Mid Run Chat with Amy & Suzie

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/]

Do runners really need a rest day?

Rest over rated or essential ? Why do so many coaching books — from Jack Daniels to Arthur Lydiard — barely mention it? Is it the mindset that a coach’s job is to fill every day with training? Or the old belief that a good night’s sleep is enough recovery to go again? Suzie and Amy sit down after a weekend of racing — Amy taking the win at her local cross‑country (with the kids collecting medals too), and Suzie finishing 2nd at the local fell race that doubled up as the  Welsh Short Fell Race Championships. Amy also shares a surprising update on her back issues and a twist she didn’t see coming. From there, they dive into the big conversation the running world avoids: rest. They unpack the booming “recovery industry” of boots, guns, rollers and cold plunges, and contrast it with what the evidence actually supports: sleep, fuelling, mobility, meditation, and lowering cortisol in small, meaningful bursts throughout the day. Suzie and Amy explore what training really does to the body — not just the legs, but the immune system, major organs (especially the heart), hormones, glycogen stores, and inflammation. They talk honestly about burnout, breakdown, and why the body can only repair through genuine rest. They also open up about the psychological side of recovery: the guilt, the fear of losing fitness, the identity tied to “always training”, and the mental fatigue that builds when you never stop. And in their most personal stories yet, Amy shares the reality of five stress fractures in five years, and Suzie reflects on the overuse hip injuries that ended her triathlon career — both rooted in not valuing rest when they needed it most. They close with a bigger question: Are we chasing short‑term PBs and race calendars at the expense of long‑term health — especially heart health? And what would it look like to take the cautious, sustainable, athlete‑for‑life approach instead? This episode is a reminder that rest isn’t optional — it’s where the training actually works. 📩How to contact us? Amy: amyfryrunning@gmail.com Suzie: suzierichards_coach@outlook.com