Run Better with Ash

You’re all set for the new year. You have your goals. You have your new running gear. You’re ready to hit the road or the trails, but you wonder which is the best way to track your progress throughout the year. What would a running coach advise me to track? Should I just use Strava or the couch to 5k app? Should I book a VO2 max test? Shall I do timed laps on a track? Shall I run a kilometre as fa...

It’s the end of 2022 already! The focus is now on 2023 and how we can become a better version of ourselves next year. People make New Year’s resolutions. They go on diets, join the gym, drop the chocolate, go alcohol free for a month, start a meditation practice, buy some new trainers and get back into running. Everyone you talk to has something they would like to work on in 2023. To give you a cl...

You’re starting to notice a pain in the lower leg in the shin. The pain starts with a little ache when you run. You think to yourself ‘it’s nothing serious, I’ll ignore it’. Another couple of weeks of running adding lots more stress to the lower leg, you’re now noticing the pain developing into a sharper more painful sensation. Almost tender to run. The worst case scenario is you continue to run t...

Have you ever suffered knee pain on the outside of your knee? It’s estimated that up to 50% of women and 81% of men have suffered this pain. The cause of this issue… IT band syndrome. As is usually the case with this series of episodes, IT band syndrome is a fairly common overuse injury in runners. Resulting from weaknesses in the body and working the tissues further than their capability over a p...

If you plan to start upping your mileage then you are putting yourself at greater risk of injury. What can you do to reduce your risk? In this series of podcast episodes I am covering common running injuries and looking at ways we can prevent them before they ever become a problem. In this episode I’m looking at an injury that is associated with increasing your training volume, Achilles Tendinopat...

Varying statistics tell us that between 70-85% of runners get injured every year. Common areas of the body get injured and sometimes those injuries are recurring for a good portion of those runners. The injuries range from running too fast, weaknesses in muscles, tendon injuries, impact injuries, overuse injuries, injuries caused by lack of rest and recovery, injuries caused by our footwear, runni...

If you're not familiar with yoga, it is an ancient practice that involves poses that are said to unite the body and mind. Modern yoga has evolved into lots of different varieties. Some are more authentic to the original practice and others are wildly different and quite gimmicky. I teach and practice mindful yoga which encourages us to learn about our mind and body through yoga poses and dynamic m...

One of the most common ways to cause an injury or get ill is to do too much, too soon. Whether you're a beginner, intermediate or advanced runner. Suddenly adding more volume or intensity into your weekly schedule is excess stress on the body. Your body can cope with progressive overload NOT aggressive overload. In this episode I will share with you what is too much and how you can recognise what...

This episode is a very important one if you run to live a longer life. My purpose for running and exercising is to live a healthy long life so I decided to do some research on what is the optimal amount of runs, how many hours and what intensity should we be running at to gain these longevity benefits.  The results were surprising. It confirms the 'More is NOT better' principle that a lot of...

Skipping your warmup could lead to an injury or a lack of performance as your body is not fully prepared to run. In this episode I will guide you through a short warmup that you can do before your run to ensure your READY TO RUN!  Don't skip your warmup, its one of the most neglected parts of the run. SHARE this episode with a friend! LET'S TALK... One-to-one Running Coaching (online/ in-pers...

Why film yourself Running? How to do it? What to look out for? Is an episode that will help you Run Better by learning about your running style, what stands out and what you can work on.  This is a great practical episode that I encourage all runners to do regularly as it normally becomes quite a revealing activity. Something always stands out, something that the runner wasn't even aware of....

A new feature I'm adding to the podcast is regularly taking about books that I think you should read. These books will have helped me in some way understand myself along my journey so I'm certain that you will benefit from reading them too. In this first BOOK episode I talk about 'Why you should read The Chimp Paradox! How will it help you? What I learned from it?' This book was written by Profess...

Do you suffer from a lack of self-belief in your running, maybe you feel like others are way better than you, maybe you run for other reasons that the runners you know don't understand or relate to or maybe you know someone that is super fast and an amazing runner and this makes you feel like you're not a runner. This episode is all about developing a healthy mindset around your running. Understan...

In this episode I discuss Cadence, what it is, why it's important and what is the optimal cadence when we are running. Cadence is the amount of steps we take per minute or SPM. Cadence naturally varies from runner to runner and can be anywhere from 160-195 SPM. Cadence also varies with the speed we run at, the terrain we run on, the incline or decline we run on and the weather conditions.  I'...

In this episode of the podcast 'Optimal body position: How to Run properly!' I talk about how our running form effects the movement of your body as you run.  There are 2 distinct phases in running: Stance phase and Flight/Swing phase. What we do in Stance phase dramatically influences what happens in flight phase. The longer we spend flying forwards the better. I break down the phases of runn...

In this episode of the podcast titled 'Transitioning to Barefoot/Minimalist shoes: How to do it properly...' I discuss the pitfalls of transitioning from cushioned or maximal cushioned running shoes to barefoot or minimalist style shoes.  I made lots of mistakes when making the transition and it cost me almost a month of running. I had to take a break and let my body recover from the very fas...

Stiff, tense arms that don't move in coordination with the rest of your body are slowing you down! Let your arms run too! Running is a whole body movement not just a legs exercise.  In this episode I talk about the importance of our arm swing and what we can do to improve it. LET'S TALK... One-to-one Running Coaching (online/ in-person) message or follow: Email: ashfoster1983@gmail.com Follow...

In the last episode I spoke about how we can. reduce our risk of injury or illness. If we do get ill or injured we can reduce the length of time we are out of action by following some simple tips. These tips will have you back running quicker. One key point is to be patient when you are ill or injured and bounce back bit by bit. LET'S TALK... One-to-one Running Coaching (online/ in-person) message...

One of the most frustrating things we face as runners is the dreaded time out through injury or illness. I get so annoyed not being able to run so I try to follow these rules to help me stay running strong and avoid injuries. I encourage all of my clients to follow these rules so they are definitely going to help you reduce your injury risk. LET'S TALK... One-to-one Running Coaching (online/ in-pe...

The world has gone data mad. I'm guilty of looking at every data point on Strava, we all do it. What we all could do a lot better is to learn to feel our own 'data points'. The information that we get from our central nervous system is real time. We can tune in and feel whats going on and learn to adapt as we run. This helps you self coach. You become a better runner because you can feel what is h...

Simple things are often the best. If you like to keep things simple in your running training then look no further than the 4:4 method which is incredibly simple yet powerful in it's results. Big gains can be made from this simple training method. I will discuss the details of the gains, the method and what to consider. LET'S TALK... One-to-one Running Coaching (online/ in-person) message or follow...

Tight hamstrings are very common in runners for a number of reasons which I will explore in this episode. I will talk about what we can do to warmup our hamstring effectively, what to do to build flexibility in this area and how we can improve them with proper recovery mobility work. From your personal podcasting running coach! LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK... One-to-one Running Coaching (online/ in-...

In this episode of the podcast I will give you 3 hill training sessions that you can do that are going to improve your running in numerous ways. These are 3 of my favourite hill running sessions that I do with my clients weekly. We see huge gains with these sessions so give them a try and let me know what you think to them. Get a pen and paper ready to write the sessions down. From your personal p...

We sit on our glutes, a lot! This weakens them and causes lots of issues with our running if you have weak and inactive glutes. Learning to activate your glutes will help your power, your hip stability and your lower back.  In this episode I talk about what glutes are, how to activate them and why you would want to and the exercises you can do to get better glute activation. From your persona...

We compare ourselves to others everyday. Lately my running clients have been comparing themselves and their running times to the elite athletes that have been watching during the athletics we have had recently. In this episode I will discuss how to switch our mindset and maximise our mental energy for our own benefit, not to work against ourselves and create more negativity. As I've spoken about i...