my go to #running blogs

I’m a big fan of blogging, both reading and writing. Personally, I have found the act of writing stuff down helpful over the years (not that I am that good at it, but I am past caring too much about that!).

2014, my year of running has settling down well (of course 2015, 16, 17, etc. will also be years of running, its just after 2013… oh BTW, I had my birthday in May, which I now also share with D* Day). 1156 miles so far, and it looks like I’m set to at least make my target of 2014 miles in 2014.  I started out with a clear goals, that being a 24hour run in May. My next significant goal is October and the Great West Run. I’m aiming high for this one, target time of 1:25 – which means I need to be able to run a 6:40 pace for the whole thing. As I prep for this, I am just building up my weekly milage again. Its currently at about 35 miles, but I am mixing in a bit of bike time, more aggressive hill work, and just as importantly, a lot of GSM, or general strength and mobility work. I am following Coach Jay Johnson’s videos (see below) and this has prompted me to think about all the other blogs I read.

So I thought I would take a moment to list (perhaps a mini review of sorts) of some of the key running blogs I am reading. Some of these people are making a living from, other are much like mine, a fairly narcissistic1 documenting of stuff, and are just random blogs I have stumbled upon. Some are read by thousands, other by just a few. Together they entertain, inform and inspire.

so here goes, in no particular order:

Kinetic Revolution
James Dunne, the mind behind Kinetic Revolution has got me out of a fix or two. I don’t mean serious injuries, I mean tell tail signs that I might have being doing too much too quickly. His posts, videos, current 30 day challenge and paid for content are brilliant.

Coach Jay Johnson
Likewise, Jay Johnson’s 8 week progression programme has become a regular feature and is central to me regaining leg strength and an injury free return to running after Hope24.

Runblogger
If you want to know about shoes, Pete is your man. Pete recently blogged about his anxiety, most people don’t openly talk about mental health, so I have massive respect for Pete, that he did. He has blogged about making some major life changes, the switch from academia to doing stuff he loves without the associated anxiety – and now he gets sent all sorts of pre production and production shoes to wear and test. His blog and reviews have really informed my opinions about shoes, its meant I was brave enough to try something different and well… I now have a shoe collection that about 900% bigger than it used to be!
Oh, but Pete dosen’t just talk about shoes. This wonderful post is all about learning how the mind has so much power over the body.

Schrupthink
If you really want to know about shoes, then John is your man. Okay, I know I said that about Pete, and its true. But John’s reviews generally have me spraying tea over my keyboard or desk due to laughing so much; they are so damn good/funny/like nothing I have read before.

Running used to be simple. Now it’s a business that’s pretty much next to yachting, except if you played polo with yachts.

I only wish people2 would send him more shoes.

Believe in the Run
Thomas and his crew have a great site of simple, honest and accessible shoe and gear reviews from a range of perspectives

Ginger Runner
So I don’t really need to read more shoes reviews, but Ethan Newberry, AKA the Ginger Runner makes the best video shoe and gear reviews ever. In fact if any of the wild things hear the intro music, they dash over and watch, in the words of the boy: “its Ethan Newberry, the man who talks to fast”
Ethan also posts great video race reviews… quite how I have no idea. Okay, as someone who makes films from time to time, I understand how from a technical point of view, but I don’t mean that. I know how I feel running 50 miles. Doing that holding a pole with a goPro on the end. Respect.

There are a load of others (I think I have 50+ running blogs in my feedly), but to wrap up iRunFar is great for a US perspective, Steve Speirs (RunBulldogRun), Biker Nate, Brendan Davies, and AshRuns100s all offer detailed, honest insight into the highs and lows running ultras. Of course there are more, and I enjoy reading all of them, and perhaps I will go through some of the others in another post another time.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to share your favourite running blogs in the comments below.

*D for Diagnosis
1 I mean, come on, who doesn’t like seeing the stats roll when they hit the publish button
2 shoe companies of course, I doubt John wants your shoes, or mine for that matter. I am sure he will have your yacht though, if only to test his theory of yacht polo being complex.