The Women's Running Podcast

Welcome to episode 150 of the Women’s Running podcast. Esther Newman and Holly Taylor, your hosts, begin this episode talking about parenting guilt, self care, trying to impress our other halves with taking the bins out, and feminism. 10K training We also talk about training for a 10K . Holly is concerned it might be harder than a half – as it’s supposedly faster than a half marathon. And she’s ne...

Welcome to episode 149 of the Women’s Running Podcast, hosted by Esther Newman and Holly Taylor. We have a lot to talk about this episode, not least a bunch of unrelated stuff about online shopping and game shows that we’ve packed off into an extra podcast for everyone on the Cheer Squad tier on Patreon (patreon.co.uk/womensrunning). Coming soon! 80/20 running For the rest of us, we’re talking abo...

Welcome to episode 148 of the Women’s Running podcast. Because it’s pretty hot right now, and layers are being discarded, we launch into body positivity – or at least the wish for body neutrality that we both want.   Slow running We’re also still talking about slow running, as that’s been a topic of interest since our last podcast. Esther has attempted to follow an 80/20 plan this past week,...

Welcome to episode 147 of the Women’s Running Podcast. We get straight into it this week with a spot of imposter syndrome, which is something both Esther and Holly feel a *lot*, especially when it comes to running. Slow running We then charge into the idea of slow running and how it can affect our pace and endurance and our health much more positively than the usual running we do, which tends to b...

This episode is brought to you by the triple whammy that is hot running, half term juggling and booze. Running in the summer Now that the sun's out, we talk about sunscreen and sweat, and finding the elusive sun block that doesn’t sting. We also talk about dehydration in the heat, and how to prevent that, which brings us neatly to our next point. Running and alcohol We talk about managing moderate...

Welcome to episode 145 of the Women’s Running podcast. We start this issue talking injuries ! A runner’s favourite subject, right? Running injuries We’re chatting about all the injuries that we’re suffering from, and most of them have been on Esther’s hit list: from runner’s knee to ITB irritations, weird toe things, and a pulled quad. Plus, also, as ever, lower back issues. A catalogue of running...

Welcome to episode 144 of the Women’s Running Podcast with your hosts Esther Newman and Holly Taylor. In this episode, we delve into various topics, including Eurovision, running injuries , mental health, weight and running , and finding the balance between gentle and punishing running practices. Eurovision Debrief We start with Eurovision, because that’s the way we roll. Yes, we’re going to talk...

In this episode, we’ve moved on from training for a marathon , to recovery from that marathon , and ploughed straight into injuries . Injury prevention Esther has got a catalogue of them, and what we’re discussing here is, is it common to fall prey to injuries once you’ve completed a marathon – not in your training block, and not on the day itself, but afterwards, when you’re slowly beginning to s...

In episode 142 of the Women’s Running Podcast, Esther and Holly talk about recovery and finding new joy in exercise regimes. It’s a week after the London Marathon , and this episode is a load more joyful than episode 141, because Esther is no longer in huge physical and emotional pain! We talk about running and routines and how we discover ourselves again after we’ve achieving huge running goals l...

It’s time for the London Marathon debrief. At time of recording, it’s the morning after the day before, and Esther feels a bit broken. London Marathon and recovery We need to talk about marathon recovery here, which we’ll go into more next episode of the Women’s Running podcast, bearing in mind how blue many of us will feel in the days after a big race, for so many reasons. Periods and hormones An...

Welcome to episode 140 of the Women's Running Podcast, hosted by Esther Newman and Holly Taylor. In this episode, we discuss Holly's exciting weekend and hanxiety which leads us to talk about our usual state of generalised anxiety in the face of challenges, especially with the London Marathon just around the corner. London Marathon Taper and Dealing with Anxiety Esther shares her nervousness about...

Today, we’ve got a couple of things to get off our respective chests, running-wise. We talk about how running with other people can be “unexpectedly good” for those of us who tend not to. We also chat about time management and my favourite topic, emotional load. You can get a lot more of this sort of thing if you subscribe to Women’s Running magazine btw, currently with a stupendous offer of 3 iss...

I start with the chaos in my life at the moment, and because that’s included a trip to A&E, I have a little weep within about five minutes. While it isn’t directly running related, it is something I wanted to talk about in the context of the emotional mental load that women so often carry. I’d be really interested to hear what you think about with. But It’s an important topic to discuss becaus...

Welcome to episode 137 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. We’ve got a lot to get through this episode, not least because of the reaction to my controversial parkrun comments last episode, so of course that means we spend the first 20 minutes discussing Oodies for kids and British Summer Time. London Marathon Then we truck on with s...

We launch into this episode with a dabble in what Holly’s been doing with her running, but then swiftly into a controversial topic: and that’s parkrun . And we want to know what you think: do you love it? Or are you a little more ambivalent? Parkrun ponderings Don’t get me wrong here, we both know how brilliant parkrun is, it’s bloody wonderful and it has singlehandedly persuaded countless people...

This episode is all about recovery ! I ask Holly what she’s been doing to recover from the Paris Half and, without consulting a single google search, it sounds like Holly is doing all the best things. Resting up She’s doing exercise for the fun of it, rather than for a goal, and she’s also been eating and drinking for pleasure and whenever she damn well wants. The trick here, however, is to view y...

This is a very special episode indeed, so it makes sense to release it on International Women’s Day. To be fair, in a roundabout way, we celebrate women in every episode, but this one has real significance. Pod goes live We recorded a portion of this episode live in front of an actual audience. This was in Paris, an hour or so after we ran the Paris  Half Marathon  with 50 Pod Squad list...

In this episode we’re covering everything from anxiety and post-covid concerns to half marathon techniques and long run disasters . Paris half marathon New coffee addict Holly is buzzing about caffeine, but also about our Paris half marathon coming up in just a few days. We’re both enormously excited, but also extremely nervous. Holly’s training isn’t where she’d like it to be, so we figure out so...

Holly opens this pod giddy with a recent purchase – while I’m not entirely positive that she’s target market, I am absolutely NOT judging. Jeffing Moving on to actual running, Holly has made the decision that she’s going to definitely walk/run Paris , and all her confidence has come back in droves, in no small part due to all the messages she received after the last episode. She had been feeling s...

Welcome to episode 131 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. This episode is all about illness and recovery , because Holly is firmly in the doldrums, in terms of her physical training, but also her overall health and the impact that’s having on her mental health. Running therapy So it turns into a bit of therapy session between us, to...

Welcome to episode 130 of the Women’s Running Podcast, sponsored by  Runna . Holly is talking health and  mental health . Both have taken a bit of a pounding over the past month and it’s overwhelmed her  training  and exercise schedule, no matter how hashtag-be-kind she’s been to herself. Menopause I’ve had a big old  menopause symptom  and it’s made me feel like SHIT...

Welcome to episode 129 of the Women’s Running Podcast. This week, we are sponsored by Runna . We have a LOT to talk about today. We’ve got to cover off  training for the Paris Half , insecurities about that training, motivations for running in the first place,  menopausal symptoms  and, lastly, figs. Half marathon training So first of all we chat about Holly’s  training for the...

Welcome to episode 128 of the Women’s Running Podcast – this episode is sponsored by Runna . We launch right into it, with some vegan nonsense, but then very quickly we move on to the National Running Show, which we attended at the weekend in Birmingham. We had an absolute blast, we saw so many of you Pod Squadders, and are just giddy with the happiness of it all. We talk here about just some of t...

This episode is again bought to you by the powers of Covid. I’ve picked it up for the first time, unfashionably late to the party as ever. Apologies here for covid coughing throughout. We talk through health anxiety, symptoms, and worrying about the unknown. We also have a chat about the guilt of missing out on training through illness. Veganism Moving on from covid, we talk about our ongoing expe...

Welcome to episode 126 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. This episode is our first chat since Christmas so we’re a bit giddy with it. Hol has had a bit of a cruddy start to the new year, and it’s mostly Covid based. It’s obviously knocked her training a bit, and she’s been worried about the Paris Half as a result – something I thin...