The Women's Running Podcast

Holly’s had a lovely non-running weekend, because why not, and the discussion of which moves on to the necessity of chub rub shorts in warmer weather, and for posh dos. Holly’s favourites are Snag, we can also recommend Runderwear for both running in, and wearing under posh frocks.Running and periodsTW: Miscarriage, pregnancy and fertility. This episode, we talk to the lovely Dr Juliet McGrattan, our resident health expert, about periods, fertility and running, including some super valuable stuff on training to your period cycle.Media representationAfter Juliet, we discuss a lovely letter by an actual MAN. But then I want to talk about a controversy that’s potentially of my making. On the hunt for some info about specific runners, I made the realisation that our running world is unfairly reported on in the media. We discuss this and get ourselves properly cross in the process.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our Discord chat room, free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it... Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingBuy Juliet McGrattan’s book Run Well – honestly, it’s the only book about running injuries and niggles you’ll ever needDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 154 of the Women’s Running Podcast. I am your host Esther Newman, and she is your other host Holly Taylor. We’ve got a menopause special this episode, with a smashing chat with our resident health expert Dr Juliet McGrattan at the halfway point about all things menopause and running.MenopauseWe chat to her about the good things about menopause, and also what happens to us and our fitness during perimenopause and beyond. We also chat about nutrition and RED-S, as something we should all be aware of.Cognitive Behavioural TherapyBefore and after that bit of essential listening, Holly and I chat randomly, as ever, about anxiety, CBT, and which character in Harry Potter we are - we value your opinions on this, but if truth be told, suggesting Crabbe and Goyle may not win you many house points. Fred and George will get you 50, obviously.Big running goalsWe also have an update on Holly’s Couch to 5K journey, taking on a big goal when you’re heading for an important birthday, and I get to sound off about being sensorial assaults, if that’s even a thing. I’ve just made it a thing. Do other runners have this, or is it just me?Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it...  Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingBuy Juliet McGrattan’s book Run Well – honestly, it’s the only book about running injuries and niggles you’ll ever needDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 153 of the Women’s Running podcast. Holly has just completed her first run on the Couch to 5K app, and she is giddy with it. She had felt some trepidation to begin with, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to all her next runs.Mental healthBecause it’s us, we talk about mental health and anxiety, just cos that’s the way we roll, and it wouldn’t be a proper episode if we didn’t.HRT updatesThen there are some more HRT updates, courtesy of me, my lovely GP, and all the bits I’ve been prescribed, plus reactions to those. I would love to know if this resonates with any of you! I’ve moved from patches to gel, and will obviously report back on my findings!Sex educationAnd then in our new pop culture section, we get hot under the collar about some things in the news recently about sex education in schools. We also have a chat about Caitlin Moran and potentially problematic interviews that she’s been giving, and so we have a bit of a rant about that, and feel hugely better as a result.Join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it... Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunning Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 152 of the Women’s Running podcast. I’m your host Esther Newman and she is your other host, Holly Taylor. We have a sandwich episode for you, in the shape of a second chunk of Bad Boy Running nonsense in the middle of the usual chat.Bad Boy RunningDavid and Jody join us to talk about the things that happen in men’s loos (because we all want to know) as well as things that men can do to not make women runners feel anxious. It’s a very sweary mary section, and I’m too scared for this to be the moment we drop a C-bomb, so granny can stay in the room.PerimenopauseWith Holly and I, we start with a brief foray into the world of Boules – I mean, it’s still a sport, right? I’ve got an update with the whole HRT thing so I talk about lovely GPs and starting on the beginner journey as a baby perimenopausal person.Running appsAfter a Bad Boy pause and some evil swan discussion, we focus on running coaches and whether we should give ourselves up to a greater being, and chat about using something like Garmin Connect or Runna to help us get to the finish line of our next races.We also return to a couple of issues we’ve talked about on previous eps: namely, headphones and hay fever, with updates on both, including a link between hay fever symptoms and hormones. Who’d be a woman, eh?Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningGo and listen to the Bad Boy Running podcast! They are FUN!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to episode 151 of the Women’s Running podcast with your hosts Esther Newman and she’s your other host Holly Taylor. This is a sandwich episode, with the usual chats either side a chunk of something else. This time, the chunk is our crossover podcast with David Hellard and Jody Rainsford from the Bad Boy Running Podcast., who we were invited to drink beers with and record a chaotic podcast with. This, you’ll be pleased to hear, is part 1 of 2!Decision runningBefore we chat to them however, we’ve got lots to discuss by ourselves. Esther brings up the idea of going on a “make a decision” run. Did it work? Yes it did. A decision has been made.MenopausePossibly related to that, we have a bit of menopausal chat – in this instance, it’s about symptoms, and not knowing if we have enough of them.Hay feverAnd then after fun chats with Bad Boy Running, we are back in the room with an email from a listener, who asks us about Hay Fever and running, which is a huge thing for many of us at the moment, and that also leads on to some asthma chat. We would love to know your thoughts and experiences with both these conditions – is it bad for you too this year?Come and join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning. Now, let’s get on with it...  Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningGo and listen to the Bad Boy Running podcast! They are FUN!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 trainingWe 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 never run a 10K race! So we launch into how we should train for it, and how we should frame it in order to not give us any worries beforehand.London Vitality 10KWe talk about the London Vitality 10,000 and how we can all run it together and meet up afterwards, and how we can successfully run it and celebrate each other without any pressure.Come and join us!By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.99p bargainAnd BIG NEWS. You know we also do a very brilliant actual magazine? Well you can get your hands on your very first copy for just 99p – 99p! Because you’re our pod squad and we love you. Just go to shop.womensrunning.co.uk, and enter PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code, and there you go. Isn’t that lovely?Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Pick up a copy of Women’s Running for just 99p! Pop in PODCAST when it asks you for a promotion code at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 runningFor the rest of us, we’re talking about the 80/20 method and how that’s working out for us – again we’re finding the easier running very lovely indeed, but the hard stuff a bit too much like hard work. We clearly need a goal!ParkrunWe also talk about our return to parkrun, and what that experience was like while we were running it, and also on receipt of our parkrun email a little later on.ShortsAnd we address the elephant in the room, and the fuss we kicked up in the last episode about people who wear (or don’t wear) shorts. There’s a bit to discuss here, and some body appreciation and neutrality and loathing to unpack and unpick.By the way, if you LOVE this podcast – and of course you do, there is a way to get more Holly and Esther nonsense, and that’s by becoming part of our Pod Squad on Patreon. From just £2 a month, you’ll have access to our exclusive Discord chat room, there are free chats on zoom with me and Hol, weekly newsletters and silly videos and all sorts. Come and join us at patreon.com/womensrunning.Women's Running wave at London Vitality 10,000And do please join the Women’s Running Wave this September 24th and run London Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave to run a gorgeous 10K with us by your side and cheering you on! We can’t wait!Lovely extra running bitsThis episode is sponsored by the NSPCC. Join TeamNSPCC and take on the legendary Cardiff Half Marathon on 1st October. Join today at nspcc.org.uk/cardiffhalf and enter RADIO when prompted to register for just £1.Join the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price! That’s at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 runningWe’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, and she has some thoughts on that. Garmin hacksAfter our usual random chat, we introduce the lovely Anne Quick, Business Development Manager for Garmin. We asked her on because we wanted to ask her loads of sports watch related questions including, what is V02 max, how does Garmin work it out, and what are the things that can impact the score. We also chatted about a bunch of other clever bits that can help our running and wider lives, from the Training Readiness feature to breathing exercises. The 80/20 methodOnce we’re back in the room, we get back to our running efforts over the past week or so, and what we’re going to do going forwards to try and improve that Vo2 max score. Plus we’ve got a lovely listener email, some exciting new SPF bits to try (that don’t sting), and we’re very naughty on Instagram Stories. Women's Running wave at London Vitality 10,000Do join the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Lovely extra running bitsJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Just go to vitalitylondon10000.co.uk and enter the Women’s Running wave!Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price! That’s at shop.womensrunning.co.ukDo join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord! Go to patreon.co.uk/womensrunningPlease continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford. Search Anthem on JustgivingDo please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running storiesFabulous non-stinging SPF perfect for runners here https://colorescienceuk.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 runningWe 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 be staying vaguely in heart rates zone 3 and 4. We discuss how hard this it is to run slower.Better recoveryAnd we also discuss the concept of slow running making our harder/faster running better – because if we’ve recovered well, we can basically put in more effort on those technical sessions.Wild swimmingOther than that, Holly has been exploring wild swimming as a cross training activity and thoroughly enjoyed herself, but the end result has been less than brilliant.London Vitality 10,000And here’s a quick reminder for the event of the year. We want you to come and run with us at the London Vitality 10,000 this year on Sunday September 24th. We have our very own Women’s Running Wave, which means we can all run together, and there’s enough space for everyone. There’ll be a special meet and greet area just for us in the park, so we’ll be able to chat with you before and after the run, and we can all celebrate together. We can’t wait to run with you!LinksJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Big long clicky link here just in case:https://www.letsdothis.com/gb/checkout/ticket?eventId=18139&reservationCode=re_w37-cc3zed54&utm_organiser_id=29443Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price!Do join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford.Do please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is brought to you by the triple whammy that is hot running, half term juggling and booze.Running in the summerNow 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 alcoholWe talk about managing moderate drinking and training, and how that’s tricky especially in the summer when you may have more social engagements. We also talk about the effect that booze can have on our health and our lifestyles, and also on our running. We also touch on running and anxiety and depression, and that link between alcohol and our mental health.Running and jugglingI then have a small whinge about running and juggling time, as it’s half term and it is HARD to do these things. Esther copes a little bit by planning ahead and putting timed slots in my diary. That’s just one way of doing it, there are others! Also, as Holly says, you don’t have to run!London Vitality 10,000Lastly, we have a big announcement. We want you to come and run with us at the London Vitality 10,000 this year on Sunday September 24th. We want you to come and run with us – and we have our very own Women’s Running Wave, which means we can all run together, and there’s enough space for everyone. There’ll be a special meet and greet area just for us in the park, so we’ll be able to chat with you before and after the run, and we can all celebrate together.We can’t wait to run with you!LinksJoin the Women’s Running Wave and run Vitality 10,000 with us!Big long clicky link here just in case: https://www.letsdothis.com/gb/checkout/ticket?eventId=18139&reservationCode=re_w37-cc3zed54&utm_organiser_id=29443Subscribe to Women’s Running now and you’ll save a third off the cover price!Do join us on Patreon so you can come and chat in our new Pod Squad community on Discord!Please continue to donate whatever you can to our fundraiser for the Trussell Trust – Holly and I ran 5K and donated £5, but you can give whatever you can afford.Do please email us at wrpodcast@anthem.co.uk with any questions or running stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.