Welcome to episode 71 of the Women’s Running Workshop, and we’re treating you to a bonus Workshop Pro episode just before Christmas. I’m your host Esther Newman, and in this episode Holly and I are on the receiving end of much wisdom from running coach Laura Fountain. Laura has worked with Women’s Running for YEARS. She writes a column every month for us, and she’s the brains behind all of our training plans. If you’ve torn one of these out of the mag in the last few years, you have Laura to thank for making it to the start line. We have a chat with Laura this time because we want her expertise to make us better runners. First of all, we find out how she started her running journey – which is comparatively recently – and how she got into coaching. I want all her advice on setting up my own running group, and Holly wants to know how to join a group without feeling nervous about being at the back. We then ask her about our goals and how to achieve them: Holly wants to make the time to run more regularly, and I want to know if I can run double A races in March (spoiler: I can’t). We’re going to be running one Workshop Pro a month with a revolving door of coaches, nutritionists and health experts – so do please drop us a line with any questions you might have.

Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And guess what, if you like this podcast, you’ll love Women’s Running magazine! If you join Women’s Running Plus right now, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. 

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Welcome to episode 70 of the Women’s Running Podcast, and in this workshop Holly and I are on the countdown to Christmas. I start this one super hungover, so I use my delicate state to introduce the idea of running and booze. We talk about how covid has changed our drinking, with some big confessions on both sides – Hol and I are coming from very different angles on this. And we also talk about how we are going to manage booze and running over Christmas, which can be a tough thing to do. The key phrase here is that we’re going to be kind to ourselves, and that we will be adjusting our expectations – because the run is the thing. Sometimes, we don’t need to be “in training” – sometimes it’s fine to just go for a run. Here’s a bit more guidance on booze, sleep and food.

There are some other things we’ve done to help our running, and one surprising thing is a bit of self care that Holly suggests (a good idea for a Christmas present for a runner). But this is on the proviso that you don’t mind wearing paper pants. So it’s definitely not one for me! 

I also have a big announcement to make at the end of the podcast, with a very exciting race to look forward to in the new year. Thanks to Sports Tours International for that one... By the way, Hol drops the F-bomb in this one: you have been warned.

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. Also if you join Women’s Running Plus in time for Chrimbo, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Or ask someone who loves you to do it for you!

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In this episode I have a chat with Suzanne Shaw. Yes, that Suzanne Shaw from Hear’Say. Suzanne is currently gracing the cover of Women’s Running – available now in actual shops – and she’s there for a reason. It’s not just because she was a member of a band that provided the soundtrack to some regrettable moments in my 20s. It’s because she made some very big decisions a couple of years ago that ended up being pretty life-changing. She gave up the booze, she embraced plant-based eating, and – guess what – she started running! But more than that, she rapidly went from couch to ultra, running for 19 hours, all by herself during lockdown, while raising money and awareness for the Samaritans. In her journey to that date, and ever since, she has thrown herself into the running community – and has discovered new passions that have enhanced her life immeasurably. Listen up to hear her story right now.

 Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. Also here’s a thing: it’s almost Christmas! Yes it is, there’s no point hiding from it. And if you’re searching for the perfect present, then we’ve got just the thing. If you join Women’s Running Plus in time for Chrimbo, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Or ask someone who loves you to do it for you!

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Welcome to episode 68 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and this is another workshop with me and Holly. I’m not sure why we can even pretend to call this one a workshop, because basically we cackle pretty much all the way through it. So what we’re here to talk about is the massive secret joy that is that we’ve won an actual award – for this actual podcast! One we couldn’t even begin to imagine we would win, so we are utterly thrilled. The award is the PPA Independent Publishing Awards 2021 Podcast of the Year. I know! We won it! Just with us rambling on about not much at all! So we are overjoyed about that: listen in to hear about how we celebrated last Friday... We segue from that seamlessly to how our running is going and how bad we both are at the eight-times table. We then introduce an email from a listener, so we spend a bit of time talking about what she’s told us, and that includes topics such as Covid, our immune systems, recovery and being kind to ourselves. Something specific to that email, but some key points that we can all learn from. Let’s be kind to ourselves.

Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. Also here’s a thing: it’s almost Christmas! And if you’re searching for the perfect present, then we’ve got just the thing. If you join Women’s Running Plus in time for Chrimbo, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout. Or ask someone who loves you to do it for you!

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This week Holly and I have brought out the big guns to help us with our training for our half marathon next year, as we both have big goals. The big guns are Tina Chantrey. Tina is our Women’s Running Fitness Editor and she’s a running coach. She basically knows everything there is to know about running.

 So we wanted her to come on to the podcast to throw loads of questions at her about our training, among which are – should we be aiming for a time for our next race, or should we just run for fun? How do we run a race without having that past time in our heads? And if we do run to get a PB, how on earth do we do that? The answer, it turns out, is by putting the work in – but none of it is that scary, but it does include everything you’d expect: intervals, tempos and hills. But Tina is a kind taskmaster, telling us that three runs a week is FINE, but just to make sure each one of them is right. And what’s more with our long run, to consider it as a mental health run, and take the pace right down – like right down. Pure running wisdom.

 Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.

 Find out more about Tina’s coaching.

Follow her on Instagram.

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This episode’s chat with Holly is very much a mixed bag. A game of three parts (is that a thing?) we talk about our running, then we talk about a bit of gear that we’ve been running in, and THEN we introduce a brand new feature in which we have a chat about an email we’ve had from a listener. 

But first, we start with some general Covid chat, because I’m bracing myself for the onslaught and it’s all I can talk about. Then we move swiftly on to running, in which Holly tries to distinguish between podiatry and orthodontics – it makes more sense when you listen in (I think). We also talk about me setting up my very own run group – and I need a name for it, that’s a bit better than Esther’s Harriers. Answers on a postcard please! Kit-wise, we talk through the very best bras and leggings we’ve been running in – great ideas for Christmas presents here.

And starting from this episode we wanted to include you a bit more – so we’re discussing an email we got in from a lovely listener based in New Zealand, who tells us about what running means to her. She also tells us how lovely the podcast is, and that seriously influenced our choice of email. Just saying.

You can get in touch with us and let us know what you think, or if you have any running questions – if we can’t answer them, I’ll get an expert to help us out.

More information about Crohn’s and Colitis right here.

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.

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In this episode I speak to Carla Molinaro. Carla is a runner and adventurer of epic proportions – and even more importantly, if you read the magazine, you might remember her adorning the cover of our April issue this year. She first came to my attention in 2020 when she smashed the Land’s End to John O’Groats record by about 10 hours during lockdown. Turns out this wasn’t her first adventure by a very long chalk. She tells me about her start in running, which actually came from triathlon, and how she found her running ‘niche’. She has loads of running advice for us here too, as happily she’s also a running coach who has a passionate belief in strength and conditioning for runners, and in fact runs a course that does exactly that – details below. She also tells me some of her adventuring stories, such as her ridiculous tapering plan before the Comrades, taking on the Lejog challenge with just 3 months training, and attempting an ultramarathon with a quiche tucked in her pocket. She also bigs up hill training - if you want to run faster, she says, run up hills, it’s the perfect way to become a better runner. 

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.

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In this episode we’re talking gear. And there’s a reason for this – We’ve just stumbled past Halloween, and you interrupt us having a giggle about that, and then next up it’s firework night, and before you know it, it’ll be Christmas. Don’t hate me for saying that. So if you’ve got some favours to pull in, it’s worth thinking about those big ticket items first, so you get exactly what you want on Christmas Day. And by that, I mean shoes and jackets. So this is us having a chat about the shoes we’re currently running in, and the jackets we’re wearing to keep the wind and rain away. Both these things are equally important right now – we need shoes that enable us to keep our mileage up during the winter, and jackets have suddenly become indispensable overnight. Like, what’s going on with the weather? Holly chats about her favourites and I talk about mine, and all the things we discuss are good – promise. We’ve run in everything, and really tested them to their limits, which is what we like to do here at Women’s Running. So if you’re on the lookout for that perfect running jacket that keeps you protected from downpours without making you clammy, then listen in!

Here are all the things we talk about:

New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v11, London edition £145

Brooks Hyperion Tempo, £140

Brooks Ghost 14, £120

HOKA ONE ONE Rincon 3, £105

Inov-8 Trailshell waterproof jacket, £127.50

Inov-8 Thermoshell Pro Insulated jacket, £210

Montane Spine waterproof jacket, £250

Showers Pass Cloudburst jacket, £175

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout for your exclusive Podcast shaped deal.

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Welcome to Episode 63 of the Women’s Running Podcast. This is one of our hybrid episodes – it’s part workshop chat with me and Holly, and part chat with one of our favourite people to give us some advice. Our expert this week is the very lovely Anna Harding from the Running Channel. She’s been on here before – way back in the mists of time in episode 8. Check that out to hear all about how she started running in the first place, and her journey from non-runner to running expert. In this episode it’s a game of two halves. I wanted to talk to her about her recent efforts to achieve a Boston Qualifying time, which was documented on the Running Channel – links to that are in the show notes, you must watch it. She definitely went on one of those journeys we talk about here so often, but has survived to tell the tale, and here she is to tell us all about it. And here’s a treat for you, I’ve asked Anna to tell us all about it in the January issue of Women’s Running, so remember to pick up that issue, when it’s out just before Christmas to read her story in full. It’s a perfect stocking filler fyi.

And then Holly and I want to pick her brains about winter running and how we motivate ourselves to get out there – and her tips here are nothing short of genius. Pants on the radiator for the win. This, and more super top tips are right this way. Just to forewarn you, Anna has a very beautiful dog called Ralph (who has his own Insta page by the way), who introduces himself to us fairly early on, and enjoys keeping us on our toes -  I decided to keep all his little barks in because he’s a beauty and deserves our support and affection.

Watch Anna’s attempt to Boston Qualify – be warned, it’s a weeper.

Follow Anna and Ralph!

 Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And as we’re firm friends now, so I think you should join us. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.

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In this episode Holly and I are talking about parkrun. Yes, we actually went after talking about it for months. After a bit of an early start, and some not inconsiderable nerves, we got Holly through her very first parkrun – and only my second since lockdown lifted, so it felt very new to both of us. We talk about our experiences, but most specifically Holly’s – how she found the course, the experience itself, and how she feels now. It turns out she was quite overwhelmed by it, in a good way, and loved the marshalls around the course, who cheered us on in such a lovely way that by the halfway point, she’d decided to volunteer herself! We talk about the caring nature of the volunteer team, getting lots of special claps (not a euphemism), Holly feeling “glowy”, and meeting an actual podcast listener at the end, which made it all feel very special indeed. We then have a bit of a chat about running more visibly now that the days are shorter – along with our own safety, we really need to be mindful of pedestrians as it can be a bit of a nasty shock if someone passes you unexpectedly, especially if they’re wearing dark clothing. Ban the black leggings till February! Coming up in a future episode, we’ll talk about the best winter kit to make sure you’re seen and warm

 This episode is sponsored by Marcy. The Marcy ME-702 upright bike is the deserving winner of the Women’s Running Editor’s Choice award in the cardio training category. With 13 different programs and 4 user settings, it’s perfect for every kind of gym bunny. You can pick one up today from Costco or Exercise.co.uk for only £399, where it’s also available on 0% finance.

 And if you love this podcast, you’ll totally love our brilliant magazine. If you become a member of Women’s Running right now, you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40 as well as our gorgeous mag delivered to your door once a month, all for just 39.99. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout for your exclusive offer.

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