britain, and she has written a masterful memoir of that experience, detailing the literal and figurative ups and downs in the kind of voice that makes you want to go for a pint with her. What makes that feat even more remarkable, as I discover during this discussion, is that she set out with very little preparation and absolutely no idea about what such a thing would entail. She tells me about that, about the enthusiasm of her mentor Anna McNuff (but also Anna’s horror at how little planning Elise had done beforehand), how she trained “on the job”, on becoming a fully paid up member of the Yes Tribe, and the problem with cows…Find out more about what Elise has been getting up to, and buy her book. Like, now! Be inspired to take on your own adventure…Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 58 of the Women’s Running Podcast, and the 21st Workshop. This time, Holly and I have an actual guest. And this has been a long time coming: Kate Percy has worked with Women’s running loads, she’s the utterly lovely brains behind Go Bites, those beautiful balls of loveliness that keep us going on long runs. I wanted us to talk to her, as I thought both Holy and I could do with a bit of guidance when it came to our nutrition. What’s lovely about Kate is that she’s a realist and she loves food: so she’s not going to tell us what not to eat, she’s only going to gently guide us towards the sorts of food that will be helpful in terms of supporting our running. We talk about the food that we should be eating, bearing in mind the chasm between our ages, and the sorts of food we enjoy eating – happily enough, some of these things are the same. It’s so useful to find out what Holly (25) needs to be thinking about, and what I (47) should be thinking about. Spoiler: I need to eat more edamame beans, but happily it doesn’t matter if it’s the salted kind from Wagamamas (not sponsored, but happy to take sponsorship from our Favourite Take out Ever). And there are a couple of things that have blown our minds – firstly that it’s fine to have breakfast later in the day. And secondly, we discover the Magic Window! And in the Magic Window you can essentially eat anything you like, or at least that’s what I decided to hear. Oh, and check out Kate’s recipe kits here too, while you’re waiting for the episode to start… Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 57 in which I speak to Sue Anstiss. Sue is one of the most passionate champions of women’s sport I think I’ve ever spoken to – and I’ve spoken to a lot of women who are passionate about it! As a founding trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust, co-founder of the Women’s Sport Collective, and CEO of Fearless Women, her over-arching ambition is to forge forward in terms of equality in sport: whether that be representation in the actual sports themselves, or through representation in the media. As host of the Game Changers podcast, she talks to trailblazing women in sport, and she talks to me here about what a brilliant medium this is – and I agree. She also talks to me about her book, Game On: the Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport. Launched in September, this is a book we all need on our shelves, in which Sue investigates why women have been excluded from the world of sport for centuries, and why we are now witnessing positive change as never before. It’s a celebratory book, as much as a rallying cry, and is testament to Sue’s positivity and passion for all women’s sport, including running. She also talks to me here about the sport that she loves to do, including her newfound passion for open water swimming. She’s a total inspiration, and a complete force of nature – by the end of our conversation I had one of those “oh my god, women are amazing” moments. Be inspired! Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love. Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 56 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our 20th workshop. So in the spirit of full disclosure, this week it just wasn’t all about the running. If you’ve been following our workshops, you’ll know that it’s been a chequered summer in terms of our training, so this week we’re having a tiny bit of a break. Welcome, my lovelies, to the booze cast. Or the plonkcast. Or the booze pod – we couldn’t decide on an appropriate name. Here we are, drinking a cool glass of wine – at a very appropriate time, so don’t @ us – to celebrate ourselves and having got the podcast to where we are.A lot of this is quite random, but we do have a bit of running chat, you’ll be pleased to know - Holly is continuing to tootle, but is in a far happier place doing so. I’m recovering (I may even have recovered!) from injuries. So we talk about the JOY of running mainly. And for once I’m pragmatic about races and dates and goals, and I don’t even cry about deferring my London Marathon place. We also talk about organising our first parkrun, being efficient on our periods, we swear quite a bit, and we must have been a bit jolly because I had to edit out 15 minutes of chat about supermarkets that don’t exist anymore. Run with us, or have a glass of wine with us, but just do please stick with us!Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 55 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m Esther Newman, editor of Women’s Running, and in this episode I speak to Rachel Ann Cullen. I was originally due to chat with Rachel two years ago at RunFestRun, but she was struck down with a nasty chest infection and it wasn’t meant to be. Rachel is a runner, writer and author: her bestselling debut book, Running For My Life, describes her journey to discover a better version of herself through running following years of mental and physical struggle. Rachel has since run 12 marathons and has completed the London Marathon five times. She ran the Boston Marathon in 2018 and in addition to her running, she has cycled 480km across Costa Rica on a mountain bike.As you’ll hear, she discovered running at a complicated stage in her life, but now considers it a fundamental part of her mental health toolbox, as many of us do. Rachel has lived with body dysmorphia and bipolar disorder, and talks about both of these things frankly – and how taking up running offered relief, acceptance and support. As many of us will know, the path to mental wellness is not necessarily a linear one, and she talks about that particular road, and how she has been determined to get well for the sake of her daughter. Rachel has transformed her running with the help of Polar’s Vantage M2 GPS watch. Rachel utilises Polar’s unique, innovative technologies in her fitness and sleep routines to enhance her training. And it’s so interesting to chat to Rachel here about that after having talked to Eilish McColgan about how she uses Polar a couple of weeks ago: they’re very different runners, but as you’ll hear, Polar supports them both equally.Rachel is currently writing her third book, due out next year, so do watch this space for that. Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our 19th Workshop. I’m back chatting with Holly, digital editor of Women’s Running. We have some very big things to talk about in this workshop. Holly has had a grim time of it, but in true Holly style, was more than happy to talk about everything with me here. Obviously it’s not all grimness, because we do tend to stagger off at very peculiar tangents, so we start by chatting about the crap emails we receive and by banging on about Duran Duran. We also talk about other good things to run to, including – and this is a new and exciting one for me - running to musicals. Then we fess up that neither of us made it to the start line of our race that we’d booked in for mid-August, and we explain why that is. For me, it’s mundane injury stuff, very blah blah blah. For Holly, though, it was an altogether different experience that stemmed from her mental health taking an almighty (and scary) plunge. So we talk about that here: what her experience was, how she bolstered herself, what she’s done to bring herself upwards again, and – joyously – how the methodical nature of running has been one of her valuable tools during this period. We also talk a lot about yoga: how we both furtively say “namaste” like imposters, how we like a sweaty session, whether Haribo would be a good yoga fuel, and that while we love it, we actually haven’t done any yoga for blooming ages and we need to get our collective arses in gear. Now let’s get to it, and give Holly a collective cuddle.You’ll be really pleased to know that this podcast was recorded almost two weeks ago now, and that in that time Holly has continued to look after herself and assures me that she is feeling better every day, thanks to all the tools she has at her disposal. If you’re feeling any similar symptoms to Holly, please have a look at useful websites such as the NHS and Mind, both of which have lots of brilliant information, helpful practical advice and ideas on where to go if you need more support.Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. Simply enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running.Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to running royalty and three-time Olympian Eilish McColgan. Eilish is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth Finalist who has just returned from her third Olympics in Tokyo where she competed in the 5000 metre and 10,000 metre races. Eilish is an avid user of Polar, the world leader in wearable sports and heart rate technology. Polar are pioneers in wearable sports technology, helping athletes and coaches at all levels to improve their health, performance, and overall wellbeing. Renowned for an unparalleled dedication to scientific accuracy, reliability, and a superior user experience, Polar has cemented itself globally within the industry as the go-to partner for anyone looking to discover their true potential. I chatted to Eilish while she was in her training camp in France a couple of weeks before she flew out to Tokyo, and I was beyond excited to see how she was going to do, particularly as she had recently smashed Paula Radcliffe’s long-standing British 5000 metre record. In the event, she came 9th in the 10,000 metres and was typically pragmatic about that result, saying “This Olympics might not have gone quite as perfectly as I'd have liked, but I left every ounce on the track!” And she clearly enjoyed every minute of it. I speak to her about smashing Paula’s record, training for the Olympics, what it’s like being trained by your super famous mum AND your boyfriend, and how her training – and the distances she trains for – have changed since breaking her foot. Eilish is already a track legend, we’ve been watching her intently since London 2021, and we cannot wait to see what she does next. Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My partner in running crime Holly is on holiday this week so in a small change to the advertised programme I talk to Kate Sellers, our digital assistant. Kate has been part of the women’s running team since January. She is a fitness enthusiast, a keen runner, a yoga teacher and an F45 instructor, so she’s pretty mega. But her journey with running and fitness has not been entirely smooth. Two years ago she was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue after she presented with a number of symptoms, including chronic fatigue, losing her periods and changing her appetite. She talks to me about how that happened, how she was diagnosed, and her road back to recovering and running again. She also introduces the concept of different types of stress: physical and mental – all adding up to the same thing, which I find pretty mind blowing. We also talk about training differently according to your menstrual cycle, which I promise you I’m going to start doing right now. This episode is sponsored by Brooks, and they have a treat for you! Hurrah! We love our Brooks, and we *love* the new Brooks Cascadia 16. This beautiful trail shoe enables runners to explore any trail thanks to its superior grip and stability. Softer and lighter than ever due to its new DNA LOFT V2 midsole, the Cascadia adapts, flexes and protects the foot, no matter how unpredictable the trail gets. And, get this, we’ve got a fab competition right here for you to win one of TWO pairs of Cascadia 16s. All you need to do is go here, and answer a very simple question. And that’s it! Find out more about the Cascadia here. Also remember that you chaps get the best discount for Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Support the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 51 I’m speaking to the legend that is Nicky Spinks. Nicky was a cover star for Women’s Running on the issue before I started, so for me she has always been the one that got away. Not any more! Here she is chatting about her incredible running career so far. Nicky is one of the greatest fell runners of all time, if not the greatest. She set women’s records for the Ramsay Round (that’s 58 miles in Scotland including Ben Nevis), The Paddy Buckley Round (that’s 65 miles in Snowdonia with 47 summits) and the Bob Graham Round (this is the Lake District one, and is 66 miles). She is the holder of the overall record for the double Bob Graham round and is the only person ever to complete doubles of the other two Rounds. She talks to me about how she got into running in the first place, how she trains for those crazy distances, and her experiences running those unheard-of challenges (pre-Nicky). She also talks about her experiences running the terrifying Barkley Marathons, and it sounds like she has some unfinished business there, so watch this space. And because along with being a farmer and running incredible distances, she’s also a coach, I ask her opinion on how we can all run well on the trails, and – crucially – I ask her what the best food to eat on an ultra is – spoiler: there’s a lot of pork pies. And I get her opinion on why she thinks women make such incredible ultra runners, and there’s a lot more running chat besides Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Simply enter WRPOD at the checkoutfor your discount. Happy running!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re celebrating our 50th episode by chatting about random stuff with a bit of running thrown in, as ever. We’re a couple of weeks away from our 10K and half marathon races in the middle of August. Along with some highly relevant content about nice mugs to drink tea from, what we mainly talk about is race day nerves, and all the various worries we have that constitute that. So that’s worrying about our sluggish pace, and also worrying about what other people might think, as well as our concerns about actually going the distance. We talk about how to combat those nerves, how to be confident in our own training, and how to dampen down our inner negative voices. Also, as we both agree, when we see other runners we think they’re brilliant – so surely, surely, other people think we’re brilliant too when they see us? I think this is true. We also talk about my many visits to the physio, ignoring his lovely and brilliant advice and somehow surviving anyway, I describe sciatica to Holly who is too young and flexible to understand what back pain is yet. And we also talk about love bites. Again, Holly is far too young to understand this very 80s phenomenon. Lucky her.This episode is sponsored by Brooks, which is rather brilliant. Why? Cos not only have Brooks created Holly’s favourite running shoe, the Ghost 14, but they’re also giving us two pairs of Ghost 14s to give away! To you guys! The newly launched Ghost 14 now benefits from 100% DNA Loft cushioning for a super smooth ride, a segmented crash pad for seamless transitions, and 3D fit print technology in the upper, so the fit is absolutely spot on. All that means that they’re soft, responsive, smooth and fit like a glove. The Ghost 14 is also, get this, Brooks’ very first carbon neutral shoe, so it’s a very special thing indeed. To be in with a chance of winning one of two pairs, just answer a very silly question here. Find out more about the Ghost 14 here. Please hit like and subscribe – that way you won’t miss the next episode. Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!Brooks Running Brooks Running is sponsoring this episode of the Women's Running podcastSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Jess Judd, British 5000m champion and soon-to-be Olympian. Jess is on the plane to Tokyo any minute now, I think, and I’m so excited about watching her race while she’s there – she’s due to be running the double: the 5000 metres and the 10,000 metres. She talks to me here about her modest start with running, her dad’s love of the sport, and how his enthusiasm was infectious. How she took to it like a duck to water, falling in love with both track and cross country. I ask her what it’s like to be picked for the Olympics, and how she trains for it given the demands of a very busy schedule: she’s also currently studying for a PhD, and she has the not insignificant task of planning a wedding alongside that. She tells me about that, about her thoughts on equality in cross country, how she gets used to race day nerves and performing in front of crowds, and what it was like to meet her hero Jo Pavey. Jess is sponsored by HOKA, so I also ask how that came about, and what kit she enjoys running in the most. She’s an extremely talented runner, and we can’t wait to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed for Jess!Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Holly has a bit of a confession to make. So we start off by talking about shifting our expectations with our running, and how that is perfectly okay – what’s not okay is pushing yourself so that you’re uncomfortable with your goals: these goals are supposed to be rewards for our training, not a stick to beat ourselves up with. We also talk about the bits of cross training we’re doing, and the wonderful Yoga with Adrienne. Then the big topic this episode is mental health. We chat about what running means to us both, in terms of supporting our mental health, and how it has helped us in the past. We also talk about how women can have a complex relationship with sport. For both of us, our love of running and exercise wasn’t fostered at school, and we both have bad memories of team sports in our teenage years, which I think can have a damning effect on many young (and older) women, preventing them from continuing sport after finishing school. We managed to find our love for sport, but many don’t – many are still trapped inside that little girl who was always picked last for netball. She is still very much part of me, so it’s joyful to be able to share that experience and realise that we’re not the only ones, and that one of running’s most meaningful benefits is in eradicating the sadness of those PE days: because us slow runners, us wheezy people at the back, it turns out we can run, and you know what? We’re good at it too. Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I talk to Natasha Acres, the founder of Earth Runs. There are several brilliant things about Tash. First off, she’s the brains behind Earth Runs; this virtual running initiative plants trees according to the number of miles you run. And, if you wish, you can further reward yourself with one of her truly original, and very magnificent seed bomb medals. Secondly, because this initiative is truly awesome, and because she managed to cobble together an entry at the very last minute, Tash is the hugely surprised recipient of the first Brooks Run Fund, which was launched earlier this year. This global initiative was set up to celebrate the power of running, with a fund to reward big ideas that benefit our communities and our environment. Something which Earth Runs literally does in spades. The fund that Tash won is $100,000. Obviously she is giddy with it. And she talks to me here about how and why she set up Earth Runs, what she’s going to do with the cash, and how she wants to continue spreading her very achievable message that we can all make a little bit of difference, that we can combine making those differences with our running, and that those differences all add up to a very big change. She is an inspiration.And I do so love talking to women who have very appropriate names, don’t you? We’ve had Sophie Power, Mel Bound, Holly Rush – and now Tash Acres, with her brilliantly tree-focussed name. Not quite sure how I can top that – if you can think of anyone from the world of running that has a name that fits what they do, then let me know so I can add to my Mr Biff the Boxer list.Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 46 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our 15th Workshop. We kick off this one by talking about Holly’s concerns about our upcoming half marathon. I do my best to allay her fears about coming last, and general anxiety about a smaller race, in terms of runner numbers. On the one hand it’s a bit of a relief not to have the pressure of so many people, but both of us are concerned about feeling a bit exposed. But we are determined to enjoy it, to take it slow, and to keep hydrated properly! We go off on a tangent (standard) and have a giggle about sweat and where exactly we all sweat from, which makes me go a bit pink, and then for some reason we go off on a mega tangent about tights. I really have no idea why.But the main part of this podcast is to discuss periods: how the hormones, the mental upheaval and the sheer presence of them can affect our running, and what we do to combat those things. Holly is venturing back into the world of periods after having been on a contraceptive pill that meant she’s not actually had a period for some years now. So knowing this, I wanted to talk about that – and about our experience of hormonal contraception and how that has affected us and our running over the past years. And then what I really wanted to talk about was the practical side of things: what can people who have periods do to manage symptoms while out on a run. So we chat about some of the options available, and the things we prefer to do.We also talk about how to run on a period while keeping an eye on the environment, and we talk about some of our favourite brands– not sponsored at all, just the ones we like, so I’ve listed those below. Hey GirlMooncupDameBP3 pantsAnd if you’re at all interested in the thing I was blathering on about with the prostitute and the flowers, there’s this thing here.(you see, I didn’t make it up!)Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Catherine Foster. Now, not many of you will know who Catherine is, but I bet a million quid that LOADS of you have enjoyed running in her race. Catherine works for the Great Run Company, and the flagship event that they organise is the biggest half marathon in the world, the Great North Run.Pre-lockdown, I think a great deal of us took running events for granted – they were a fixture on our calendars, and something to look forward to and to motivate us. It never occurred to us how it might feel if they were taken away. Catherine talks to me here about how it felt from the other side of things: the uncertainty of the pandemic, the real struggle to keep the company going and to motivate the thousands of runners it supports. And events aren’t purely about us runners: events such as the Great North Run are vital in supporting charities through fundraising, and through supporting local businesses. So we chat about all of that, what Covid has done and how it’s changed the face of events forever. And we also talk about the launch of mass events too – the Great North Run was started up 40 years ago by Catherine’s dad, the legendary runner Brendan Foster. So running is literally in her blood, and her passion for the races they organise, the runners who do them, and the wider community is huge and palpable. Be inspired and listen in…Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 44 of the Women’s Running Podcast and our 14th workshop. This episode is our virtual Vitality 10K debrief: we’ve got a LOT to unpack here. We talk about our 10K, and annoyingly listening back to this I say that we “failed”. We didn’t fail, we did the damn thing, but we didn’t do what we promised ourselves we would do. So we chat about that and tactics to avoid lying to ourselves in the future. The big discussion point here is that we’ve got a half marathon coming up on 15th August and we need to give ourselves a big talking to, and we need to prep properly for what will be a warm race. So I introduce training using heart rates: specifically training in zone 2 of our heart rates. And this makes us both feel better, because – basically – it sounds easier, but clever science means it’ll make us better runners! Hurrah! Here’s the science bit. The common calculation used to determine your maximum heart rate (MHR) is 220 minus your age. So a 35-year-old runner would have a MHR of 185. A more recent equation is [208 – (0.7 x age)]. For a 35-year-old runner, this works out as 183.5.Once you have your maximum heart rate, you can use this to determine the training zones you should be trying to stay within on your runs. ● Zone 1: Very light, 50% to 60% of MHR - Recovery runs● Zone 2: Light, 60% to 70% of MHR - Easy runs● Zone 3: Moderate, 70% to 80% of MHR - Longer tempo runs● Zone 4: Hard, 80% to 90% of MHR - Interval training● Zone 5: Very hard, 90% to 100% of MHR - Very short intervalsA well-rounded training programme should see runners working in all training zones at different points in their week, but with the majority of their training done in zones 1 and 2. Zone 2 runs use predominantly slow twitch muscle fibres whereas a faster run will start to use fast twitch fibres. Slow twitch muscle fibres are full of mitochondria (your cell power banks) and capillaries, this means that the muscle gets a better blood flow and with training becomes more efficient at using this extra oxygen supply as energy. Plus it reduces chances of injury. A fitness tracker or smart watch should help you immeasurably here, if you have one. Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Becca Burns, otherwise known as This Bunny Runs. Becca is an ASICS FrontRunner and an all-round running ambassador. I first met Becca way back in 2019 at RunFit in Liverpool, but everything has changed since then – including all the things she loves. Back then she was an ardent road runner, and was just about to take on the Liverpool marathon. Shortly after I spoke to her there, however, she made the move into diversifying her sporting loves, embracing both trail running and triathlon with her trademark enthusiasm. She talks to me here about her giant bunny, and how she fell in love with running twice. She talks about how her motivations have changed, how she got into cycling and then into triathlon, and she discusses her nail-biting attempt to nab a sub-4hr marathon time. She also tells me how she made the move from road to trail – I love her quote here: “if you think running is good, trail is next level”. I also ask her to persuade me – the coldest woman in the world™ – to take up cold water swimming, something that so far eludes me. Apparently it’s all about the hot chocolate afterwards. What Becca does best is to joyfully celebrate what her body is capable of, and in turn encourage us to do the same. What an awesome woman. You should totally become a member of Women’s Running. For one thing, Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. And, more than that, you’ll be one of us, which is priceless. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your brilliant discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is our 13th workshop, and in this one Holly and I talk about one of our favourite subjects: running kit! I wanted to chat about what we’re going to be wearing for the virtual Vitality 10K, and in the course of that discussion just chat about our favourite bits and pieces, and what we’re going to be investing in next. We’ve both learned so much over the last few years in terms of the kit and shoes that work for us – in a surprise move even for her, Holly comes out and confesses that she actually needs support shoes, only just realising that she’s been running in that type for the past year. Both of us talk about running in old favourites, so while I’ve added everything here that we’re running in that I can – some of them are things we’ve been running in for ages, so the links are to newer things and not the exact items that we have now. I can’t eulogise enough about my Brooks top, which is ancient, but everything about it – the softness, the arm length, the collar - is aces. However we’re going to be running in the sun unexpectedly this week, so I may need a rethink on the top front. We also talk – at length, this is us after all – about how running pants are now a thing, and more important than you might think. We discuss the true evil of the cotton knicker (Holly has the scars to show for why running in those is not a good idea). And we chat about running commando, which neither of us have ever done, neither of us like the sound of, and both of us revert to children in this part of the discussion, rather than the mature adults we’re supposed to be. You should totally become a member of Women’s Running. For one thing, Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. And, more than that, you’ll be one of us, which is priceless. Enter WRPOD at at the checkout for your brilliant discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us! The kit we mentioned here are:Saucony Endorphin SpeedSuperfeet inner soles10L Hydration packPrecision HydrationBP3 pantsRunderwear braBrooks Adrenalin GTS 21Decathlon running leggings(And they are made with 87% recycled polyester as I suspected!)Kalenji Run Dry T-shirtHydration packMaaree BraSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I speak to Anna McNuff. Again. This is a bit of an anniversary episode as Anna was our very first podcast guest in May 2020 – check that out in episode 1. I’d interviewed her then a few months previously at the National Running Show in person, when life was very, very different, when I didn’t even know how to spell coronavirus. And here she is after having quite an epic year. Not content with just surviving the pandemic and lockdown, she also decided to get pregnant, buy her first house, write a brilliant book, and have a baby at the same time. So she’s had rather a lot on. We have a chat about pregnancy, and what it was like being pregnant and giving birth during that oddest of years. She talks about her newest love, cold water swimming, and how that became one of the great positives of both lockdown and pregnancy. She also talks very frankly about postnatal pelvic health, and introduces the concept of dumb-bells for your down below. Yes, you heard that right. She also talks about her running during pregnancy, and after – and how, in both cases, she is sensibly listening to her body and carefully adapting her ambitions to ensure she nurtures and strengthens herself in the best possible way. But as you might expect, she cannot WAIT to get her trail shoes back on.This episode is sponsored by Decathlon. Decathlon sells clothing and equipment for over 70 sports online and in 47 stores across the UK. Thanks to their in-house brands, such as road running brand Kiprun, they're able to create expertly designed products offering unbeatable value for money, making running accessible for everyone. And we know you love Decathlon too, because you awarded them Retailer of the Year in our Women’s Running Reader’s Choice 2020 awards. So pick up a pair of Decathlon shoes and run more this summer!Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like fab kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your brilliant discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!Decathlon Decathlon is sponsoring this episode of the Women's Running podcastSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the 12th Women’s Running Workshop with me, Esther Newman, and Holly Taylor. It’s a fortnight, or thereabouts, off from our virtual Vitality 10K (and I believe there is still time to enter if you’d like to join us. And please DO join us, because we’ve been chivvying each other along as best we can, but nothing supports us as runners more than the knowledge that there’s loads of us everywhere all doing the same thing! So we talk about that, and about how our training has been going. We’ve both been trialling our newfangled pyramid session, and we both completely forgot to do the threshold session. Meanwhile, Holly’s been doing some actual cross training, and neither of us did our yoga. It’s a mixed bag, really. So we talk about all of that, we talk about tapering for the 10K and general preparations, and then I bring in the double whammy: first, that our beloved Bath Half has been cancelled, which was due to take place in September. And second that I’ve found a new half marathon for us to do in August. I’m excited! Holly is too (I think). We’re both going to sign up to that, although Holly is clearly more keen on doing the Colourburst run. And probably the one thing of value to come out of the whole chat is that I lecture her – quite rightly – on proper hydration, as she’s a nightmare with it, and I have instructed her to purchase a hydration pack and practice practice practice. With a half marathon in August, it’s crucial that she doesn’t rely on a quick swig of water beforehand. And as I point out to her, lots of races at the moment ask runners to be self-supporting because of coronavirus restrictions, so without knowing the details of the race we’re entering, it’s worth investing in a hydration pack and practicing drinking while running now. Lecture over, it’s time for us to carry on wanging on about family camping trips, wild pooing, and cans of gin and tonic. Standard.You should totally become a member of Women’s Running. For one thing, Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. And, more than that, you’ll be one of us, which is priceless. Enter WRPOD at at the checkout for your brilliant discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!If you’d like to run the Vitality 10k, you’ve still got time to sign up. It really is one of the most joyful, inclusive experiences, even as a virtual race. It only costs £19, you get a race bib number, and then a really nice medal after you’ve done it, and you can enter right up until 4pm on Friday 28th May. Please run with us, we need the mutual support! More half marathon training nonsense next time.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=67575412) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.