The Preston Guildwheel

I went on a mini adventure last week. I jogged down the hill to our local railway station, caught the 09:36 train to Preston, and ran the Preston Guildwheel 21 mile cycling route encircling Preston, before catching the train back home again. At the start/finish point in Avenham Park I’ve been wanting to try the …

Running is always better with others

I started running on my own at first. Running was therapy for me, after quitting my role as a slimming club leader to take control of my health in my own way. But soon I began to crave the company of others, and that was where the idea came from to form a running group; …

A Yorkshire 3 Peaks adventure

I've wanted to challenge myself to complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks of Pen-Y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough for a while, and finally I got around to doing it at the end of September. Originally I was going to join my running club, North Bolton Runners, as they attempted it in mid-August, but at last minute the …

Running with your dog

Since starting canicross and qualifying as a trainer with DogFit, people are always asking my advice about running with dogs so I thought I would try to condense it all into an article, which hopefully you find helpful. What is canicross? Canicross is the sport of cross country running with dogs.  In canicross, dogs wear …

How can a running coach help you?

One of the things I hear from clients time and time again is that having a running coach has helped them with accountability to put the training in to achieve their goals. Most people who come to me for help want guidance on how best to train for a particular event, but mostly they want …

Hathersage Hurtle Race Review

I don’t really race nowadays, apart from the occasional fell race, and I certainly don’t spend every weekend doing events, but I had had the Hathersage Hurtle booked in for a while and was really looking forward to it after doing the nearby Grindleford Gallop as part of my Manchester marathon training a couple of …

Why running should never be painful

I've been making a real effort lately to step back from my time goals and just enjoy running. When running is your day job as well as the thing you do for fun, it's easy to get too wrapped up in it, and I found I was getting a little obsessed over speed, and when …

Why you shouldn’t feel pressured to run a marathon

Marathon season is well and truly upon us. My work email and my social media feeds have been full of training runs and questions about fuelling and tapering for the past few months, and then maranoia inevitably hits, and the internet explodes with even more questions. It's impossible to avoid the M word at this …

I’m not a real runner

I've heard this phrase a lot recently and it worries me if I am quite honest. It worries me because running is supposed to be inclusive, yet there are a lot of people under the misconception that they're not real runners, because a small minority of people are telling them that they're not fast enough …

Hell of a Hill Marathon Review

This marathon has been on my radar since before I even moved nearby, when I read Robert Young's Marathon Man book about completing the 5 in 5. Yes, that's 5 marathons in 5 consecutive days, where each marathon consists of five 3.8 mile loops up the same hill. My experience wasn't quite on this scale …