The Women's Running Podcast

Welcome to the Women’s Running podcast: a very special Bake Off edition. We’re your hosts, Esther Newman and Holly Taylor, and usually you can find us chatting about life and running – though, let’s be honest, it’s mostly the life bit. Every year we get terribly overexcited for the Great British Bake Off and discuss it at length on the pod. Despite being total failures at baking ourselves, we’ve decided that we simply have far too much to say about the show – so here we are, turning it into its own spin off so we can dissect each episode properly. We’ll be chatting about all the highs and lows from the Bake Off tent, playing total favourites and slagging off bakes we could never dream of producing ourselves. Whether you run while you listen, bake while you listen, or neither – enjoy this extra little morsel!SPOILER ALERT: Of course, this episode is chock full of spoilers. What did you expect? Go and watch Tuesday night’s episode before listening!Bake Off series 14 episode 2: Biscuit WeekIt’s Biscuit Week, and we’re answering some hard-hitting questions. Tea cake or wagon wheel? Custard cream or Bourbon? It’s the cutting-edge journalism you turned in for. Plus, we fall in love with the entire cast and make our predictions for which baker is on the rocks this week.Signature: Marshmallow biscuitsDing ding, it’s our first Hollywood Handshake of series 14! Listen up to hear our thoughts, as well as which marshmallow biscuit we would have chosen for our snack of choice.Technical: Custard CreamsWe discuss the merits of the humble biscuit selection box and remember some classic childhood biscuit moments. Meanwhile, the bakers are ranked according to their Custard Creams and we have our first Big Controversy of the series.Showstopper: Realistic biscuit foodsA battle of the tomatoes has us calling for justice for one baker – and our dreams are crushed once more as another of the Class of 2023 are sent home.Join us!Become part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, newsletters and an exclusive community for friendly chat and support from like-minded runners! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Extra bitsThis is a VERY good time to subscribe to Women’s Running – join today and you’ll get a FREE exclusive Women’s Running technical tee worth £35! Quote X23WRPOD! Come and visit womensrunning.co.ukCome to our Live Podcast event on 9th November at Sweaty Betty for proper chats and a mega goody bagGet your hands on our new magazine: How to Run 10K with Esther and Holly, available at womensrunning.co.uk/learntorunBuy a Pod Squad t-shirt! Do join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.com/womensrunningEmail us at [email protected]  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 164 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. We are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.Now that Vitality 10K is a million miles away, we’re back to real life. And real life means we’re knackered, we’re hating September, and we are overwhelmed by Marathon training which is taking over our lives.New York MarathonIn terms of our training, we have news from the New York marathon about a change in policy, which will interest any of you currently in the last few weeks of training.We also have a couple of lovely letters to cheer us all up in the last throes of marathon training. Meanwhile, if any of you native New Yorkers or frequent fliers have any New York recommendations, we would love to hear them! Please email us!Big new podcast newsIn some very big news, we have a brand new extra podcast coming out for you guys, all about BAKE OFF! Niche, we know, but we thought you guys would love it. Should be ready for you this weekend! And it’s for everyone!Join us!If you LOVE this podcast, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and an exclusive Discord community for friendly chat and support from like-minded women runners! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Lovely extra bitsThis is a VERY good time to subscribe to Women’s Running – join us today and you’ll get a FREE exclusive Women’s Running technical tee worth £35! Use the code X23WRPOD at the checkout! (They're different from the Pod Squad ones, promise!)Come to our Live Podcast event at Sweaty Betty in Battersea Power Station for proper good chats and a mega goody bagGet your hands on our brand new special magazine: How to Run 10K with Esther and Holly, out now, and available at shop.womensrunning.co.uk / ExtrasBuy a Pod Squad t-shirt! And ensure you tell everyone it’s nothing to do with Love is BlindDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 163 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. We are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.London Vitality 10KThis episode is about one thing – London Vitality 10,000, which we ran at the weekend with absolutely shedloads of you, our glorious Pod Squad. It was a joyous, emotional, incredible experience – and to be honest, we weren’t really prepared for how many of you would turn up, but turn up you did, and we have a lot of memories and thoughts and joy, and we try to keep on the tracks to tell you all about it.Except of course we don’t stay on the tracks, so we talk about hotel breakfasts and peanut butter and not being able to go to the loo.If you weren’t able to make it this weekend, we promise we’ll do another event as soon as we have the strength to do so. Oh and do listen in to the end for a spot of expert dream analysis if you ever wanted to know what dreams about public loos meant!Join us!If you LOVE this podcast, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and an exclusive Discord community for friendly chat and support from like-minded women runners! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.  LinksGet your hands on our brand new special magazine: How to Run 10K with Esther and Holly, out now, and available at shop.womensrunning.co.ukBuy a Pod Squad t-shirt! And share your Pod Squad love!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 162 of the Women’s Running Podcast. Your hosts Esther Newman and Holly Taylor are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.Today, we’re recording in person! Which is quite exciting, but a bit odd. We start by talking skanky university behaviour, with some next level tips on student cookery and some discussion on some sadly defunct fashion retailers.London Vitality 10,000Then it’s the main event – we’re taking on the London Vitality 10,000 this weekend, on September 24th. If you’re coming along, please join us by wearing a blue top if you have one, so we can look like a proper colour co-ordinated gang.10K training tipsAhead of the Vitality, we look at some 10K training tips and also some things to bear in mind in the last week before the race.Special 10K magazineTo help with all of that, we have just launched our brand new special edition of Women’s Running, which is called How To Run 10K – and we are *so* proud of it! It’s everything you need if you want to run 10K for the first time, or you want to run your fastest ever PB – it’s all in there! And along with that we’ve got our first bit of merch in the shape of Pod Squad tees. Go to shop.womensrunning.co.uk and head to Extras for tees, and Single Issues for the mag.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and a chat room all for you. If you’re part of our Cheer Squad, you can watch these podcasts on actual video! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Lovely extra bitsGet your hands on our brand new special magazine: How to Run 10K with Esther and Holly, out now, at shop.womensrunning.co.ukBuy a Pod Squad t-shirt! It's at shop.womensrunning.co.uk - just go to EXTRASPick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about September stresses and, forgive us, but we’re already chatting about Christmas. Esther has a race report, as she ran the New Forest half marathon at the weekend. We chat about what it’s like to run a smaller race – compared with, say, the Great North Run which was happening on the same day.10k trainingWe also talk about the London Vitality 10,000, happening on September 24th, and what to wear when we run – if you’re coming, we’re asking Pod Squadders to wear blue, if you can, so that we can spot each other and look like a gang. We’re wearing our Pod Squad tees – which you can pick up at shop.womensrunning.co.uk.New running magazineAnd all this 10K chat leads us to our very Big Reveal, that from the 20th September you will be able to buy a a Special Edition of Women’s Running, which is snappily titled How To Run 10K with Esther & Holly. Look out for it wherever you buy the mag, or you can also pick it up from shop.womensrunning.co.uk (perhaps when you’re treating yourself to a tee). Our 10K special is full of brilliant advice and lots of silliness – and it’ll make the perfect gift for a running buddy, or you!Join us!If you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Lovely extra running bitsFancy running a 10K? We’ve bought out a special magazine to help with that – out next week! And from the same place you can also check out our brand new Pod Squad tees. Go to shop.womensrunning.co.uk and head to Extras for tees, and Single Issues for the mag.Sign up to one of the New Forest races in 2024: https://www.newforestmarathon.co.uk/home/#topPick up your FREE tickets to the National Running Show 2024 by going to https://nationalrunningshow.com and popping ANTHEM in the big code box when it asks you toJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Pick up a copy of Women's Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 160 of the Women’s Running podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.UTMBWe’ve had a bazillion technical difficulties, and here we are on Zoom, which feels very 2020. As ever, bear with. Holly has had a very exciting week, hanging out with the ultra runners in Chamonix. She’s had a whale of a time, swooning at the stars, and enjoying the Courtney superfans, and she even ran!And on that subject – we talk a LOT in this episode about running. I know, who even are we?Pod Squad runningNext on the list is the London Vitality 10,000, which is quickly going to be upon us, and we want to chat about any worries about pace, and to employ our brand new hashtag – Plod Squad! We don’t want anyone to feel awful or anxious – we can walk it with you!Interval trainingI talk about the training sessions I’ve been doing as part of my marathon training, which have been hugely hard for me – especially so because I’ve never really done any training like this before. Turns out intervals are TOUGH.Race nightmaresAnd then we’re on to stress dreams ahead of races – ours seem to revolve around missing the start of the race, or trying to find a loo. What are yours? Let us know please at [email protected], if only to make sure we don’t feel like idiots.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and a chat room all for you. If you’re part of our Cheer Squad, you can watch these podcasts on actual video! Fancy that! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Lovely extra running bitsPick up your FREE tickets to the National Running Show 2024 by going to https://nationalrunningshow.com and popping ANTHEM in the big code box when it asks you toJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 159 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.Pelvic floorsWe have our Kate with us again this episode. This week, we’re chatting pelvic floor exercises, time-poor training plans, and returning to fitness after having a break.Hormone testingWhen we’re not talking to Kate, we’re talking about home health testing kits to measure our hormones, with a bit of chat about blood donation. If you’re anything like Dave, right here is a massive trigger warning if you hate blood and needles!Race anxietyAn excellent email from a listener sparks big chats about race panics and anxiety. We talk about our own race experiences, and how to try and differentiate between anxiety and race anxiety – what’s normal and not normal, and how the feelings we have in races can really put us off racing altogether. We have a few amateur tips on what to do if you’ve been spooked in your first race, in order to take on your next one feeling more confident. But there’s no pressure to run in races! If you just don’t like racing, you really don’t need to do it to prove anything to yourself or us. You are still a runner! And, we suspect, a very good one that knows your own mind and everything.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and a chat room all for you. If you’re part of our Cheer Squad, you can watch these podcasts on actual video! Fancy that! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Lovely extra running bitsWe’ve been taking our home health tests through Randox.Join the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us! Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningCheck out Sports Tours International to find your next race!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 158 of the Women’s Running Podcast. Esther and Holly are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.Pregnancy and runningTrigger warning: pregnancy, postnatal depression and mental health. In this episode, we invite our friend and colleague Kate Sellers on to chat to us about pre and postnatal training, as she’s a PT and she’s just had a baby – perfect combo. She talks about the importance of core strength during pregnancy – something that’s weirdly overlooked. And she talks through her training during her pregnancy. She also talks very honestly about her experiences with something called Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex.Marathon trainingBefore and after that, Holly and I chat about my marathon training, using running apps, and technical training runs. We also have chats about injuries, as I’ve got a couple of niggles, which obviously I’m pretty  worried about.Emails from the Pod SquadImportantly, though, we have some emails from you guys, which means we can revisit parakeets, running in the media, and the “other sports are rubbish” thing, which obviously we LOVE. Plus, additional extra chat on the legend that is Bullseye.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and a chat room all for you. If you’re part of our Cheer Squad, you can watch these podcasts on actual video! Fancy that! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningCheck out Sports Tours International to find your next race!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are back from our holidays! Holly has been swanning about in luxury, and has lots to talk about, but as an over-thinker we still manage to circle back to the busyness of our brains.Holiday runningWe talk about our various holidays, and I’ve actually done a bit of holiday running, so there’s even something relevant to talk about. And the reason that I’ve been keeping up with it is because of some Big News.New York MarathonVery excitingly, Holly and I are off to New York in November with Sports Tours International for me to run the marathon and Holly to support me and tell you guys how it’s going. So I’ve needed to keep an eye on that mileage as a result.London Vitality 10,000We also talk about the London Vitality 10K and Hol’s training, which she’s worried about. We talk about running apps, training plans, and how to keep our heads on the right track (as well as our feet).Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and a chat room all for you. If you’re part of our Cheer Squad, you can watch these podcasts on actual video! Fancy that! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningCheck out Sports Tours International to find your next race!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 156 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We are both firmly average runners who don’t take life, or running, too seriously. On this podcast we talk about health, politics, stuff on TV and what we ate last night. Occasionally, we talk about running.IBS, hay fever, endoIn this episode, we have a super useful chat with our resident health expert Juliet McGrattan who answers all our questions about IBS, hay fever and endometriosis.Anxiety managementBefore and after that little Woman in Stem section, Holly and I talk about CBT (that’s cognitive behavioural therapy), and some of the things that Holly has been doing to manage her anxiety. We also talk about unexpected wildlife in Hyde Park, and favourite underground lines. Somehow this moves into some very shaky knowledge of history, so we need to stop talking a long time before we do.Racing soloPlus, there’s some stuff on awkward poo situations, sunscreen and running races solo – something that’s been popping off on our Discord chat. As soon as you’re a patron you can hop on that chat and find out what everyone’s talking about!Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon, where you can get involved in live zoom calls with us, weekly newsletters and a chat room all for you. If you’re part of our Cheer Squad, you can watch these podcasts on actual video! Fancy that! Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.  Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingBuy Juliet McGrattan’s book Run Well – honestly, it’s the only book about running injuries and niggles you’ll ever needSolarsport – lovely sunscreen perfect for runnersFollow the Folding Lady!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Holly’s had a lovely non-running weekend, because why not, and the discussion of which moves on to the necessity of chub rub shorts in warmer weather, and for posh dos. Holly’s favourites are Snag, we can also recommend Runderwear for both running in, and wearing under posh frocks.Running and periodsTW: Miscarriage, pregnancy and fertility. This episode, we talk to the lovely Dr Juliet McGrattan, our resident health expert, about periods, fertility and running, including some super valuable stuff on training to your period cycle.Media representationAfter Juliet, we discuss a lovely letter by an actual MAN. But then I want to talk about a controversy that’s potentially of my making. On the hunt for some info about specific runners, I made the realisation that our running world is unfairly reported on in the media. We discuss this and get ourselves properly cross in the process.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our Discord chat room, free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it... Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingBuy Juliet McGrattan’s book Run Well – honestly, it’s the only book about running injuries and niggles you’ll ever needDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 154 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We’ve got a menopause special this episode, with a smashing chat with our resident health expert Dr Juliet McGrattan at the halfway point about all things menopause and running.MenopauseWe chat to her about the good things about menopause, and also what happens to us and our fitness during perimenopause and beyond. We also chat about nutrition and RED-S, as something we should all be aware of.Cognitive Behavioural TherapyBefore and after that bit of essential listening, Holly and I chat randomly, as ever, about anxiety, CBT, and which character in Harry Potter we are - we value your opinions on this, but if truth be told, suggesting Crabbe and Goyle may not win you many house points. Fred and George will get you 50, obviously.Big running goalsWe also have an update on Holly’s Couch to 5K journey, taking on a big goal when you’re heading for an important birthday, and I get to sound off about being sensorial assaults, if that’s even a thing. I’ve just made it a thing. Do other runners have this, or is it just me?Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it...  Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingBuy Juliet McGrattan’s book Run Well – honestly, it’s the only book about running injuries and niggles you’ll ever needDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 153 of the Women’s Running podcast. Holly has just completed her first run on the Couch to 5K app, and she is giddy with it. She had felt some trepidation to begin with, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to all her next runs.Mental healthBecause it’s us, we talk about mental health and anxiety, just cos that’s the way we roll, and it wouldn’t be a proper episode if we didn’t.HRT updatesThen there are some more HRT updates, courtesy of me, my lovely GP, and all the bits I’ve been prescribed, plus reactions to those. I would love to know if this resonates with any of you! I’ve moved from patches to gel, and will obviously report back on my findings!Sex educationAnd then in our new pop culture section, we get hot under the collar about some things in the news recently about sex education in schools. We also have a chat about Caitlin Moran and potentially problematic interviews that she’s been giving, and so we have a bit of a rant about that, and feel hugely better as a result.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it... Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunning Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 152 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman and she is your other host, Holly Taylor. We have a sandwich episode for you, in the shape of a second chunk of Bad Boy Running nonsense in the middle of the usual chat.Bad Boy RunningDavid and Jody join us to talk about the things that happen in men’s loos (because we all want to know) as well as things that men can do to not make women runners feel anxious. It’s a very sweary mary section, and I’m too scared for this to be the moment we drop a C-bomb, so granny can stay in the room.PerimenopauseWith Holly and I, we start with a brief foray into the world of Boules – I mean, it’s still a sport, right? I’ve got an update with the whole HRT thing so I talk about lovely GPs and starting on the beginner journey as a baby perimenopausal person.Running appsAfter a Bad Boy pause and some evil swan discussion, we focus on running coaches and whether we should give ourselves up to a greater being, and chat about using something like Garmin Connect or Runna to help us get to the finish line of our next races.We also return to a couple of issues we’ve talked about on previous eps: namely, headphones and hay fever, with updates on both, including a link between hay fever symptoms and hormones. Who’d be a woman, eh?Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningGo and listen to the Bad Boy Running podcast! They are FUN!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 151 of the Women’s Running podcast with your hosts Esther Newman and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. This is a sandwich episode, with the usual chats either side a chunk of something else. This time, the chunk is our crossover podcast with David Hellard and Jody Rainsford from the Bad Boy Running Podcast., who we were invited to drink beers with and record a chaotic podcast with. This, you’ll be pleased to hear, is part 1 of 2!Decision runningBefore we chat to them however, we’ve got lots to discuss by ourselves. Esther brings up the idea of going on a “make a decision” run. Did it work? Yes it did. A decision has been made.MenopausePossibly related to that, we have a bit of menopausal chat – in this instance, it’s about symptoms, and not knowing if we have enough of them.Hay feverAnd then after fun chats with Bad Boy Running, we are back in the room with an email from a listener, who asks us about Hay Fever and running, which is a huge thing for many of us at the moment, and that also leads on to some asthma chat. We would love to know your thoughts and experiences with both these conditions – is it bad for you too this year?Come and join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it...  Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningGo and listen to the Bad Boy Running podcast! They are FUN!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 150 of the Women’s Running podcast. Esther Newman and Holly Taylor, your hosts, begin this episode talking about parenting guilt, self care, trying to impress our other halves with taking the bins out, and feminism.10K trainingWe also talk about training for a 10K. Holly is concerned it might be harder than a half – as it’s supposedly faster than a half marathon. And she’s never run a 10K race! So we launch into how we should train for it, and how we should frame it in order to not give us any worries beforehand.London Vitality 10KWe talk about the London Vitality 10,000 and how we can all run it together and meet up afterwards, and how we can successfully run it and celebrate each other without any pressure.Come and join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.99p bargainAnd BIG NEWS. You know we also do a very brilliant actual magazine? Well you can get your hands on your very first copy for just 99p – 99p! Because you’re our pod squad and we love you. Just go to shop.womensrunning.co.uk, and enter PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code, and there you go. Isn’t that lovely?Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 149 of the Women’s Running Podcast, hosted by Esther Newman and Holly Taylor. We have a lot to talk about this episode, not least a bunch of unrelated stuff about online shopping and game shows that we’ve packed off into an extra podcast for everyone on the Cheer Squad tier on Patreon (patreon.co.uk/womensrunning). Coming soon!80/20 runningFor the rest of us, we’re talking about the 80/20 method and how that’s working out for us – again we’re finding the easier running very lovely indeed, but the hard stuff a bit too much like hard work. We clearly need a goal!ParkrunWe also talk about our return to parkrun, and what that experience was like while we were running it, and also on receipt of our parkrun email a little later on.ShortsAnd we address the elephant in the room, and the fuss we kicked up in the last episode about people who wear (or don’t wear) shorts. There’s a bit to discuss here, and some body appreciation and neutrality and loathing to unpack and unpick.By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Women's Running wave at London Vitality 10,000And do please join the Women’s Running Wave this September 24th and run London Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave to run a gorgeous 10K with us by your side and cheering you on! We can’t wait!Lovely extra running bitsThis episode is sponsored by the NSPCC. Join TeamNSPCC and take on the legendary Cardiff Half Marathon on 1st October. Join today at nspcc.org.uk/cardiffhalf and enter RADIO when prompted to register for just £1.Join the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price! That’s at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 148 of the Women’s Running podcast. Because it’s pretty hot right now, and layers are being discarded, we launch into body positivity – or at least the wish for body neutrality that we both want. Slow runningWe’re also still talking about slow running, as that’s been a topic of interest since our last podcast. Esther has attempted to follow an 80/20 plan this past week, and she has some thoughts on that. Garmin hacksAfter our usual random chat, we introduce the lovely Anne Quick, Business Development Manager for Garmin. We asked her on because we wanted to ask her loads of sports watch related questions including, what is V02 max, how does Garmin work it out, and what are the things that can impact the score. We also chatted about a bunch of other clever bits that can help our running and wider lives, from the Training Readiness feature to breathing exercises. The 80/20 methodOnce we’re back in the room, we get back to our running efforts over the past week or so, and what we’re going to do going forwards to try and improve that Vo2 max score. Plus we’ve got a lovely listener email, some exciting new SPF bits to try (that don’t sting), and we’re very naughty on Instagram Stories. Women's Running wave at London Vitality 10,000Do join the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price! That’s at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running storiesFabulous non-stinging SPF perfect for runners here https://colorescienceuk.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 147 of the Women’s Running Podcast. We get straight into it this week with a spot of imposter syndrome, which is something both Esther and Holly feel a *lot*, especially when it comes to running.Slow runningWe then charge into the idea of slow running and how it can affect our pace and endurance and our health much more positively than the usual running we do, which tends to be staying vaguely in heart rates zone 3 and 4. We discuss how hard this it is to run slower.Better recoveryAnd we also discuss the concept of slow running making our harder/faster running better – because if we’ve recovered well, we can basically put in more effort on those technical sessions.Wild swimmingOther than that, Holly has been exploring wild swimming as a cross training activity and thoroughly enjoyed herself, but the end result has been less than brilliant.London Vitality 10,000And here’s a quick reminder for the event of the year. We want you to come and run with us at the London Vitality 10,000 this year on Sunday September 24th. We have our very own Women’s Running Wave, which means we can all run together, and there’s enough space for everyone. There’ll be a special meet and greet area just for us in the park, so we’ll be able to chat with you before and after the run, and we can all celebrate together. We can’t wait to run with you!LinksJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Big long clicky link here just in case:https://www.letsdothis.com/gb/checkout/ticket?eventId=18139&reservationCode=re_w37-cc3zed54&utm_organiser_id=29443Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price!Do join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford.Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is brought to you by the triple whammy that is hot running, half term juggling and booze.Running in the summerNow that the sun's out, we talk about sunscreen and sweat, and finding the elusive sun block that doesn’t sting. We also talk about dehydration in the heat, and how to prevent that, which brings us neatly to our next point.Running and alcoholWe talk about managing moderate drinking and training, and how that’s tricky especially in the summer when you may have more social engagements. We also talk about the effect that booze can have on our health and our lifestyles, and also on our running. We also touch on running and anxiety and depression, and that link between alcohol and our mental health.Running and jugglingI then have a small whinge about running and juggling time, as it’s half term and it is HARD to do these things. Esther copes a little bit by planning ahead and putting timed slots in my diary. That’s just one way of doing it, there are others! Also, as Holly says, you don’t have to run!London Vitality 10,000Lastly, we have a big announcement. We want you to come and run with us at the London Vitality 10,000 this year on Sunday September 24th. We want you to come and run with us – and we have our very own Women’s Running Wave, which means we can all run together, and there’s enough space for everyone. There’ll be a special meet and greet area just for us in the park, so we’ll be able to chat with you before and after the run, and we can all celebrate together.We can’t wait to run with you!LinksJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Big long clicky link here just in case: https://www.letsdothis.com/gb/checkout/ticket?eventId=18139&reservationCode=re_w37-cc3zed54&utm_organiser_id=29443Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price!Do join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford.Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 145 of the Women’s Running podcast. We start this issue talking injuries! A runner’s favourite subject, right?Running injuriesWe’re chatting about all the injuries that we’re suffering from, and most of them have been on Esther’s hit list: from runner’s knee to ITB irritations, weird toe things, and a pulled quad. Plus, also, as ever, lower back issues. A catalogue of running disasters.Running injury curesBut we come bearing good news, because Esther has been to the chiropractor and feels like a new woman. Perhaps not 100% cured but almost nearly, so we have lots of thoughts and feelings about that, exploring the concept of traditional vs alternative medicine.Mental health and runningThen along with all the different physical injuries we’ve been suffering from, we’ve also got a bit of anxiety chat cos Holly’s been having a bit of a crappy week as far as that’s concerned.We also, you’ll be pleased to hear, manage to segue between how much we love routine into some pretty decent Harry Potter impressions. Really, honestly, there’s an enormous bit of content on Harry Potter here. Enjoy!Get more from the Women's Running podcast!Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price!Do join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord!Run 5K and donate 5K on May 28th, World Hunger DayDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 144 of the Women’s Running Podcast with your hosts Esther Newman and Holly Taylor. In this episode, we delve into various topics, including Eurovision, running injuries, mental health, weight and running, and finding the balance between gentle and punishing running practices.Eurovision DebriefWe start with Eurovision, because that’s the way we roll. Yes, we’re going to talk about running, but we need to prioritise here. Of *course* Holly is hugely invested in this, but it may come as a bit of a surprise that Esther is also a Mega Fan. We debrief the best bits from the weekend, and Holly gets a chance to do her very best “douze points”.Running Injuries and Post-Marathon RecoveryEsther shares her struggle with a persistent running injury that has persisted since completing the London marathon. We explore the importance of post-race rest and care for our bodies.The Impact of Running on Mental HealthContinuing the discussion, we delve into the relationship between running and mental health. Esther opens up about feeling down due to her running injury, emphasising the emotional toll it can take. We reflect on the need to prioritize mental well-being alongside physical fitness.Weight, Body Image, and Anticipating ChangesOne of the effects of not being able to run is the feeling of a lack of control and an increased tendency toward self-loathing as we anticipate changes in our bodies. We discuss strategies for maintaining a healthy mindset.Running as Punishment and Finding BalanceWe explore the concept of running as punishment and using food as a reward. Finding the right balance is essential, and and how we need to try and find that sweet spot between being too gentle and too punishing.LinksSubscribe to Women’s Running now and save one-third off the cover price!Join us on Patreon and become a member of our new Pod Squad community on Discord!Run 5K and donate 5K on May 28th, World Hunger Day. Join us in supporting this meaningful cause.We'd love to hear from you! Please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we’ve moved on from training for a marathon, to recovery from that marathon, and ploughed straight into injuries.Injury preventionEsther has got a catalogue of them, and what we’re discussing here is, is it common to fall prey to injuries once you’ve completed a marathon – not in your training block, and not on the day itself, but afterwards, when you’re slowly beginning to start running again.And it sounds like it’s a resounding yes, as many of you have already responded to on Instagram to say you’d had something similar – but we thought it was surprising that there doesn’t seem to be a lot online about it as a Thing.Healing injuriesWe talk about one method of healing post injury, which has been suggested – and that’s going to a chiropractor. We will of course report back, as we've now been persuaded that this might be the way to go in terms of preventing injuries in the future, particularly if they stem from bad backs.Cross trainingSpeaking of backs and cross training, we chat about yoga and bootcamps and strength and mobility, all of which we need to upweight in order to prevent those annoying injuries.CommunityBy the way do please subscribe and leave us a lovely review if you can, cos the last one that’s up there is MEAN – we discuss in detail.Come and join us on Patreon so that you can join our lovely Pod Squad community in our exclusive chat room - which we’ve made just for you, so we can all discuss running and races, health and nutrition, and also all of that non-running stuff too.LinksThis episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration!Get 15% off Precision Fuel & HydrationThe Fuel & Hydration PlannerHow to measure your sweat rateHow to estimate how salty your sweat isDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running storiesDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 142 of the Women’s Running Podcast, Esther and Holly talk about recovery and finding new joy in exercise regimes.It’s a week after the London Marathon, and this episode is a load more joyful than episode 141, because Esther is no longer in huge physical and emotional pain! We talk about running and routines and how we discover ourselves again after we’ve achieving huge running goals like, for instance, a marathon.Muscle sorenessWe also discuss marathon recovery – you have to listen to Holly explain exactly how she goes to the loo after a race when the DOMs mean lowering on to a loo seat is the worst pain in the world.GoalsWe also chat about the concept of “one and done”. Just because you’ve run a big goal distance or race, that doesn’t mean you need to go on and do more of them, or longer distances. You can just stop! But if you’re able to, and you fancy it – it’s a great thing to continue to do. However you don’t have to carry on chasing goals if you don’t want to.CommunityCome and join us on Patreon so that you can join our lovely Pod Squad community in our exclusive chat room -which we’ve made just for you, so we can all chat about running and races, health and nutrition, and also all of that non-running stuff too (the important stuff).LinksThis episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration! You can get 15% off using the code WR2023! Go get ‘em.Head over there, too, to find out How to carb load before your next race and to sort out all your nutrition with the clever Fuel & Hydration planner.Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running storiesDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s time for the London Marathon debrief. At time of recording, it’s the morning after the day before, and Esther feels a bit broken.London Marathon and recoveryWe need to talk about marathon recovery here, which we’ll go into more next episode of the Women’s Running podcast, bearing in mind how blue many of us will feel in the days after a big race, for so many reasons.Periods and hormonesAnd then, hormones. Because of one thing and another, Esther was running the day before her period. This, as we all know, is the very worst day of the month, and has at least served to answer questions around why she didn’t enjoy the day as much as she had wanted to. What are your experiences of running, periods and hormones?Mental strategiesOn the plus side, Esther had a lovely stay at the Westin London City the night before, and managed to actually sleep this time round. And another thing that worked was the mental strategies that she used during the race – it turns out it isn’t just your legs that get you round.LinksThis episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration. You can Get 15% off Precision Fuel & Hydration using the code WR2023Go here too, with fuelling questions, such as are you fueling adequately to maintain health and performance?And make sure you check out The Fuel & Hydration PlannerEsther stayed at the Weston London City: a beautiful, centrally located hotel perfect for runners!Do join us on Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes newsletters and extra podcasts!Find out what to do in the last week before a marathonDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 140 of the Women's Running Podcast, hosted by Esther Newman and Holly Taylor. In this episode, we discuss Holly's exciting weekend and hanxiety which leads us to talk about our usual state of generalised anxiety in the face of challenges, especially with the London Marathon just around the corner.London Marathon Taper and Dealing with AnxietyEsther shares her nervousness about the upcoming London Marathon and being in the taper phase, which involves less running and more eating (and more sleep, which she just remembered!). She talks about her fears and classic maranoia, trying to learn from last year's marathon mistakes, such as not thinking about food until a couple of days before the race. Esther also looks forward to post-marathon fun exercise, taking inspiration from Holly's approach.Menopause Symptoms and Their Impact on RunningWe also dive into the topic of perimenopausal symptoms and how they are affecting Esther's stress levels ahead of the London Marathon, particularly heavy periods and frequency. We discuss symptoms, periods, and tactics for managing them, sharing new insights that are news to both of us.Sponsorship and useful linksThis episode is sponsored by Precision Fuel and Hydration! Need help with your fuelling and hydration? Don’t we all! That’s where their Fuel & Hydration Planner comes in. Also they have the answer as to whether female athletes’ carbohydrate needs are different to mens’. AND while you’re thinking about it, you can get 15% off Precision Fuel & Hydration with the code WR2023 Boom.Do join us on Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes newsletters and extra podcasts!Find out what to do in the last week before a marathonDo please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we’ve got a couple of things to get off our respective chests, running-wise. We talk about how running with other people can be “unexpectedly good” for those of us who tend not to. We also chat about time management and my favourite topic, emotional load. You can get a lot more of this sort of thing if you subscribe to Women’s Running magazine btw, currently with a stupendous offer of 3 issues for the price of 2. Bargain.Running hatesWe also return to one of favourite ever previous sections on the podcast that we’ve not discussed for ages. It’s pet running peeves! Hurrah! This is only because I was stopped while I was out running by a tourist asking for directions. This drives me absolutely nuts! Possibly because I run around a tourist hotspot, and I’m more likely to be running around it than walking around, but it seems to me that I’m way more often asked for directions while I’m running than while I’m walking. I’ve even had cars stop alongside me to ask for directions while I’ve been running! It makes me so cross! So because we loved having that chat, we want more of your pet peeves please!TaperingWe also talk about tapering, cos I’ve got London in about 9 days time and it’s filling all my waking thoughts, and all of my googling. There is some sensible advice about what we need to be doing in the last week before a marathon on the website, as Holly points out, thankfully.And very quickly, do come and join us over on Patreon, as we’ve got our next Women’s Running Live next Wednesday 19th April at 7pm, exclusively for patrons. Come for chats!LinksThis episode is sponsored by Higher State! Head to their partner SportsShoes.com and use the code HSTWR20 to get yourself 20% off when you buy 2 Higher State things!Do join us on Patreon to come along to our next Live event on Wednesday 19th April!Find out what to do in the last week before a marathonJoin the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I start with the chaos in my life at the moment, and because that’s included a trip to A&E, I have a little weep within about five minutes. While it isn’t directly running related, it is something I wanted to talk about in the context of the emotional mental load that women so often carry. I’d be really interested to hear what you think about with. But It’s an important topic to discuss because the fact remains that we are the ones that carry the majority of that load, and how on earth do we train for a race, whether it’s 10K or a marathon, if we’re doing all of that?RealityBut because I’ve had a rubbish week you have to forgive us as we then have a delicious conversation about reality TV. Holly is at pains to tell me that EVERYONE wants me to watch Love is Blind.Fasted runningWe also talk about fasted running. We’re both guilty of accidental fasted running, but we get into the logistics here, based on some very quick google research, on whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing to do. Obviously if it works for you, then that’s great, do let us know your thoughts please on this, and any other topics at [email protected]. LinksThis episode is sponsored by Higher State! Head to their partner SportsShoes.com and use the codeHSTWR20 to get yourself 20% off when you buy 2 Higher State things!Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Join the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 137 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. We’ve got a lot to get through this episode, not least because of the reaction to my controversial parkrun comments last episode, so of course that means we spend the first 20 minutes discussing Oodies for kids and British Summer Time.London MarathonThen we truck on with some dedicated running chat. I’ve just completed my penultimate long run before the London Marathon – so we have thoughts about that, and there’s a small tangent off into stress incontinence. If you know, you know.New goalsHolly discusses what she should train for next – should this be a 10K? Or a virtual thing? Or a cumulative thing? At the moment, she’s enjoying no pressure training, but we know that goals are our friend, so there are a few things to ponder here.ParkrunAnd then, of course, the parkrun controversy continues: we had a full mailbag this week with plenty of you weighing in on the debate. So we talk about your thoughts, and how we can create more of a non-competitive atmosphere for our weekly meet ups.Links Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Join the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We launch into this episode with a dabble in what Holly’s been doing with her running, but then swiftly into a controversial topic: and that’s parkrun. And we want to know what you think: do you love it? Or are you a little more ambivalent?Parkrun ponderingsDon’t get me wrong here, we both know how brilliant parkrun is, it’s bloody wonderful and it has singlehandedly persuaded countless people to move their bodies and to enjoy the feeling of running who wouldn’t otherwise have done so – and it’s a great way to celebrate running your first 5K. But, the run-not-a-race thing is the bit I have an issue with, as it can feel really competitive – and that’s great for a lot of people, but not necessarily for all of us. Holly, for one, didn’t like having stats sent to her – she suggests an option to opt in and out of those stats. Maybe that could be a thing.Weird personalitiesWe then talk about our different personality types AGAIN (this is endlessly fascinating for us, I’m afraid) and the ways in which we fulfil smalltalk. We end on magnesium (one of the supplements it’s often suggested we take), something I’ve been researching for whole actual minutes, so that you don’t have to. We talk about the benefits for women and runners. Yes it’s nice to have a bath in it, but what does it actually do?Come and join us!Before I forget to say, we’ve just released a new Extra Mile podcast on Patreon, which is full of additional silliness just for patrons on the Cheer Squad tier. Join us to listen to it, and to access lots of other lovely bits besides, all from just two quid a month. Total bargain.LinksThis episode is sponsored by the lovely people at Yeo Valley: try the Organic Kefir, it’s proper lushDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Join the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is all about recovery! I ask Holly what she’s been doing to recover from the Paris Half and, without consulting a single google search, it sounds like Holly is doing all the best things.Resting upShe’s doing exercise for the fun of it, rather than for a goal, and she’s also been eating and drinking for pleasure and whenever she damn well wants. The trick here, however, is to view your recovery as something that’s just as important as your last few weeks’ training, because it’s your rest and recovery that will repair your body and bring you back even stronger for the next goal in your running career.We also talk about introverts and extrovert, nausea on a run, breathing exercises that actually work, and smutty books we love.LinksThis episode is sponsored by the lovely people at Yeo Valley: try the Organic Kefir, it’s proper lushDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Read our full review of the Paris Half Marathon experience with Sports Tours Grab yourself a copy of Josie’s book, the Ten Pillars of Success, and bag some of her motivation for yourselfBook yourself a race with Sports Tours International!Join the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a very special episode indeed, so it makes sense to release it on International Women’s Day. To be fair, in a roundabout way, we celebrate women in every episode, but this one has real significance.Pod goes liveWe recorded a portion of this episode live in front of an actual audience. This was in Paris, an hour or so after we ran the Paris Half Marathon with 50 Pod Squad listeners, thanks to Sports Tours International. We gathered together with a glass of something chilled in a not very glamorous room filled with laundry, which felt very on brand, to congratulate each other and talk about our races. Here is all our excitement, our tears and our thoughts – we’ve also written our full review of the Paris Half. Race reportHolly talks through all her favourite bits and her worries - as she says herself, she was absolutely dreading it, with a run up and training regime that had been hampered by Covid and anxiety and various things that had derailed the running she had wanted to do. With only an hour’s long run in the bank, she was having a full scale wobble. So find out how each of our half marathons went, from start to finish, and discover the clever ways we kept ourselves motivated en route, thanks to the wisdom of sports psychologist Josie Perry who joined us as well.And also here, find out how bloody brilliant it was to meet up with, and run with, 50 brilliant women – we suggest you do this as soon as you can to be reminded of how wonderful we all are. LinksThis episode is sponsored by the lovely people at Yeo Valley: try the Organic Kefir, it’s proper lushDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Read our full review of the Paris Half Marathon experience with Sports Tours Grab yourself a copy of Josie’s book, the Ten Pillars of Success, and bag some of her motivation for yourselfBook yourself a race with Sports Tours International!Join the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we’re covering everything from anxiety and post-covid concerns to half marathon techniques and long run disasters.Paris half marathonNew coffee addict Holly is buzzing about caffeine, but also about our Paris half marathon coming up in just a few days. We’re both enormously excited, but also extremely nervous. Holly’s training isn’t where she’d like it to be, so we figure out some easier Jeff splits for her (find out more about walk/running) and she tries to calm her anxious brain a little.Training and trotsI’m also worried about my training – London is fast approaching, and I’m not sure I’m where I need to be in terms of strength or technical training. I completed a long run at the weekend, and I’m 90% happy with it. You will have to discover if the remaining unfortunate 10% has anything to do with Runner’s Trots by listening right through, you lucky lucky people. Honestly the things we do for this podcast...LinksThis episode is sponsored by the lovely people at Yeo Valley: try the Organic Kefir, it’s proper lushDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Drop off some food this February for Food Bank Run – there are families out there who really need our supportJoin the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Holly opens this pod giddy with a recent purchase – while I’m not entirely positive that she’s target market, I am absolutely NOT judging.JeffingMoving on to actual running, Holly has made the decision that she’s going to definitely walk/run Paris, and all her confidence has come back in droves, in no small part due to all the messages she received after the last episode. She had been feeling so stressed and so ill, and was so unsure about everything. But she has now faced up to her anxieties, and is both pragmatic and excited about Paris.Running & nutritionWe have a chat about nutrition for the half marathon – Holly does well these days at eating before she runs, but she hasn’t practised running and eating at the same time, so I’m here with all the tips on what she can practice with, without impending doom. We talk about what our A goals and B goals are for both Paris and London.We talk about the possibility of running a race while drinking booze at the same time – we’re aware food and wine races exist. But I can’t help but wonder here, does celebrating en route mean you then can’t celebrate post race? Tricky tricky.LinksHolly is loving her new BAM kitWe also talk about Revvies, Bounce and Tribe – nutrition fit for queensDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Drop off some food this February for Food Bank Run – there are families out there who really need our supportJoin the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 131 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. This episode is all about illness and recovery, because Holly is firmly in the doldrums, in terms of her physical training, but also her overall health and the impact that’s having on her mental health.Running therapySo it turns into a bit of therapy session between us, to which you are all cordially invited. Holly is finding herself enormously stressed about our impending half marathon, she’s worried about her training having taken a tumble, she’s worried about pleasing people (or not), and she’s also worried about not doing it.Because if only it was as easy as saying she didn’t need to run it – which I do say, and she needn’t, but her conflict is caring for her mental and physical self vs that part of her that really wants to be wearing her medal with the gang on the finish line. So we talk through how she encourages that first part of her to also be that second part of her. It’s tough.Running loveShe’s also worried about not being Top Form Holly when we’re in Paris. As she says: “Because I’m worried people won’t love me”. I’m positive that all of you are with me, when I say that EVERYONE will love her even more when she makes it there, but she needs a lot of convincing.LinksGo and get coached by Runna – it’s just aceEnter our competition to win entry to Ultra X Scotland and a night’s stay in a luxury hotel for twoDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Drop off some food this February for Food Bank Run – there are families out there who really need our supportJoin the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 130 of the Women’s Running Podcast, sponsored by Runna. Holly is talking health and mental health. Both have taken a bit of a pounding over the past month and it’s overwhelmed her training and exercise schedule, no matter how hashtag-be-kind she’s been to herself.MenopauseI’ve had a big old menopause symptom and it’s made me feel like SHIT, so I fess up all of it, which has taken a bit of courage because we know that not only do you lot listen but so do our bosses! Anyway. I wanted to share, because we need to talk about this stuff. The fearWe also talk about being given the fear by Martin Yelling, using the mantra “this is my race”, troughing on vegan croissants from Paul’s, Aunty Praline makes a guest appearance, there’s a little bit of Paris nonsense, and we have loads of lovely emails from listeners including one that’s a little bit shady to a competitor. And we’re keeping it in.Run for goodWe also make time for a quick mention for Food Bank Run, which would be great to do in February – link below. And also the wonderful 1% club, being run by Earth Runs (link also below), who will plant a tree for every day you’re active in 2023.Be one of us!Now. Do sign up to be a patron. If you’re in the Cheer Squad tier, you’ll be able to listen to exclusive monthly podcasts – which we’ve decided to call the Extra Mile – created specifically so you’ve always got a bit extra to listen to on your long runs, in which we promise to do our best to talk about anything *apart from* running. The latest one was released just this Tuesday, do go and have a listen.LinksGo and get coached by Runna – it’s just aceDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Drop off some food this February for Food Bank Run – there are families out there who really need our supportJoin the 1% Club and they’ll plant trees for every day you’re active – you’ve nothing to lose!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 129 of the Women’s Running Podcast. This week, we are sponsored by Runna. We have a LOT to talk about today. We’ve got to cover off training for the Paris Half, insecurities about that training, motivations for running in the first place, menopausal symptoms and, lastly, figs.Half marathon trainingSo first of all we chat about Holly’s training for the half. She’s having all the wobbles about Paris, post Covid. Her long runs haven’t quite hit the mark, although she has been doing some cross training, and she’s really worried about how things are going to go on the day. I try and soothe her fears, but I’m sure you guys can do that better than me!Menopause symptomsI talk about menopause a bit here, because I’ve realised that periods and hormones (or lack of them) have been having an effect on my training. We talk through as many symptoms as we can before we run out of time – I’m fully aware that there are more, but also that a number of these can affect our lives and our running. And that it’s important to remember that they are wildly diverse and sometimes it’s difficult to join the dots between all these different things. Have a look on Women’s Running womensrunning.co.uk for great advice on menopause and running.Lastly: are figs vegan? An expert weighs into the debate and we are, obviously, delighted. This, and more hot topics, including the ever present Veganuary wind situation, are discussed in detail. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.LinksFind out more about Runna and download the app!Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 128 of the Women’s Running Podcast – this episode is sponsored by Runna. We launch right into it, with some vegan nonsense, but then very quickly we move on to the National Running Show, which we attended at the weekend in Birmingham. We had an absolute blast, we saw so many of you Pod Squadders, and are just giddy with the happiness of it all. We talk here about just some of the brilliant people we met, about Holly getting the spooks in her hotel room, dog biscuits, flapjack, and lots of wine.Race trainingWe eventually get on to our own running, and how our training is going. Post-covid it’s been a bit tough for both of us. In terms of the upcoming Paris Half, Holly is really worried about where she is, and whether she’s not as strong as she was ahead of the Bath Half last Oct. BUT she’s been doing strength training and mobility, and I have a sneaking suspicion that she might actually be in a stronger place on the start line of the Paris Half.Strava badnessI’m also feeling a bit uneasy about where my running is, so I whinge about that for a bit. We also talk about Strava etiquette – which I am terrible at – and also how we shouldn’t measure ourselves by our Garmin stats. Tricky, tricky.LinksFind out more about Runna and download the app!Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Do please email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is again bought to you by the powers of Covid. I’ve picked it up for the first time, unfashionably late to the party as ever. Apologies here for covid coughing throughout. We talk through health anxiety, symptoms, and worrying about the unknown. We also have a chat about the guilt of missing out on training through illness.VeganismMoving on from covid, we talk about our ongoing experiments with veganism, which are mostly positive with a few tofu pitfalls. This, unsurprisingly, segues into a discussion on bowel habits and then IBS – not that either of our experiences with IBS have anything to do with veganism.Food bank runSpeaking of food, we have a big old chat about a new campaign called Food Bank Run. I spoke to Sarah Donaghy recently, who set this up, and it’s genius. I’d love as many of us as possible to sign up to doing this. The idea is that we all go for a run in February, when demand is at its highest, to drop off some food at a food bank to help people who desperately need our support right now.Pod powerWhy don’t we do our first Food Bank Run as a Pod Squad thing. I suggest we all go for a run in the week beginning 6th February. So that means we’ve all got a whole week to do a run of whatever length you like and drop off one or two things to your local foodbank. My nearest food bank is just a few minutes away – it’s easy to check online if you’re not sure. There’s more information in this podcast and in the links in the show notes if you want to find out all about it.LinksThanks to Wassen for sponsoring this episode. Go to Boots to discover the full range of Wassen powders!Find out more about Food Bank RunYou can check here to see what’s needed in your areaDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 126 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. This episode is our first chat since Christmas so we’re a bit giddy with it. Hol has had a bit of a cruddy start to the new year, and it’s mostly Covid based. It’s obviously knocked her training a bit, and she’s been worried about the Paris Half as a result – something I think that will resonate, with so many of us getting bugs at this time of year. If you need help with that, we’ve got lots of info on how to get back to running after illness.Half marathon strategiesI gave her a load of advice the day before which I’ll put here even though we don’t go into it much, as I think lots of us will have woken up on the 1st a bit worried about the half marathon training ahead of us. So first of all I said she can come to Paris and not run it! Shock horror! Of course that’s fine. And the same is true of any race, from parkrun upwards. Or she could always come to Paris and Jeff like all the best runners. Running for 5mins and walking for 30 seconds is a brilliant strategy. And let’s all bear in mind the reasons WHY we’re running that half in Paris – because it’s not to knock minutes off our PBs, it’s to be a tourist and to meet up with the Squad and to have fun! It’s certainly not to get stressed about it beforehand.Running in the coldWe talk about running in Jan and Feb, and kudos goes again to RED January for keeping us moving in the most miserable of months. I talk about my running, I’ve now started my London Marathon training and I’m absolutely terrified, all over again. It doesn’t feel like a very long way away, and my training plan looks really scary right now.ChaosOn top of all of that, we talk about periods, wasps, Pilates and on-screen bums (you can find Holly’s right now on our Insta grid). We also have huge NRS gossip from last year, and Holly divulges a massive scandal that has rocked her world, and it involves pine needles.LinksDo join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Come along to the National Running Show in January, and say hello!Thanks to Wassen for sponsoring this episode. Go to Boots to discover the full range of Wassen powders! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy new year to all you lovely listeners! We start off today as usual, with me complaining – this time it’s about my back pain, which went a bit crazy just before Christmas. All good now, though. Aside from that, it’s a corker of an episode as today we’re talking to Laura Barnhouse, nutritionist, PT and friend of the pod.Diet cultureWe’re after a bit of a health rejig in January, even if we are all perfect already (which we are), so we hauled Laura in to help us do exactly that, and to talk about this January diet culture, and body image generally.Weight lossWe talk about the whole concept of women and weightloss – the feeling of taking up too much space in the world, and feeling like we have to address that. We talk about how times have changed in terms of the pandemic, and what that’s done to our sense of self and our looks and weight. Again, we talk about school experiences having such a negative effect, both on our perception of exercise and also how we perceive food and our bodies.Healthy relationshipThe really useful bit here is that we ask Laura’s advice on how to have a healthy relationship with food and eating, which leads her on to talk about our motivations for getting healthier, and where those motivations come from, and how important it is to figure that bit out first if you’re striving for a healthier life and attitude. Really clever stuff that will help all of us this January, no matter what our goals are.LinksWin a pair of Brooks Ghost 14 GTX, worth £140 by entering this podcast-only compo!Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Come along to the National Running Show in January, and say hello!Follow lovely Laura on Facebook   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we have the wonderful Molly from the Simply Vegan podcast (and also from our company, so we know her well and have got hugely drunk with her – we are mates!) to chat to us about all things plant-based before we head into Veganuary. We start off by discussing our past drunkenness, but quickly move on to actual food.Running foodWe discuss what we’re eating for Christmas – even though this is, as we all know, what Holly refers to as our ‘perineum episode’. So our tenses are all over the place while we discuss the stuff we eat, which allows me to talk through the legendary reason why I love sprouts so much. But it also means we can ask what actual vegans eat for Christmas, and – whisper it – it doesn’t actually sound that bad.Vegan running foodThen we cover a ton of must-know topics for those of us facing Veganuary: such as, can we eat figs? And is vegan cheese any good? Molly then explains how to make tuna out of chickpeas, which blows our tiny minds, and talks us through her favourite vegan meals to give us a bit of inspiration. Importantly, she tells us what puddings and sweet things are intentionally vegan or accidentally so.Vegan runners!But we also have a small ulterior motive here, as Molly joins us because she is going to be running the London Landmarks Half Marathon in March, and she wants our advice on running, so we eventually get on to some running chat, answering a few of her worries and questions about her training up to that first half marathon. And for podcast keeners, you’ll be able to hear me and Holly over on the Simply Vegan podcast at some point in January gassing on at length with a load of training tricks and tips for our favourite vegans.LinksListen to the Simply Vegan podcast for more of Molly!Check the Vegan Food and Living website for tons of recipes and fun vegan stuffChris Packham discusses the importance of waspsHow to check if your booze is vegan on BarnivoreWin a pair of Brooks Ghost 14 GTX, worth £140 by entering this podcast-only compo!Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Come along to the National Running Show in January, and say hello! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 123 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I am your host Esther Newman and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We start today with Bake Off, which might seem like a bit old hat, but we’re talking about new things, I promise. Then, obviously, we move on to favourite TV comedies, before eventually settling on Christmas. Because, like it or not, it’s Christmas and there is no rest for the wicked. Or the runners.Running QuizWhile we loosely chat about the running we’ve been doing (which adds up to very little indeed because of various injuries and tattoos, for some reason), we are giddy with excitement about the main event, which is our Great Big Christmas Quiz! We’ve drawn up a set of Mr & Mrs questions for each other – and get this, some of them include actual references to running! To be clear, neither of us are drinking in this episode, even though it sounds like we have been. Copiously.Running showA quick reminder here that we’re going to be at the National Running Show in January in Birmingham at the end of January. Do please come – it would be lovely to see a friendly face or two. We’re on stand P20 right in front of the Inspiration Stage, on which I’ll be chairing some menopausal chat at 11.30 on the Saturday. I mean advice-drive menopausal chat, rather than just general chat from menopausal women... So that just leaves me to say, have a very happy Christmas, enjoy all the fun and festivities that it brings, and we shall see you on the other side!LinksWin a pair of Brooks Ghost 14 GTX, worth £140 by entering this podcast-only compo! Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes!Come along to the National Running Show in January, and say hello! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 122 of the Women’s Running podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We’re kicking off with some advent calendar content, just so Hol can eat some chocolate live on the pod. InjuriesMeanwhile, I’m being a Moaning Myrtle cos I’ve done my back in, and take the opportunity to talk about it here at great length (Anna McNuff did something similar last year and has brilliant advice about injury prevention). While it’s not a running injury per se, it’s worthwhile bringing up because it has stopped me in my tracks. And while one part of injury is how you recover best from it and prevent it from happening again, the other part is the mental distress from not being able to run, and I’ve got the latter half of that for sure. So lots of Injury Sadness. Food and body imageBut the main part of this pod is about food, as we’re staring January in the face, and lots of us will be having thoughts around this. We are getting our lovely nutritionist Laura Barnhouse on to talk to us about food, fuel and body image in the first week of January, so there will be actual expertise then. Body neutralityQuick content warning here, as we talk about food, control and disorders at length here. We talk about the food we should be eating, and how we’re supposed to get our heads around the whole body neutrality thing, so we pre-empt all of that by talking through our histories with eating and diets. We talk about food and control, body image, and the complex relationship between food and emotions and relationships. I think we discover quite a bit about ourselves in this episode. More expertise in January. Next week, we have the Women's Running Podcast Christmas quiz! Hurrah! Links Win a pair of Brooks Ghost 14 GTX, worth £140 by entering this podcast-only compo! Do join us on Patreon for exclusive newsletters, free monthly Live chats, and Patreon-only episodes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 121 of the award-winning Women’s Running podcast! I am your host Esther Newman, and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We recorded this on the 1st December, so we’re in the middle of some strong Advent content. We then slowly move on to our very excitable chat about our big award win. We are chuffed to bits that the Women’s Running Podcast – this podcast you’re currently listening to - has been voted Podcast of the Year for the second year in a row, and we have a lovely pink award, and two very large hangovers to show for it.Running a 5KThen we finally move on to running. We talk about running a 5K round Battersea Park, which we did last Wednesday evening for SportsShoes at the RunThrough Chase The Moon event, which we thoroughly recommend, with lots of high vis and bright lights and nice snacks. We also talk about our slightly epic journey back to Bath afterwards. New year’s resolutionsI talk about a big fat new year’s resolution with my running here, but it’s not what you might think – it’s not distance or pace or number of races or anything like that. Holly is also gearing up for her new year’s resolution, and it’s also not what you might think either. Lots of surprises here today.Running veganAnd then we have a bloody huge announcement about food, because we’re going to do Veganuary with our friends over on the Simply Vegan podcast, and we’re a bit scared about it, because Holly loves her cheese, and I love my bacon. But we’re getting our own back by helping them train for a half marathon, which is around the same time as Paris, so we’re all going to be training together, powered by Shroomdogs and  Facon. What larks.LinksJoin us on Patreon for exclusive episodes and newsletters from me and Hol!Use this to train for a half marathon by time rather than distanceIt’s not too late to join us in Paris!Buy yourself the best Chrimbo present in the shape of a Women’s Running membershipInterested in the Simply Vegan podcast? You should be! It’s here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 120 of the multi-award winning Women’s Running Podcast. We don’t scream about it here, because we recorded before we knew, but we have won Podcast of the Year at the PPA Independent Publisher Awards last Friday – for the second year in a row! We are giddy with it, and will chat about it to DEATH in the next podcast. For now, we’re talking about being ill, not washing our duvets, and how marvellous our Podcast Live was last week. New date for the next one coming soon!Running in winterWe talk about Raynaud’s (which I suffer from), and running in the cold and dark. We asked our lovely patrons on the Live about how to motivate ourselves to run in the winter, and they came up with some ace suggestions which we go through here. We start talking too about when we need to start our training for the Paris half marathon, which is slightly sooner than Holly thinks.TW:  eating disordersWe’ve had an email in that we’d like to discuss from a listener who is recovering from anorexia, so we chat about that – not from a medical perspective, but we chat about injury, strength training and overtraining, touching a little bit on RED-S, more of which in a future episode.This leads us on to chats about our own struggles with body neutrality, and body. We end by confessing our favourite body parts – and this is where you will instantly (because I will) be googling the phrase Thigh Brow.LinksJoin us on Patreon for exclusive episodes and newsletters from me and Hol!Use this to train for a half marathon by time rather than distanceIt’s not too late to join us in Paris!Buy yourself the best Chrimbo present in the shape of a Women’s Running membership Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we have a special guest in the shape of Claire Maxted, co-founder and formed editor of Trail Running magazine, the owner of the Wild Ginger Running YouTube channel, and the author of the Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, so she knows a thing or two about trail running! We talk here about PE days again, because I’m slightly obsessed with them, and how they can give us such a negative experience of sport and movement, and as we chat about here, it’s not necessarily the sport itself that makes us hate it, but all the other peripheral stuff  like communal showers. The big reason I got Claire on here was to try and persuade pavement pounder Holly on to the trails. If you’ve never randomly decided to head down an unknown footpath, it takes a lot of courage to tread the path less travelled. Claire is here to instill us all with a bit of trail confidence, and my favourite tip she gives us here is about navigation which can feel like a bit of a dark art, but as she said the easy way to discover a path is to run down it and then we can run back again! Claire is a joyful, enthusiastic trail runner, and it doesn’t take long to persuade Holly to try something new, and hopefully you’ll get some of that enthusiasm too.And then we eventually discuss Bake Off and what actually constitutes a flan. We get in a bit of a muddle about summer pudding, bread pudding and bread-and-butter pudding. No haters, please.Links Join us on Patreon for an exclusive podcastWatch Claire’s fab films on trail runningAnd you can also buy her brilliant book from the same place Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BIG shout out to join us on Patreon to chat to us on our Podcast LIVE on Wednesday 23rd November at 7pm (GMT), exclusive to patrons on all levels. We start with Bake Off, obviously, but the issue here is that Holly hasn’t seen the most recent episode, and so I have to lie to her and tell her that everything is okay and Janush is definitely still in it. She knows now, it’s fine, but I just needed to make sure *you* knew that she knows and I’m not being a bad person for mentioning it here. She’s fine, by the way, although we’re both firmly in denial. Then we’re on to the main meat of the podcast, which is the kit we’re loving right now. We do this every year around this time to give you some ideas of kit that we like in case you might want to circle a few things for your own Christmas lists. So we talk through our favourite tights, tops, bras, shoes, and various other bits and pieces. Please note: this episode is not sponsored by any of these brands, they are genuinely the bits that we have loved running in, working out in, and just slobbing about it.LinksFul:ki leggings, the hoody from Thought, the brilliant On Cloudneo, get a pair of Monkey Sox! (Better still, get a FREE pair when you subscribe to Women’s Running), I swear by these pants by Nixibody,  this brilliant top by BAM, the Maaree Solidarity, the Shokz headphones The Sweaty Betty Powers, leggings from Salomon, the HOKA Kawana, running tee from Runr, good value headphones from Edifier, holly’s bra from Sportjock  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is sponsored by Sweaty Betty. In this episode, it’s the morning after I’ve been out-out. I’ve been to see the Scummy Mummies and begin this episode retelling a joke that’s too rude to repeat here. After a long section on hair removal, for which I make no apology, we have a bit of a chat about what we’re up to. And then we decide to go back to the beginning to discuss where we’ve come from and where we’re going. This is a little bit like one of those Insta squares where people go, “ooh I’ve got a million new followers, I should introduce who I am!” – and that’s exactly what it is, without the million followers. We want to properly introduce ourselves and explain how we’ve got to where we’ve got with our running and our lives and how we view sport and our bodies. All of this colours what we want to do next – our goals and ambitions with running, so there are a lot of uncovered secrets and honesty in this episode about how we felt about exercise and all sorts through school, university and beyond. We end with the advice we’d give our younger selves, and how we’ve devised our own life philosophies, which we’re obviously extremely pleased about.LinksPre-register for the Women’s Running Podcast Paris Half Marathon (aka Pod Squad Go Mad in Paris) right here. Come join us! We can’t wait!Join Holly and me this January by taking on RED January – you dn’t have to run every day, you just have to MOVE ever day, and you can print out a lovely calendar to pop on your fridge and tick off as the month goes on.Please support us on Patreon and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks, including an exclusive newsletter from me and Holly, and invites to patron-only zoom chats with us too!Thank you for listening. Email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories, as we’d love to include them.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is sponsored by Sweaty Betty. We start off by talking about herbal teas and Hoovers, because that’s the way we are. We then move reluctantly on to running. Holly is planning her first 5K post half marathon, and I have some ideas about keeping her running oar in so to speak. At this point we chat about the Paris Half on March 5th 2023, as this will be her biggest motivator when it comes to winter running. This is big for us as we want you to join us! We’ve partnered with Sports Tours to organise a nice discount and a load of other benefits to try and get as many of you along with us as possible. All you have to do is pre-register for just £50 – that £50 is then fully refundable against the price of the package. Full details of the packages will be released on November 24th, but as a guide package prices start from £219, based on two sharing, without flights (but flights are super cheap at the mo). The package includes accommodation in central Paris, support from expert Sports Tours reps, a shake-down run, a pasta party, and post-event drinks with us featuring – we hope - a live podcast recording! Plus everyone that joins us will receive a limited edition Women’s Running Sports Tours hoody! It’s almost too exciting. Link below!We also talk about other things we can do to keep our fitness up through the winter. I touch on SAD and depression, so please be aware of that if it’s triggering for you. Full disclosure, I find winter very hard in terms of my mental health, but one thing I found extremely helpful this year was signing up to RED January – having a calendar to tick things off was very grounding, and helped move me through the month. And I truly believe that building new habits in terms of my fitness has prevented injuries and has made me a better runner. I reckon you should all do that with Holly and me, too, and this is a bit easier as it’s free. Sign up below.We finish with the obvious bake off chat.LinksThis episode is sponsored by the very lovely Sweaty BettyPre-register for the Women’s Running Podcast Paris Half Marathon (aka Pod Squad Go Mad in Paris) right here. Come join us! We can’t wait!Join Holly and me this January by taking on RED January – you dn’t have to run every day, you just have to MOVE ever day, and you can print out a lovely calendar to pop on your fridge and tick off as the month goes on.Please support us on Patreon and you’ll get some lovely patron-only perks, including an exclusive newsletter from me and Holly, and invites to patron-only zoom chats with us too!Thank you for listening. Email us at [email protected] with any questions or running stories, as we’d love to include them.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.