Welcome to episode 30 of the Women’s Running Podcast. This is our 7th Running Workshop, in which I chat to Holly Taylor about our training ahead of our half marathon this weekend. We open this episode with the mother of all confessions in terms of that virtual half, so hang on to your hats. Mainly, though we talk about tapering, race day prep and a bit about recovery too. So we talk about Holly’s walk/run strategy, which has been brilliant and has worked fantastically for her, and we also talk a...
Mar 11, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 30
In this episode we speak to Lucy Hurn. Lucy is a personal trainer, a running coach and a triathlete, and she works with the fitness and wellness app Auro. I wanted to speak to her because she basically knows everything about running – she’s an absolute goldmine of running information. Now that Holly and I are coming to the end of our training for our virtual half marathon, I wanted to speak to a trusted running coach to ask her all our questions, and so that you could ask her your questions too....
Mar 04, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Welcome to episode 28 of the Women’s Running podcast: this is our 6th Women’s Running Workshop. In this episode, we’re getting closer to our half marathon start line, and we hear how Holly’s running has been going over the last four weeks – spoiler: pretty good actually. Endurance is coming on apace, but I obviously need to slap her wrists about the strength training, but I let her off the hook because runners always avoid strength and conditioning, so I just see it as Holly becoming a Proper Ru...
Feb 25, 2021•44 min•Season 1Ep. 28
In episode 27 of the Women’s Running podcast, we speak to Jo Pavey. Yes, Jo blooming Pavey. It’s difficult not to feel starry eyed about five-time Olympian Jo Pavey, but she instantly puts you at your at ease. She’s warm, lovely and super enthusiastic about running at all levels. She’s more than happy to offer advice to us amateurs and is keen to get us all out running. “Running is amazing!” she says, And she’s right. We talked to Jo on a chilly January day over Zoom. We start off by talking abo...
Feb 18, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Welcome to episode 26 of the Women’s Running podcast. This is our 5th Workshop, and this time we’ve got something a little different for you. In the last four workshops, you may have tuned in to hear Holly and me banging on about our running as we gear up for our virtual half marathon in March. We are still training for that and very much banging on about it – do please listen in to our next workshop at the end of Feb for our next exciting instalment. But in this episode we have a special treat ...
Feb 11, 2021•34 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In this episode we speak to Denise Stephenson. We had a chat at the end of 2020, just before the third lockdown came in. We discovered Denise by chance as the founder of the Emancipated Run Crew in South London, and fell in love with her passion for inclusivity and her joyous approach to running. Denise is, as we discover, busy . She is a solicitor by day, a profession that she only realised might have a place for her after a black lawyer came to speak at her secondary school. That experience, a...
Feb 04, 2021•43 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Welcome to episode 24 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our fourth Women’s Running Workshop. In this I speak to Holly Taylor, Women’s Running digital editor, about how her training for her half marathon is going. We’re both signed up to do a virtual half marathon in the middle of March, and we’re working together to make her feel confident and strong ahead of that. If you’d like to train alongside us, that would be great! Do please drop me any questions about your training, if you have any. In...
Jan 28, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 24
In this very special extra episode we speak to Eddie Izzard. Eddie is a big runner and a trans woman. She made headlines recently when her decision to use she/her pronouns came to light. We wanted to talk to her about her running experiences, and to demonstrate the inclusivity and support of our community. Last year, Eddie decided it was time to do something big, and she wanted to use running to achieve it. Throughout January 2021, under the banner of Make Humanity Great Again, Eddie is running ...
Jan 26, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Welcome to episode 22 of The Women’s Running podcast. In this episode we speak to relentlessly positive ultrarunner Holly Rush. Holly is the co-host of the Marathon Talk podcast with lovely Martin Yelling, she’s the Asics Frontrunner manager, an ASICS studio coach, and an online coach and mentor. As an ex-GB runner, she has represented Britain at the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. She talks to us here about how she discovered her talent for running, and her training for the G...
Jan 21, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 22
It’s episode 10, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast! This is our third Women’s Running Workshop. In this episode, Esther chats with Holly, the Women’s Running digital editor about her running, as she builds towards running a virtual half marathon in March 2021. If you’d like to do this with us, it would be great to hear from you – do please email Esther with any questions you have – address below. Over the next few workshops, we’re going to be chatting about how she’s going to increase her ...
Jan 14, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 21
In this episode, we speak to the very lovely Jenni Falconer, TV presenter, radio broadcaster and avid London marathoner. We had a chat last October, just before Halloween and the second lockdown kicked in. She was as charming as she sounds on the radio and on her podcast: enthusiastically talking about her great love of running while brushing away her recent stress fracture. We chatted about her very first on screen appearance – on Blind Date, no less, just after she’d completed her A Levels. An...
Jan 07, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Welcome to episode 8, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast. In this episode we speak to Leanne Davies, the founder of Run Mummy Run. Run Mummy Run have just reached their 8-birthday milestone, and we spoke to Leanne just beforehand, and her passion for women’s health and wellbeing is extraordinary. From an initial group of just three runners, Run Mummy Run has grown into a unique community that supports and nurtures thousands of members, all abiding by Leanne’s overriding ethos, which has kin...
Dec 24, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 19
This is the second podcast in our series for beginner runners, or for those getting back into it, or just if you’re interested in unbefuddling some of the weirder running lingo. In this episode, Esther and Holly have a chat about how Holly's running has been over the past couple of weeks. We also talk about her current warm -up routine, and the sort of moves she can do to warm her muscles and joints up a bit more than, as she says, “putting her leggings on and going downstairs”. We talk about wa...
Dec 17, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In this episode we speak to Gabby Logan. Gabby is a mainstay on our TV, presenting Match of the Day and Question of Sport, as well as reporting on the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, and the London Marathon. Coming from a very sporty family, it’s perhaps not surprising that Gabby excelled at sport as a child, becoming an accomplished gymnast in her teens. Injury put an end to her gymnastic career, but an appearance on Blue Peter tapped into her ambition to launch a career in broadcasting, whic...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Welcome to the Women’s Running Workshop. This is the first in a new series of podcasts for beginner runners. In our first episode I have a chat with Holly, our Women’s Running digital editor. She’s eyeing up the virtual Bath Half in spring 2021, and I want to help her get there. So we got together to talk about her training, to figure out where she thinks she is running-wise, and to chat about what she can do in the next few weeks to get her fitness levels up. This is the perfect opportunity to ...
Dec 03, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Welcome to episode 4, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast. In this episode we speak to Sabrina Pace-Humphreys. We weren’t sure what to expect by the time we spoke to her: at that time she had garnered quite a bit of interest partially because she’s one of the founders of Black Trail Runners, and had already been a cover star on a <cough> different running magazine. What we didn’t expect was just how inspiring, how brilliant, how funny she was: in many ways, Sabrina has been one of the ...
Nov 26, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 15
It’s episode 3 series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast! And in this episode we speak to Jess Piasecki, the winner of the Florence Marathon in 2019. We like to talk about journeys at Women’s Running – we’re much like Strictly Come Dancing in that respect – and Jess’s journey in particular is compelling. She came to our attention when she won that marathon in 2019, in so doing becoming the third fastest GB woman of all time. But how she got to that startline in the first place is a rollercoaster j...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In this episode, we talk to Tasha Thompson, the founder of the online community and running group Black Girls Do Run. She set her group up a year ago to inspire black women to run for their fitness, their health and their mental wellbeing. Tasha’s always been a runner, but she had noticed that very few other black women were joining her at the start line of races, and she quickly realised that there were a ton of barriers that prevented black women from taking up running. She set up Black Girls ...
Oct 29, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In episode one of season two of the Women’s Running podcast, we talk to Susie Chan. Susie is a hugely inspirational ultrarunner, having taken on dozens of endurance challenges across the globe. She’s a popular woman in the running industry, and you might have seen her popping up on your TVs or at the National Running Show interviewing other runners and commenting on races. We talked to her about exploring her local area during lockdown, going from a “few half marathons” to the running the Marath...
Oct 15, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 12
This is the special Marathon Edition of the Women’s Running podcast. On Sunday 4th October Esther, along with 43,000 others, ran the virtual London Marathon. Two women who also ran it were Deborah James and Emma Campbell, both of whom have been on the podcast before. This time we wanted to talk to them both about our experiences running our virtual races. They ran together, supporting each other every step of every mile, while raising money for their beloved Royal Marsden, a hospital that has su...
Oct 06, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In episode 10, we speak to the very aptly-named Sophie Power. Ultrarunning star, Women’s Running cover star, and ardent campaigner on women’s health, Sophie is a hugely inspiring woman. She found sudden fame two years ago when she was photographed breastfeeding at a checkpoint at the UTMB. She allowed this beautiful picture of her to be taken, hoping that it would in some way influence event directors of ultra races into allowing pregnant runners to defer their places. She talks to us here about...
Oct 01, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In episode 9 of the Women’s Running podcast we talk to Deborah James, who you might know better as Bowelbabe. If someone can be the ‘face’ of bowel cancer, Deborah is that person. She is vivacious, uncompromising, witty and incredibly honest about life with cancer. She’s been documenting her experiences publicly for the past four years, but really came to our attention last year when she ran the Vitality 10K in her pants with a bunch of other brilliant women including Bryony Gordon, Women’s Runn...
Sep 16, 2020•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 9
In this episode, Esther Newman, editor of Women’s Running, speaks to Anna Harding, the founder of the Running Channel. Anna has gone from non-runner to running expert in a ludicrously quick time. Just a few years ago, she made the leap from couch to marathon, and hasn’t stopped running since. She talks to us here about starting the Running Channel, and supporting a community that she truly loves, as well as how an ex boyfriend prompted her to start running in the first place (by telling her that...
Sep 03, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In episode 7 of the Women’s Running podcast, editor Esther Newman chats to Jemma Lewis, better known as This Girl Can Run Far. She’s a runner we can all relate to, having taken up running as an antidote to gym-going after the birth of her daughter. But the thing is with Jemma is that a) she’s really *really* good, and b) she’s incredibly down to earth. Here, she talked to me about taking on her first ultra with the proceeds of a last-minute modelling gig with This Girl Can, and how Joe Wicks has...
Aug 20, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Emma knows everything there is to know about running shoes: she's a total running shoe nerd and has put in the hours: she's worked in the running industry for over 10 years and is a sports scientist to boot. But where many of you will know her from is Instagram as @emmakirkyo, where her brilliant videos on shoe lacing had me hooked from the start. And that's not to mention the drills, the strength training, and the general no-nonsense, smart attitude to running fitness. And in terms of running, ...
Aug 06, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Emma Campbell has a list of labels as long as your arm: author, writer, speaker, three times cancer thriver, mum of four, Women’s Running columnist, runner. There are more, too, but for now let’s concentrate on these ones. She’s such an incredible woman that when I first spoke to her at the end of last year, I’d signed her up to be a columnist within half an hour. She talks here honestly and beautifully about her experiences with cancer, and how she has dealt with those diagnoses while simultane...
Jul 23, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Ah Lisa Jackson. If you ever wanted to be inspired to run anything – but particularly a marathon – Lisa is your woman. I met her first last year at Run Fest, and then again at the start of this year, and both those times, I left feeling energised, inspired and pretty invincible, to be honest. She has run over a hundred marathons, and one of the many wonderful things about her is that she is fully proud of coming last in 25 of those marathons. She’s a back-of-the-pack runner, and she loves it the...
Jul 08, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 4
We talked to Mel Bound back in September 2019. She's incredible. After undergoing life-changing back surgery and having kids, she tentatively put out a post on Facebook for some running buddies, and from there This Mum Runs was born. These days, it's gone from a local free weekly running group to an organisation with a truly global reach, with TMR running groups all over the world, a clothing range, and a manifesto to inspire women to move that will bring tears to your eyes. Mel has recently lau...
Jun 24, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 3
We talked to Susannah back in November 2019. She's a force of nature, emphasised by her win at the World Marathon Challenge in January 2019. In this, she ran seven marathons, on seven continents in seven days. It's exhausting just typing it. The thing that makes it even more incredible than the feat itself is that we've been shown videos of Susannah before she was coached at the Running School. She went there just months before taking on the challenge, and her coach and mentor, Mike Antoniades, ...
Jun 10, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 2
We talked to Anna McNuff back in January 2020. Anna is the stuff of legend: most recently she has run over 2300 miles across the UK barefoot, fundraising and raising awareness for GirlGuiding as she went. She also amassed a whole raft of admirers and fellow runners along the way. But this wasn't Anna's first adventure: from clambering over Hadrian's wall (dressed as a Roman centurion - obviously) to cycling through every single state in North American, Anna loves a bit of a challenge. We talk to...
May 04, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 1
