As winter approaches, your spring marathon may still seem a long way away. You won’t need to start training for it until December or January, right? Wrong. What you choose to prioritise in your training right now can make a huge difference not only to your marathon training cycle, but to your performance at the marathon itself. Many runners focus on pounding the pavement and logging miles or kilometres, but is there a key aspect to your training that you can start right now? Strength training for marathons is the best thing you can prioritise right now for your spring marathon. Bullet proof yo ..read more

Since starting canicross and qualifying as a canicross trainer, people frequently ask my advice about running with dogs. Here I have condensed all those frequently asked questions about running with your dog into what is hopefully a succinct article. I hope you find it useful if you are keen to begin running with your dog safely. What is canicross? Canicross is the sport of cross country running with dogs.  In canicross, dogs wear a running harness, and we attach them to a waist belt that we wear via a bungee lead. Canicross can be run with one or two dogs, always attached to the runner ..read more

As a runner, the prospect of airing my feet over summer is always a terrifying one. Not for me, but certainly for those observers who have to witness blisters, and missing or black toenails. I was offered a pair of OOFOS to try, so I jumped at the chance. I’d heard good things about how comfortable they were from other runners in my network. I was very excited to try a pair out. I chose the Women’s Ooriginal in the brightest colour, just to draw attention to my running-battered feet all the more! OOFOS do also come in a slider version if you don’t like the thong style, useful if you wear compr ..read more

parkrun tourist at Clumber parkrun with some Witham Runners It has come to my attention that I am a parkrun tourist. How does this happen, I hear you ask? How do you unwittingly become a parkrun tourist? Visiting Gainsborough parkrun as a parkrun tourist with some club members The beginning I began running at parkrun when our, then local, Newark parkrun opened in 2013. Until then I had never even heard about parkrun. I didn’t go very regularly then, because our daughter was only a few months old. Our ability to get up and out of the house ready to start running at 9am depended on what ..read more

We run because we enjoy it, right? If you don’t have a particular race to train for, you might be thinking, “Why do I need a training plan?” Sometimes, a lack of focus in our running can cause us to lose consistency and motivation. When life gets busy, it’s easy to drift from run to run without any forward planning or commitment. This can have a negative impact on our running. On the other hand, if we’re really enjoying our running, we may over train and be at risk of injury. This is why a training plan is so important. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider a training plan, even if y ..read more

I get asked a lot by clients which running bras I recommend, so I was excited when MAAREE asked me if I would like to try their High Impact sports bra. It’s a brand I hadn’t heard of before, and believe me, I’ve tried a LOT. The MAAREE brand was set up by Mari Thomas, who has competed at national level in sport and after her career turned to sports bra performance testing under lab conditions, she found that her ultimate support didn’t exist, so decided to come up with a solution. The MAAREE sports bras have a distinctive Overband, which are designed to prevent upwards motion. Did you know our ..read more

I’ve never done this event, purely because it’s so local. I run these trails all the time, so it has always felt a bit pointless paying to run an event here. All the same, a few friends were running it, and I thought it would be nice to join them, so I signed up. The event starts on the lane next to the Bowling Green, on Horribin Lane, in Rivington. We couldn’t get parked along the dam as it was already busy, but there is plenty of parking around Rivington, and we managed to park just a few minutes walk away. Registration, in the car park of the bowling green, was simple and quick, with no qu ..read more

This time of year, many people are looking to longer distance spring and autumn goals, and wanting to improve their running endurance, whether that be completing your first 10k distance, marathon or even an ultra marathon, so I share my tips for getting to that start line. Plan your training Whatever distance you’re targeting this year, planning in your training sessions can be important for a number of reasons. Planning running into our week, rather than crossing our fingers and hoping we can fit it in, can help motivate us to get out there, and help us fit it in around the things life gene ..read more

People often ask me the best ways to improve their running form. Making changes to your form for no good reason however can sometimes lead to problems. If your current form isn’t causing you any problems or injury, here are some simple tips you might want to try first, before we begin to examine your form. Include speedwork While you might not want to train yourself to run faster, the faster you run, the more efficient a running form your body will adopt. When you increase your speed, you’ll see that your posture naturally straightens, your arms will begin to move, and your stride length will ..read more

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