The Endurance Zone

No surprise that Kim chose to run Boston Marathon on her birthday. Her 48th marathon, another consistent preparation and cleverly paced run. Kim’s an absolute pleasure to coach. I don’t think she’s missed a session this year and she has such great destination races to look forward to at the end of each training block.

Proud to play a small part in Al’s huge result at Buffalo Stampede 42km SkyMarathon on the weekend, winning her Age Group and smiling all the way.
Al is easy to coach, producing consistent blocks of training focused on some of the toughest events on the calendar. As you can see from the last slide, her volume and pace wouldn’t impress a running influencer’s audience, but climbing 250m per hour for 16 weeks and building an enormous aerobic engine is what it took for Al to produce this phenomenal performance.
Look forward to seeing what’s next for this Superwoman

Here’s my pre-race goal setting one-pager. It’s an interesting exercise to do before your A-race events, and it’s great to look back on as well
Goals: not just one, and it doesn’t have to be time based. Mine were for this race
Backup goal: if everything goes to s**t, a horror show, what’s acceptable?
Good: what do you reasonably expect given a favourable day
Better: if things go really well and you nail your plan pretty well
Best: you are in flow, things go perfectly and you nail it, what’s the best you can expect?

By breaking goals up into these tiers, the worst day can become a success if you at least hit the backup. Walking across the line after overcoming some stuff on course might be a great result if you’ve a history of DNF or giving up.
Listing things to make you proud of yourself on the day is interesting. In this race one of the things I wanted was to look forward to pain, accept it and not let it take over. Certainly had some in the last 8km. Proud to say I worked around it, kept moving and didn’t let it derail my race or my head. Super proud to have paced sensibly and moved forward through the field until the wheel fell off in the last 4km. Ran the finish as best I could. Proud to nail all 3 ex*****on prompts
Why gets overused, so I choose reason. My reason wasn’t to finish top 10 in AG (I’m a realist), but to test myself mentally when things got hard. They got hard and I was happy with my headnoise. And my other why was related to imposter syndrome: can I coach myself to a successful trail marathon performance. The answer was yes: I pretty much hit my better goal on the day, nailed my training consistently since October for this race, devised a race day pacing and nutrition strategy that worked well and got a result that pretty much fulfilled my potential on the day.
Now a break before planning the next adventure.

💥 Running Myths Busted! 💥
Myth: Wrist-based heart rate (HR) monitors are useless—you have to wear a chest strap for accurate HR training.
Reality: Not true! Wrist HR tech has come a LONG way, and for most runners, it’s more than accurate enough. Let’s break it down:
📊 The Science Says:
👉 A study comparing fitness trackers (Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit, etc.) to ECG found Apple Watch & Garmin were accurate within 1-3 beats—even at high intensities.
👉 Another study concluded wrist HR monitors are accurate for recreational athletes and research purposes.
👉 Devices like Apple Watch & Garmin Forerunner 945? Spot-on within 2 beats up to 90% max HR.

So, why the hate for wrist HR? 🤔
👟 Fit issues: Bulky watches + small wrists = gaps for light to sneak in, messing with optical sensors. Pro tip: Try a snug aftermarket Velcro band (Hemsut is a fave!).
👟Other factors: Skin tone, tattoos, diabetes, or obesity can affect accuracy.
👟Chest straps aren’t perfect either! Ever had wild HR spikes in the first 10-20 mins? Static, dry weather, or poor conduction can throw chest straps off too.
👟Arm bands use the same sensor as your watch: just in a different spot on your body.

🎯 Bottom line: Use what works for YOU. If your wrist HR is consistent and makes sense, you’re good to go. Your run isn’t “useless” just because you’re not rocking a chest strap.
💬 What’s your go-to HR setup? Wrist or chest? Let’s hear it below! 👇

Ready to set fitness goals that actually stick this year? Let’s ditch the "all or nothing" mentality. 🎯

When you are balancing a career, family life, and training, attempting a massive lifestyle overhaul on January 1st is often a recipe for burnout. Instead of drastic changes, focus on the power of small, consistent steps.

Why does this work? Because consistency beats intensity over the long haul.

Rather than fixating on a huge outcome like "running a sub-3 marathon," try setting process goals that fit your schedule. For example:
✅ "I will prep a healthy lunch three days a week."
✅ "I will do 15 minutes of mobility work before bed."

These small, manageable wins build momentum without overwhelming your daily routine. They allow you to maintain balance while still moving the needle on your performance.

What is one realistic habit you are prioritising this year? Let us know in the comments! 👇

Got a big race coming up in autumn? Could be less than 12 weeks away. Have you left it too late? Got a solid base of easy aerobic work under your belt to work off?
If you need help, join me for straight-forward coaching to help prepare you for the demands of your race. Distance, elevation, sustainable pace all need to be dialled in early, planned and prepared.
Shoot me a message if you’ve got any questions about your race goals.

I see these sort of heroic posts on my socials all the time.
The 3am run, the 40k long run, the super fast intervals, the massive weekly volume (usually double my meagre total!)
What these posts lack is context: like the fact the poster spends half the year injured with stress fractures or tendon problems, or conversely, that they have decades of consistent training supporting their impressive stats.
Here’s my 87km week context:
1. I’m 55 years old, work full time and this would be my biggest week of running ever from memory
2. It’s a mistake on my part. My goal for December was 60km a week. Last weekend my Saturday long run got pushed to Sunday. This week I reverted back to Saturday, so I’ve done two long runs in 7 days so that total is 27km longer than planned.
3. I’ve got 5 years of very consistent training under my belt. I’m weird in that I am extremely patient and have remarkable intensity discipline. I know my first lactate threshold and do the majority of my training 5 or so beats either side of that. I have a basic week that includes 4 runs a week, a minimum 90 minute long run every Saturday, and one session a week focused on tempo or threshold training. The rest is easy runs. I do short blocks of VO2max training placed strategically and more focused threshold stuff closer to “A” races (max 2 times a year!)
4. I’ve built my volume and vertical gain gradually over the last 6 months and have had a very consistent year, uninterrupted by the usual non-running related illness or misadventure. The last few months I’ve aimed for at least 20km every Saturday and built that up slowly the last 6 weeks.
When you see the next “influencer” pushing double thresholds, 160km weeks, heat suit training or magic recovery gadgets, remember they’ve either got a long training history behind them, or they’re on speed dial with their Physio.
If you have trouble staying consistent, your running isn’t progressing, or you’d like some structured, sensible, science based coaching, I’m looking to help more runners in 2026. Shoot me a message if you’d like to see if we’d be a good fit.