This one is for the woman who is already running. Not the beginner. The woman who has been training consistently for a year or two, finishing races, feeling like there's more in the tank — and not sure how to access it.

In this episode Poppy shares her own running journey from a 1:50 half marathon where she walked the last three miles, to a 1:37 and then a 1:35 — and what actually changed between those times. Spoiler: it wasn't more sessions, harder training, or a magic supplement.

Covers: why adding more runs stops working at the intermediate stage and what to do instead · the 80/20 training distribution and what easy actually means in practice · the ego problem with interval sessions and why hitting all your reps at 80% beats blowing up at 110% · why your 6pm interval session depends on what you ate at lunch · the numbers behind carbohydrate fuelling (30-60g per hour, plus the elite female study that found 120g per hour as optimal) · why a pre-sleep snack matters more in a heavy training block than most women realise · and the five questions to ask yourself before your next half marathon block.

Plus, the full details on Fuel Her Fire 2.0. A 12-week progressive half marathon programme with built-in RPE and pace calculators, phase-specific nutrition, and bi-weekly check-ins.

📩 DM HALF to @poppy.nfc on Instagram or comment below after listening.

One of my clients messaged me last week - "How and why is it working? Like why does eating more allow the body to become leaner yet build muscle at the same time?"

And I love this question because it sounds like it shouldn't make sense. Eat more, get leaner and build muscle? Surely that's backwards?

It's not. But the reason it works is more interesting than most people realise.

In this episode Poppy breaks down the three conditions that have to be met simultaneously for body recomposition to happen, why your body's survival mechanisms actively work against fat loss when you're chronically underfed, why you have to cover the cost of your baseline day before your body has any spare capacity to build anything, and why training quality is the silent variable that most women are getting wrong.

Including the business investment analogy that makes the whole mechanism click, why crash dieting produces smaller but softer not leaner and stronger, and what consistently eating enough actually looks like in practice, not unlimited food, but matched to the real cost of your training life.

This is not an eat more and everything will be fine episode. It's the engine underneath body recomposition, why it works, what's actually happening, and why so many women are stuck not because they're doing the wrong training but because they've been trying to outperform underfuelling for years.

📩 Comment STRONG on Poppy's latest post for coaching details. Comment FUEL for the full fuelling guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

Protein is the macro women fear least. Which makes it the one most likely to be overused, mistimed, and blamed for the wrong things.

This episode isn't eat more protein and here are some chicken breast ideas. It's the honest conversation about what happens when protein becomes the safe macro women cling to when everything else feels unsafe — and what happens when that approach collides with hard training.

In this episode Poppy breaks down why eating 160g of protein on 1,600 calories leaves no room for carbohydrates, why keeping protein high and adding carbs is calorie loading not carb loading, the difference between diet phase protein logic and performance phase protein logic, and why applying the wrong one to the wrong phase is why so many training women feel off despite doing everything right.

Covers: how much protein you actually need and how it changes by phase · the portion reality check (two eggs is not a high protein meal) · why a high protein breakfast is consistently the single highest leverage change Poppy makes with clients — and why the effect shows up within days not weeks · why protein before high intensity cardio is working against you · the luteal phase protein anchor · what happens to runners who keep protein high without upping carbs · protein pairing for plant-based women · and why red meat deserves a better reputation than it gets.

📩 Comment FUEL on Poppy's latest post for the full fuelling guide. Comment HYBRID for the hybrid training and fuelling framework. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

Will cardio decrease muscle mass? Should you do cardio before or after lifting? Does eating protein or carbs right after training promote muscle gain?

This question comes up almost every single week — and the anxiety behind it is real. Women who are running and lifting, worried the miles are eating into the muscle they've worked so hard to build.

The short answer is no. You don't have to choose. But the place where most women are getting it wrong isn't the training. It's the food. And specifically — the fear of eating enough to actually support both.

In this episode Poppy breaks down why undereating is the real reason most women aren't building the muscle they want, what body recomposition actually requires versus what the fitness industry tells you, why your body cannot build something from nothing when it's in survival mode, and what the research actually says about cardio and muscle - including the interference effect and when it actually matters.

Including the phone battery analogy for post-session glycogen that will change how you think about every session after a run, why the women who get the physique results they want are almost always the ones who had to eat more not less, and the one question to sit with this week that matters more than any session structure.

📩 Comment HYBRID on Poppy's latest Instagram post for the full hybrid training and fuelling guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

10,000 steps is everywhere. Every fitness tracker, every health app, every wellness article. And if you're a woman in structured training — running, lifting, doing both — it might actually be working against you.

In this episode Poppy breaks down where 10,000 steps actually came from (a Japanese pedometer marketing campaign from 1965 with zero scientific basis), why it's a useful target for some people in some seasons of life and completely counterproductive for others, and the two specific mistakes she sees training women make with step targets that are quietly stalling their progress.

Including why running steps count toward your daily total and are not a separate category, why forcing extra steps on hard session days and long run days competes directly with recovery, why using steps as a calorie-burning tool is diet culture logic dressed up as performance advice, and what step count is actually useful for measuring in a training context.

This isn't about shaming the 10,000 step goal. Context is everything. It's about understanding which season of training you're in and adjusting the target to serve your body — not a number invented for a completely different population.

📩 Comment FUEL on Poppy's latest Instagram post for the full running nutrition guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? Why does adding more sessions not seem to be working? Why do I feel better on rest days but guilty for taking them?

This episode came directly from the WhatsApp community — and it's one of the most important conversations Poppy has for women who train hard alongside a normal life. Because the fitness industry has sold the idea that more is always better. And for women doing hybrid training, that idea is genuinely causing damage.

In this episode Poppy breaks down what training volume actually means — it's not how many sessions you do, it's total stress load from all training combined — the difference between overreaching and overtraining and why most women don't recognise the latter until their body forces them to stop, the specific signs that your volume is too high, why women are disproportionately vulnerable to the consequences of chronic high volume, and what a properly structured hybrid training week actually looks like.

Including the stress bucket analogy that changes how you think about every area of your life, why the Lucy Davis comparison is setting you up to fail, and Poppy's honest take on her own training right now — and why she's pulling back during the gym build even when every instinct says push.

📩 Comment HYBRID on Poppy's latest Instagram post for the full hybrid training guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

If you train hard and struggle to sleep — this episode is probably going to be one of those ones where things click into place.

Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body. Most active women aren't getting enough of it. And the consequences show up as fatigue that doesn't fully clear, soreness that hangs around longer than it should, and sleep that doesn't feel restorative even when the hours are there.

In this episode Poppy breaks down exactly what magnesium does, why training women are specifically at higher risk of running low, and the three areas where it matters most — muscle recovery, sleep quality, and the luteal phase of your cycle.

Including Poppy's personal Garmin data on and off magnesium glycinate - the difference in deep sleep that made her stop treating this as optional. Plus why form matters more than most people realise, why magnesium oxide is a waste of money, and why stacking it in your morning supplements is probably the wrong time.

📩 Comment FUEL on Poppy's latest Instagram post for the full fuelling and supplement guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

This episode wasn't planned. It came directly from something Poppy has been living through over the past few weeks — doing everything right nutritionally and still bloated, heavy, retaining fluid she couldn't shift, with no explanation.

Until she realised the problem was never the food. It was her nervous system.

In this episode Poppy breaks down the vagus nerve and why it controls digestion far more than most people realise, why hard training women are particularly vulnerable to this — not because of what they eat but because of how their nervous system never fully shifts out of fight or flight, why chronic tension in your diaphragm and pelvic floor physically clamps your digestive system, how the lymphatic system connects to the puffiness and fluid retention that doesn't respond to food changes, and the full practical evening reset protocol that shifted 700 grams of fluid in half an hour.

This is not a wellness trend episode. This is neurophysiology. And if you've tried every food elimination going and still feel bloated, heavy and uncomfortable — this one is going to feel like it was made for you.

📖 Book recommendation: Gut Smart
📩 DM @poppy.nfc on Instagram or link in bio for coaching enquiries.

You nailed the session. But what happens in the next 60 minutes determines how the next one goes.

This episode is for women doing back to back training — running consecutive days, lifting after a long run, or doing any kind of hybrid programme where sessions stack up across the week. Because the most common reason the second session feels heavy from the first kilometre, or legs feel dead despite sleeping well, isn't fitness. It's glycogen that was never properly replenished after session one.

Poppy breaks down exactly what glycogen is and why it doesn't replenish itself just because you've stopped moving, the post-exercise window and why timing matters differently depending on when your next session is, what to actually eat and how much, why the 24 hour picture matters just as much as the immediate post-session snack, and why hybrid athletes — women doing both running and lifting — need to stop treating those sessions as nutritionally separate events.

Covers: the glycogen synthase window and why it closes fast · the 8 hour vs 24 hour vs 48 hour replenishment framework · practical food options that actually work post-session · why dinner the night before is part of tomorrow's training preparation · signs you're not replenishing properly · and why the run you do tomorrow is built on what you eat today.

📩 Comment FUEL on Poppy's latest Instagram post for the full fuelling guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.

The UK has finally decided to have a summer and your training is suffering for it. Your pace feels awful, your gym sessions feel like cardio classes, you're not sleeping and you can't figure out if your fitness has just completely fallen off a cliff.

It hasn't. You're just not adjusting for the conditions.

In this episode I break down exactly what's happening in your body when you train in the heat, why your heart rate is elevated before you've even done anything hard, why chasing pace this week is actively working against you, and why the sleep disruption from hot nights is compounding everything else in a way that makes the whole week feel harder than it should.

Covers: the cardiovascular dual demand that makes heat training so much harder, why heart rate zones matter more than pace right now, how to adjust gym sessions when the aircon is doing absolutely nothing, why plain water isn't enough when sweat losses are this high, the sleep piece nobody talks about and what it does to recovery, and how to keep fuelling when your appetite has disappeared.

This one applies whether you're in the UK heatwave or you live somewhere hot year round, UAE and Australia girls, this is for you too.

📩 DM @poppy.nfc on Instagram with any questions.