Fell-racing – falling with style

Fell running, sometimes known as hill running, but not to be confused with mountain running, is the sport of running and racing, off road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. Since moving to the edge of the West Pennine Moors last autumn, fell racing has been on …

What running has taught me about myself

December is always a time for reflection, so I sat down today to write a blog post about my year, but was stumped as to how to sum up a year where I've achieved so much without a plan, without sounding like a hypocrite. As a running coach, my business thrives on setting goals, making …

Why you might need to slow down to speed up

Are you a regular runner who has been struggling to get quicker lately? Are you feeling like you've plateaued? Do you have heavy legs when you head out for your usual run? Lost your mojo? We all go through this. Normally for me, it's a week or so after a marathon or an ultra, when …

What does a running coach do?

One of the questions I get asked most often is what it's like to be a running coach; I mean, what do I do all day?What I've come to realise over the last year of launching my own business is that this career is a bigger responsibility than I ever initially considered. Clients put their …

What can we learn from a race photo about our running form?

I love to analyse my race photos because they reveal a lot about where we need to make improvements in our form, particularly when race photographers capture us in a fatigued state, usually at the end of a race or at the top of a hill. I was looking at some photos of me at …

The road to recovery. (The bit after an ultramarathon that nobody tells you about)

If you're thinking of tackling your first ultra soon, the most important thing to remember about ultras is that it's going to take you a long time to recover. Longer than you think. This may seem like a glib statement. You're embarking on an epic distance; of course it's going to take a while to recover …

My top tips for the week before your marathon

It's easy to get worked up about a big race, particularly one you've invested so much training time into, and many spring marathon runners are now into that uneasy period we call tapering, which is often full of maranoia, or feelings of self-doubt and last minute panic training. I got my taper for my first …

Planning your training around your menstrual cycle

I've been wanting to write a post about how the menstrual cycle can affect running performance for a while now, but I've been putting it off because it's a little uncomfortable isn't it? However, our bodies and our hormones really affect our performance, and every woman should take into account her own personal cycle when …

Finding a balance

It's 9am on Saturday morning ... "Shouldn't you be at parkrun?" I hear you ask.  Well, yes. Today should be my 100th parkrun in fact, but recently I'm learning that running needs to fit into life, and not the other way around ... Last month, I realised I had run 141 miles (an average month …

Marathon training – January

I don't think I've talked about it much in this blog, but I'm running Manchester Marathon this year - after swearing never again after my first marathon at London in 2014, then accidentally (yes, really!) doing it all again in 2015. I had a break in 2016 to focus on getting my coaching qualification and …