The E=MC2 of running

I've been training for a half marathon which is this weekend. However, I struggled with some of the runs, even the easy ones. This episode is about the final weeks of my training and my plans for the future

I started using the Runna app that is linked to Strava, I'm now in Week 5 and this episode reviews the app and how the training is going. 

I was listening to a different running podcast (can't always just listen to my own podcast!) and they were talking about using pickle juice to overcome cramp during a race. Now, personally, I thought this was a bit crazy so I decided to check to science literature to see if there was any evidence for it being effective and if there were any better cures. 

What is TID and does it matter? For this episode, I looked at an article from Sports Medicine ( https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-024-02137-7 ) called The Training Intensity Distribution of Marathon Runners Across Performance Levels. I wanted to know if I should be running slower and how much time I should be spending in each of the intensity zones. I'm not sure I got all the a...

My musings on the 2026 London Marathon and who won the battle of the super shoes.

This week I look at a paper about the effect of endurance training on natural killer cells  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-06057-y

If you think your training is going badly and you are just getting slower - don't worry, you are very unlikely to beat the world record for the world's slowest marathon

It seems that Lidl are now in the running shoe market. Is this the beginning of the shoe event horizon? Find out more in this week's podcast

Another week of training under my belt and I'm still getting slower not faster - what's happening? And how a German helped me see that it isn't all bad news.

After a bit of a layoff due to coughs and colds, I started training with some consistency again. In this episode, I share my running plan, how I have regained fitness and what I plan to do in the next few months. It's probably useful for anybody starting back running after a break or even starting running for the first time. The key is consistency and keeping going even if you don't seem...

Towards the end of September, I took part in a 100 mile cycle ride. I talk about the lessons learnt and how they apply to running. I also discuss my next big venture and the training that I have been doing. 

I took up a challenge to cycle 100 miles from our village in Cambridgeshire to Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. So, now I'm in training, but this time on the bike. In this episode, I look whether there are advantages of cycling for running. Will cycling make me a faster runner? Will cycling make me fitter? Also, I got an email from podcast.feedspot.com saying that this podcast features in the...

I downloaded a training plan while I was on the paid version of Strava and found it surprisingly useful and motivating. So, in this weeks episode, I talk about my training plan, my tips for things that should be in a training plan and how a training plan can really help you to progress in your running. 

I decided to give Strava Premium a go during April, it was partly because I was aiming to run 100 miles during the month to raise money for our church hall and partly because I wondered what I was missing out on. In this episode I talk about some of the benefits of having a premium subscription and how I found the month as a subscriber. 

With the London Marathon tomorrow, I was reminded of the year when I ran the marathon but really struggled because of hay fever. I didn't really recognise what the problem was at the time but with a high tree pollen count again this year, I wondered whether there was anything in the scientific literature about running and hay fever, this episode is about what I found out. 

In this episode I discuss the advantages of quality sunglasses (and other running gear) and whether it is worth investing in this type of kit

This episode is based on a paper published in  Current. Sports Med. Rep. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20463502/ . I discuss the various factors that are reported in this nice review about prevention of running injuries. You might also like to listen to another podcast series that I'm doing with our running club called the Warriors Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-warriors-...

Although I haven't done a podcast for a while, I have still been running, although not racing. This is an update on my successes and disasters over the past few months.

After a bit of a break, I'm back with details of how my 10k went, what I've been up to and a bit of a book review. 

You may have noticed that the weather has been a little warmer than normal this past week. I wondered if there really was an effect on performance with increased temperature. To be honest, I've tried to run before the sun is at its strongest, but sometimes that isn't possible. I found a nice paper in physiology reports that looked at the effect of temperature on running and I talk about...

Wondering what to do now the Olympics are over? You might have been inspired by some of the performances but left with a sense of what next?! Over the next few weeks I'm going to be training for an important 10k in the New Forest, it isn't important in running terms but it in in personal terms as I will be running in memory of my friend, Alex. Please support me if you can and follow me o...

In spite of the fact that the furthest run this year has only been around 7 miles, I foolishly thought it would be a great idea to enter a 10 mile race. Here's my view of how it went. 

This Saturday was the North West Road Relays in Heaton Park in Manchester. It was a great event, this is a report about how it went and some thoughts on running relays. 

It was the final week of our Parkrun challenge and the theme was 'run like a Kenyan'.  If you want to support the club in Kenya then the is the link  https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Elgon-running-club?utm_term=WnX2B4kJR

Just a short update on this week's Parkrun challenge - crazy hair. Instead of my normal Parkrun location of Birkenhead Park, I ran in Cambridgeshire at Wimpole Estate Parkrun, so I was the only one with crazy hair. Also an update on our amazing athletes competing in various events around the world