And the latest 2 week report of me trying to get fit(tish) again The first week I’m going to discuss was a bad one. Whilst my job in itself is generally low-stress, when things happen ..read more

As I’ve mentioned on the blog previously, my work schedule is skewed towards the school holidays. As such, with July ending it’s all hands on deck (well, both hands anyway) as I have to navigate ..read more

I’m trying to maintain a routine of updating where I’m at with the “training plan” I’m following courtesy of Garmin. (Let’s just pretend that bit is going well and that I’m not a month out ..read more

Running Challenges, by Keri Wallace is a recently published book from Vertebrate Publishing. They sent me a copy to have a read through and review on the website. Running Challenges: 100 of the best runs ..read more

The spring of 2024 was pretty heavy going dealing with a variety of issues, both within running and within life in general. It was therefore nice to get away for a couple of weeks to recharge. Given I’ve recently celebrated a significant birthday I decided to spend this time on Cunard’s newest cruise ship, the Queen Anne, as she visited eight ports in and around the Baltic Sea. As well as bit of sightseeing, my road trainers came along for the ride as I wanted to try to incorporate a bit of running whilst I was away. Smashrun always notes “firsts” and so the opportunity to grab a few new coun ..read more

As with any planned project, things haven’t gone as smoothly as I might have hoped. My plan was to follow the prompts on my Garmin as they came on each morning and monitor how my fitness changed. As far as Garmin was concerning itself, the rough plan involved a good 10ish weeks of base training before ramping up into any sort of actual training plan. Which of course makes sense having effectively not done any focused training this side of the pandemic due to all the various breakages along the way. So i was quite surprised and, dare I say, excited when Garmin set its first speed session, after ..read more

In my last post I noted that I was going to try to follow the suggested workouts that the Garmin ‘algorithm’ created in order to propel my fitness level forward from where it was languishing at the end of May 2024. That’s the hope anyway. With no plan to run any races any time soon the brief is actually quite straightforward. What I am liking about it is that it’s giving me an external goal outside of anything major. And as it is set up based on set paces, in many ways it gamifies the training such that I actually do what I’m supposed to do, rather than running to what feels ‘normal’ and gener ..read more

Smart Running is the latest book by Jen & Sim Benson. Released in 2024 by Vertebrate Publishing the book takes a look at the technical aspects of running, but in a manner that is understandable to all runners, rather than those already well versed in the detail. Vertebrate kindly sent me a copy to read and review for the website and whilst this was provided to me, my review is independent with the publisher only reading it at the same time as everyone else. As a running coach, I have plenty of books on the shelf relating to different aspects of training theory. They are, on the whole, pret ..read more

I’ve not had a huge amount to get me writing so far in 2024. So it’s time for a catch-up now that we’re headed out of February already. As you’ll see below I’ve made some changes to the website to align things in a slightly less irrational manner (I mean, who knew!) but the intention is a lot more running-focused content, even if the amount of running I’m able to do is limited. So, in no particular order, here we go…… Running matters The weather has been somewhere between terrible and off-putting and, coupled with a cough that just won’t go, and a gammy foot acting in a similar vein my running ..read more

It’s safe to say that every runner has a very different story. And this is borne out whenever one reads a runner’s “biography”. I’m struggling for the right word here because some of the books focus on a specific event / period whereas others, such as Allie Bailey’s book, follows a much more autobiographical approach. Vertebrate Publishing sent me a copy of the book to review for this website. My review is my own words and haven’t been “approved” by anyone else prior to publishing It is  for a good reason too, as Bailey’s story is very different to many of the other books out there. The o ..read more