The Women's Running Podcast

This episode, Holly and I are chatting to Kate, who is not only our digital assistant on Women’s Running, but she’s also - very usefully – an F45 instructor AND a yoga instructor. And she runs! So she is perfectly place to answer all our questions about cross training, basically. Holly and I are a bit rubbish about doing anything other than running, and we know that cross training is the sensible...

In this episode Holly and I are chatting about running recovery and our experiences with diets. You find us in the middle of chatting about my new haircut, so sorry about that, but I included a bit because it segues brilliantly to a comment we’ve had on the podcast, as you’ll discover. We also talk about running through illness when you should actually be recovering. We talk about how we need to b...

In this episode we’re having a chat with Nell McAndrew, who just happens to be gracing the cover of our January issue right at this very minute. Have you got your copy yet? We are so chuffed to have bagged Nell on our cover - now you might remember Nell from back in the 90s when she transformed into Lara Croft and ended up on many a bedroom wall. But these days, she’s better known as a marathon an...

This week on the Workshop Holly and I are talking about this in-between week, the perineum of Christmas. We have a chat about sitting around in your pants watching The Two Ronnies, and getting up off your bum for a new year’s day run. We chat about the anxiety of thinking people are looking at us while we’re running, and general imposter syndrome. We get a bit philosophical in this episode, becaus...

Welcome to episode 71 of the Women’s Running Workshop, and we’re treating you to a bonus Workshop Pro episode just before Christmas. I’m your host Esther Newman, and in this episode Holly and I are on the receiving end of much wisdom from running coach Laura Fountain . Laura has worked with Women’s Running for YEARS. She writes a column every month for us, and she’s the brains behind all of our tr...

Welcome to episode 70 of the Women’s Running Podcast, and in this workshop Holly and I are on the countdown to Christmas. I start this one super hungover, so I use my delicate state to introduce the idea of running and booze. We talk about how covid has changed our drinking, with some big confessions on both sides – Hol and I are coming from very different angles on this. And we also talk about ho...

In this episode I have a chat with Suzanne Shaw. Yes, that Suzanne Shaw from Hear’Say. Suzanne is currently gracing the cover of Women’s Running – available now in actual shops – and she’s there for a reason. It’s not just because she was a member of a band that provided the soundtrack to some regrettable moments in my 20s. It’s because she made some very big decisions a couple of years ago that e...

Welcome to episode 68 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman, and this is another workshop with me and Holly. I’m not sure why we can even pretend to call this one a workshop, because basically we cackle pretty much all the way through it. So what we’re here to talk about is the massive secret joy that is that we’ve won an actual award – for this actual podcast! One we couldn’...

This week Holly and I have brought out the big guns to help us with our training for our half marathon next year, as we both have big goals. The big guns are Tina Chantrey. Tina is our Women’s Running Fitness Editor and she’s a running coach. She basically knows everything there is to know about running.  So we wanted her to come on to the podcast to throw loads of questions at her about our train...

This episode’s chat with Holly is very much a mixed bag. A game of three parts (is that a thing?) we talk about our running, then we talk about a bit of gear that we’ve been running in, and THEN we introduce a brand new feature in which we have a chat about an email we’ve had from a listener.  But first, we start with some general Covid chat, because I’m bracing myself for the onslaught and it’s a...

In this episode I speak to Carla Molinaro . Carla is a runner and adventurer of epic proportions – and even more importantly, if you read the magazine, you might remember her adorning the cover of our April issue this year. She first came to my attention in 2020 when she smashed the Land’s End to John O’Groats record by about 10 hours during lockdown. Turns out this wasn’t her first adventure by a...

In this episode we’re talking gear. And there’s a reason for this – We’ve just stumbled past Halloween, and you interrupt us having a giggle about that, and then next up it’s firework night, and before you know it, it’ll be Christmas. Don’t hate me for saying that. So if you’ve got some favours to pull in, it’s worth thinking about those big ticket items first, so you get exactly what you want on...

Welcome to Episode 63 of the Women’s Running Podcast. This is one of our hybrid episodes – it’s part workshop chat with me and Holly, and part chat with one of our favourite people to give us some advice. Our expert this week is the very lovely Anna Harding from the Running Channel. She’s been on here before – way back in the mists of time in episode 8. Check that out to hear all about how she sta...

In this episode Holly and I are talking about parkrun. Yes, we actually went after talking about it for months. After a bit of an early start, and some not inconsiderable nerves, we got Holly through her very first parkrun – and only my second since lockdown lifted, so it felt very new to both of us. We talk about our experiences, but most specifically Holly’s – how she found the course, the exper...

In this episode, I speak to Nikki Love , runner, adventurer and menopause goddess. I  love talking to women who speak frankly about their bodies and their experiences of the weirdnesses being female can throw at us, and Nikki does all of that and then some. We pile straight into the menopause, as Nikki’s experience is pretty grim listening, but also incredibly inspiring for those of us staring men...

It’s the 60th episode of the Women’s Running Podcast, and our 22nd Workshop. Goodness we’ve done a lot of podcasts! In this episode Holly and I have a lot to catch up on. We’re talking the day after the London Marathon and we have had ALL the feels about that iconic race, particularly because I didn’t get to run it as planned. We talk about how inspiring it is, how weepy it is, how nerve-wracking...

In this episode I speak to Elise Downing. I first heard of Elise when her brilliant book Coasting landed on my doormat. Elise is the youngest person ever to run the coast of Britain, and she has written a masterful memoir of that experience, detailing the literal and figurative ups and downs in the kind of voice that makes you want to go for a pint with her. What makes that feat even more remarkab...

Welcome to episode 58 of the Women’s Running Podcast, and the 21st Workshop. This time, Holly and I have an actual guest. And this has been a long time coming: Kate Percy has worked with Women’s running loads, she’s the utterly lovely brains behind Go Bites, those beautiful balls of loveliness that keep us going on long runs. I wanted us to talk to her, as I thought both Holy and I could do with a...

Welcome to episode 57 in which I speak to Sue Anstiss. Sue is one of the most passionate champions of women’s sport I think I’ve ever spoken to – and I’ve spoken to a lot of women who are passionate about it! As a founding trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust, co-founder of the Women’s Sport Collective, and CEO of Fearless Women , her over-arching ambition is to forge forward in terms of equality in...

Welcome to episode 56 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our 20th workshop. So in the spirit of full disclosure, this week it just wasn’t all about the running. If you’ve been following our workshops, you’ll know that it’s been a chequered summer in terms of our training, so this week we’re having a tiny bit of a break. Welcome, my lovelies, to the booze cast. Or the plonkcast. Or the booze pod –...

Welcome to episode 55 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m Esther Newman, editor of Women’s Running, and in this episode I speak to Rachel Ann Cullen. I was originally due to chat with Rachel two years ago at RunFestRun, but she was struck down with a nasty chest infection and it wasn’t meant to be.  Rachel is a runner, writer and author: her bestselling debut book, Running For My Life , describes...

Welcome to our 19th Workshop. I’m back chatting with Holly, digital editor of Women’s Running. We have some very big things to talk about in this workshop. Holly has had a grim time of it, but in true Holly style, was more than happy to talk about everything with me here. Obviously it’s not all grimness, because we do tend to stagger off at very peculiar tangents, so we start by chatting about the...

In this episode I speak to running royalty and three-time Olympian Eilish McColgan. Eilish is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth Finalist who has just returned from her third Olympics in Tokyo where she competed in the 5000 metre and 10,000 metre races. Eilish is an avid user of Polar , the world leader in wearable sports and heart rate technology. Polar are pioneers in wearable sports technology,...

My partner in running crime Holly is on holiday this week so in a small change to the advertised programme I talk to Kate Sellers, our digital assistant. Kate has been part of the women’s running team since January. She is a fitness enthusiast, a keen runner, a yoga teacher and an F45 instructor, so she’s pretty mega. But her journey with running and fitness has not been entirely smooth. Two years...

In episode 51 I’m speaking to the legend that is Nicky Spinks. Nicky was a cover star for Women’s Running on the issue before I started, so for me she has always been the one that got away. Not any more! Here she is chatting about her incredible running career so far. Nicky is one of the greatest fell runners of all time, if not the greatest. She set women’s records for the Ramsay Round (that’s 58...