In episode 51 I’m speaking to the legend that is Nicky Spinks. Nicky was a cover star for Women’s Running on the issue before I started, so for me she has always been the one that got away. Not any more! Here she is chatting about her incredible running career so far. Nicky is one of the greatest fell runners of all time, if not the greatest. She set women’s records for the Ramsay Round (that’s 58 miles in Scotland including Ben Nevis), The Paddy Buckley Round (that’s 65 miles in Snowdonia with 47 summits) and the Bob Graham Round (this is the Lake District one, and is 66 miles). She is the holder of the overall record for the double Bob Graham round and is the only person ever to complete doubles of the other two Rounds.

 She talks to me about how she got into running in the first place, how she trains for those crazy distances, and her experiences running those unheard-of challenges (pre-Nicky). She also talks about her experiences running the terrifying Barkley Marathons, and it sounds like she has some unfinished business there, so watch this space. And because along with being a farmer and running incredible distances, she’s also a coach, I ask her opinion on how we can all run well on the trails, and – crucially – I ask her what the best food to eat on an ultra is – spoiler: there’s a lot of pork pies. And I get her opinion on why she thinks women make such incredible ultra runners, and there’s a lot more running chat besides

 Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Simply enter WRPOD at the checkoutfor your discount. Happy running!

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We’re celebrating our 50th episode by chatting about random stuff with a bit of running thrown in, as ever. We’re a couple of weeks away from our 10K and half marathon races in the middle of August. Along with some highly relevant content about nice mugs to drink tea from, what we mainly talk about is race day nerves, and all the various worries we have that constitute that. So that’s worrying about our sluggish pace, and also worrying about what other people might think, as well as our concerns about actually going the distance. We talk about how to combat those nerves, how to be confident in our own training, and how to dampen down our inner negative voices. Also, as we both agree, when we see other runners we think they’re brilliant – so surely, surely, other people think we’re brilliant too when they see us? I think this is true. We also talk about my many visits to the physio, ignoring his lovely and brilliant advice and somehow surviving anyway, I describe sciatica to Holly who is too young and flexible to understand what back pain is yet. And we also talk about love bites. Again, Holly is far too young to understand this very 80s phenomenon. Lucky her.

This episode is sponsored by Brooks, which is rather brilliant. Why? Cos not only have Brooks created Holly’s favourite running shoe, the Ghost 14, but they’re also giving us two pairs of Ghost 14s to give away! To you guys! The newly launched Ghost 14 now benefits from 100% DNA Loft cushioning for a super smooth ride, a segmented crash pad for seamless transitions, and 3D fit print technology in the upper, so the fit is absolutely spot on. All that means that they’re soft, responsive, smooth and fit like a glove. The Ghost 14 is also, get this, Brooks’ very first carbon neutral shoe, so it’s a very special thing indeed. To be in with a chance of winning one of two pairs, just answer a very silly question here. Find out more about the Ghost 14 here. 

Please hit like and subscribe – that way you won’t miss the next episode. Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Just enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Happy running!

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In this episode I speak to Jess Judd, British 5000m champion and soon-to-be Olympian. Jess is on the plane to Tokyo any minute now, I think, and I’m so excited about watching her race while she’s there – she’s due to be running the double: the 5000 metres and the 10,000 metres. She talks to me here about her modest start with running, her dad’s love of the sport, and how his enthusiasm was infectious. How she took to it like a duck to water, falling in love with both track and cross country. I ask her what it’s like to be picked for the Olympics, and how she trains for it given the demands of a very busy schedule: she’s also currently studying for a PhD, and she has the not insignificant task of planning a wedding alongside that. She tells me about that, about her thoughts on equality in cross country, how she gets used to race day nerves and performing in front of crowds, and what it was like to meet her hero Jo Pavey. Jess is sponsored by HOKA, so I also ask how that came about, and what kit she enjoys running in the most. She’s an extremely talented runner, and we can’t wait to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. Fingers crossed for Jess!

Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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In this episode, Holly has a bit of a confession to make. So we start off by talking about shifting our expectations with our running, and how that is perfectly okay – what’s not okay is pushing yourself so that you’re uncomfortable with your goals: these goals are supposed to be rewards for our training, not a stick to beat ourselves up with. We also talk about the bits of cross training we’re doing, and the wonderful Yoga with Adrienne. Then the big topic this episode is mental health. We chat about what running means to us both, in terms of supporting our mental health, and how it has helped us in the past. We also talk about how women can have a complex relationship with sport. For both of us, our love of running and exercise wasn’t fostered at school, and we both have bad memories of team sports in our teenage years, which I think can have a damning effect on many young (and older) women, preventing them from continuing sport after finishing school. We managed to find our love for sport, but many don’t – many are still trapped inside that little girl who was always picked last for netball. She is still very much part of me, so it’s joyful to be able to share that experience and realise that we’re not the only ones, and that one of running’s most meaningful benefits is in eradicating the sadness of those PE days: because us slow runners, us wheezy people at the back, it turns out we can run, and you know what? We’re good at it too.

 Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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In this episode I talk to Natasha Acres, the founder of Earth Runs. There are several brilliant things about Tash. First off, she’s the brains behind Earth Runs; this virtual running initiative plants trees according to the number of miles you run. And, if you wish, you can further reward yourself with one of her truly original, and very magnificent seed bomb medals. Secondly, because this initiative is truly awesome, and because she managed to cobble together an entry at the very last minute, Tash is the hugely surprised recipient of the first Brooks Run Fund, which was launched earlier this year. This global initiative was set up to celebrate the power of running, with a fund to reward big ideas that benefit our communities and our environment. Something which Earth Runs literally does in spades. The fund that Tash won is $100,000. Obviously she is giddy with it. And she talks to me here about how and why she set up Earth Runs, what she’s going to do with the cash, and how she wants to continue spreading her very achievable message that we can all make a little bit of difference, that we can combine making those differences with our running, and that those differences all add up to a very big change. She is an inspiration.

And I do so love talking to women who have very appropriate names, don’t you? We’ve had Sophie Power, Mel Bound, Holly Rush – and now Tash Acres, with her brilliantly tree-focussed name. Not quite sure how I can top that – if you can think of anyone from the world of running that has a name that fits what they do, then let me know so I can add to my Mr Biff the Boxer list.

Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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Welcome to episode 46 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our 15th Workshop. We kick off this one by talking about Holly’s concerns about our upcoming half marathon. I do my best to allay her fears about coming last, and general anxiety about a smaller race, in terms of runner numbers. On the one hand it’s a bit of a relief not to have the pressure of so many people, but both of us are concerned about feeling a bit exposed. But we are determined to enjoy it, to take it slow, and to keep hydrated properly! We go off on a tangent (standard) and have a giggle about sweat and where exactly we all sweat from, which makes me go a bit pink, and then for some reason we go off on a mega tangent about tights. I really have no idea why.

But the main part of this podcast is to discuss periods: how the hormones, the mental upheaval and the sheer presence of them can affect our running, and what we do to combat those things. Holly is venturing back into the world of periods after having been on a contraceptive pill that meant she’s not actually had a period for some years now. So knowing this, I wanted to talk about that – and about our experience of hormonal contraception and how that has affected us and our running over the past years. And then what I really wanted to talk about was the practical side of things: what can people who have periods do to manage symptoms while out on a run. So we chat about some of the options available, and the things we prefer to do.

We also talk about how to run on a period while keeping an eye on the environment, and we talk about some of our favourite brands– not sponsored at all, just the ones we like, so I’ve listed those below. 

Hey Girl

Mooncup

Dame

BP3 pants

And if you’re at all interested in the thing I was blathering on about with the prostitute and the flowers, there’s this thing here.

(you see, I didn’t make it up!)

Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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In this episode I speak to Catherine Foster. Now, not many of you will know who Catherine is, but I bet a million quid that LOADS of you have enjoyed running in her race. Catherine works for the Great Run Company, and the flagship event that they organise is the biggest half marathon in the world, the Great North Run.

Pre-lockdown, I think a great deal of us took running events for granted – they were a fixture on our calendars, and something to look forward to and to motivate us. It never occurred to us how it might feel if they were taken away. Catherine talks to me here about how it felt from the other side of things: the uncertainty of the pandemic, the real struggle to keep the company going and to motivate the thousands of runners it supports. And events aren’t purely about us runners: events such as the Great North Run are vital in supporting charities through fundraising, and through supporting local businesses. So we chat about all of that, what Covid has done and how it’s changed the face of events forever. And we also talk about the launch of mass events too – the Great North Run was started up 40 years ago by Catherine’s dad, the legendary runner Brendan Foster. So running is literally in her blood, and her passion for the races they organise, the runners who do them, and the wider community is huge and palpable. Be inspired and listen in…

Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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Welcome to episode 44 of the Women’s Running Podcast and our 14th workshop. This episode is our virtual Vitality 10K debrief: we’ve got a LOT to unpack here. We talk about our 10K, and annoyingly listening back to this I say that we “failed”. We didn’t fail, we did the damn thing, but we didn’t do what we promised ourselves we would do. So we chat about that and tactics to avoid lying to ourselves in the future. The big discussion point here is that we’ve got a half marathon coming up on 15th August and we need to give ourselves a big talking to, and we need to prep properly for what will be a warm race. So I introduce training using heart rates: specifically training in zone 2 of our heart rates. And this makes us both feel better, because – basically – it sounds easier, but clever science means it’ll make us better runners! Hurrah! 

Here’s the science bit. The common calculation used to determine your maximum heart rate (MHR) is 220 minus your age. So a 35-year-old runner would have a MHR of 185. A more recent equation is [208 – (0.7 x age)]. For a 35-year-old runner, this works out as 183.5.

Once you have your maximum heart rate, you can use this to determine the training zones you should be trying to stay within on your runs. 

●     Zone 1: Very light, 50% to 60% of MHR - Recovery runs

●     Zone 2: Light, 60% to 70% of MHR - Easy runs

●     Zone 3: Moderate, 70% to 80% of MHR - Longer tempo runs

●     Zone 4: Hard, 80% to 90% of MHR - Interval training

●     Zone 5: Very hard, 90% to 100% of MHR - Very short intervals

A well-rounded training programme should see runners working in all training zones at different points in their week, but with the majority of their training done in zones 1 and 2. Zone 2 runs use predominantly slow twitch muscle fibres whereas a faster run will start to use fast twitch fibres. Slow twitch muscle fibres are full of mitochondria (your cell power banks) and capillaries, this means that the muscle gets a better blood flow and with training becomes more efficient at using this extra oxygen supply as energy. Plus it reduces chances of injury. A fitness tracker or smart watch should help you immeasurably here, if you have one. 

Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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In this episode I speak to Becca Burns, otherwise known as This Bunny Runs. Becca is an ASICS FrontRunner and an all-round running ambassador. I first met Becca way back in 2019 at RunFit in Liverpool, but everything has changed since then – including all the things she loves. Back then she was an ardent road runner, and was just about to take on the Liverpool marathon. Shortly after I spoke to her there, however, she made the move into diversifying her sporting loves, embracing both trail running and triathlon with her trademark enthusiasm. She talks to me here about her giant bunny, and how she fell in love with running twice. She talks about how her motivations have changed, how she got into cycling and then into triathlon, and she discusses her nail-biting attempt to nab a sub-4hr marathon time. She also tells me how she made the move from road to trail – I love her quote here: “if you think running is good, trail is next level”. I also ask her to persuade me – the coldest woman in the world™ – to take up cold water swimming, something that so far eludes me. Apparently it’s all about the hot chocolate afterwards. What Becca does best is to joyfully celebrate what her body is capable of, and in turn encourage us to do the same. What an awesome woman.

You should totally become a member of Women’s Running. For one thing, Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. And, more than that, you’ll be one of us, which is priceless. Enter WRPOD at the checkout for your brilliant discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

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This is our 13th workshop, and in this one Holly and I talk about one of our favourite subjects: running kit! I wanted to chat about what we’re going to be wearing for the virtual Vitality 10K, and in the course of that discussion just chat about our favourite bits and pieces, and what we’re going to be investing in next. We’ve both learned so much over the last few years in terms of the kit and shoes that work for us – in a surprise move even for her, Holly comes out and confesses that she actually needs support shoes, only just realising that she’s been running in that type for the past year. Both of us talk about running in old favourites, so while I’ve added everything here that we’re running in that I can – some of them are things we’ve been running in for ages, so the links are to newer things and not the exact items that we have now. I can’t eulogise enough about my Brooks top, which is ancient, but everything about it – the softness, the arm length, the collar - is aces. However we’re going to be running in the sun unexpectedly this week, so I may need a rethink on the top front. We also talk – at length, this is us after all – about how running pants are now a thing, and more important than you might think. We discuss the true evil of the cotton knicker (Holly has the scars to show for why running in those is not a good idea). And we chat about running commando, which neither of us have ever done, neither of us like the sound of, and both of us revert to children in this part of the discussion, rather than the mature adults we’re supposed to be. 

 You should totally become a member of Women’s Running. For one thing, Podcast listeners can claim the best discount we have for membership to Women’s Running, which is 35% off. That’s less than £2.95 a month! And for that you get our brilliant magazine, and you also get loads of money off the sorts of stuff you love, like lovely kit, nutrition and class memberships. And, more than that, you’ll be one of us, which is priceless. Enter WRPOD at at the checkout for your brilliant discount. Come and join Women’s Running – we’d love to have you with us!

 The kit we mentioned here are:

Saucony Endorphin Speed

Superfeet inner soles

10L Hydration pack

Precision Hydration

BP3 pants

Runderwear bra

Brooks Adrenalin GTS 21

Decathlon running leggings

(And they are made with 87% recycled polyester as I suspected!)

Kalenji Run Dry T-shirt

Hydration pack

Maaree Bra

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