Training in Heat & other unplanned curveballs

Training in Heat & other unplanned curveballs

It's heating up, for both Suzie in North Wales and Amy in Dresden, Germany the temperatures are rising. In this episode they discuss how they are coping with the heat, some tip and tricks for adapting training or more importantly adapting your mindset; staying flexible, being curious and having fun in the sun! This week they also discuss other curveballs that can come and interrupt training and how best to deal with them.  Suzie reveals her secret strategy for fitting in training when work days are long in the mountains and Amy shares the tips she has been using with athletes who are facing high temperatures for upcoming races. If you have a Qs you want answering or what help with your training send Amy/ Suzie a message: 📩Contact us Amy: amyfryrunning@gmail.com Suzie: suzierichards_coach@outlook.com

Help, I’m Not Getting Faster!

This week Suzie returns from the Welsh 1000s Fell Race and the Castle Relays with sore legs so she and Amy settled down to think on the often frustrating reality of training hard but not getting faster. Suzie and Amy deep dive into the world of plateaus, ruts, and the uncomfortable truth that sometimes you’re basically a Ferrari with no gears, flat tyres, and terrible fuel economy. Amy and Suzie talk through the times their own progress has stalled, what Suzie’s lab testing revealed (the engine was fine, everything else needed work), and why specific training beats “just train harder” every single time. This discussion looks into why most often than not VO2 max isn't the place to focus but it pays to focus on pushing your LT1 and LT2, improve fat‑burning and why easy runs and rest days matter more than you think. If you’re stuck, frustrated that your ticking off the training but not getting faster this episode is your sign that you’re not broken, you’re maybe training the wrong system. Want help to get faster? 📩Contact us Amy: amyfryrunning@gmail.com Suzie: suzierichards_coach@outlook.com

Why We Broke (and How We Fix It)

This week, both of us are sidelined  Amy with plantar fasciitis, Suzie with a grumpy knee. So we’re diving into the messy, unglamorous reality of being injured runners. We talk through the symptoms, the rehab routines that are helping, and how we’re approaching the slow, steady return to running. Suzie shares the head‑over‑heart decision to defer her London Marathon place &what it felt like watching from the sidelines as Sebastian Sawe rewrote history with his 1.59.30 record run.  We get into whether performances like that are simply “too good to be true” or a sign of how far super shoes, nutrition, and smarter training have pushed the sport. We also reflect on what likely caused our own injuries and what we’ll change next time: looking at technique to spot weak links, fixing imbalances before they become problems, and why simple plyometrics might be the most underrated injury‑prevention tool out there. Is skipping and hopping genuinely the way forward? It’s an honest conversation about frustration, patience, and learning to train with a bit more wisdom than ego.

When the Body Surprises you with Unexpected Racing Results

It's been a busy week with Amy and Suzie experiencing the two contrasting ends of the training and racing spectrum.  Amy surprises herself by putting herself on a start line with no grand plan and ends up racing the people around her rather than her watch. A 36:23 10K later, she’s left wondering how far you can go when you stop micromanaging pace and just get on with racing.# Suzie’s marathon build, meanwhile, hits an obstacle. A sharp knee pain mid‑mountain‑day forces her to pause, reassess, and return to the one rule past injuries have made non‑negotiable: take it one day at a time. We were both jumping up and down on Sunday watching the World Indoor Championships and Britain’s middle‑distance gold medals. Both Suzie and Amy are big fans of Coaches Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter and discuss what makes them and the athletes they coach Gold Medal winners.

Nutrition 101: Our Fuelling Experiments, Gels, Greens & the Power Foods That Keep Us Moving

Suzie kicks things off with her weekly hot‑cross‑bun fuelling fail — the one that left her shivering at a bus stop and panic‑buying an £8 fleece just to survive the journey home. Meanwhile, Amy reveals the diet that shocked her physio and completely flipped her shopping habits on their head. Together, they dive into how their pre‑session rituals, mid‑run gel choices, and post‑session recovery favourites have evolved as they’ve grown into marathon runners — and how none of it has been linear, tidy, or what the textbooks promised. They unpack years of nutrition curiosity: falling down the paleo rabbit hole, dabbling in high‑fat phases, experimenting with vegetarian and vegan eating, and eventually emerging as two runners now obsessed with getting all the carbs in. Training has changed. Their bodies have changed. And their food — thankfully — has changed with them. This episode is honest, funny, and full of the kind of real‑world fuelling lessons you only learn the hard way. 📩How to contact us? Amy: amyfryrunning@gmail.com [amyfryrunning@gmail.com]  Suzie: suzierichards_coach@outlook.com [suzierichards_coach@outlook.com] Find us on Instagram: Suzie_Richards [https://www.instagram.com/suzie_richards/] Amyfryrunning [https://www.instagram.com/amyfryrunning/]