Welcome to episode 71 of the Women’s Running Workshop, and we’re treating you to a bonus Workshop Pro episode just before Christmas. I’m your host Esther Newman, and in this episode Holly and I are on the receiving end of much wisdom from running coach Laura Fountain. Laura has worked with Women’s Running for YEARS. She writes a column every month for us, and she’s the brains behind all of our training plans. If you’ve torn one of these out of the mag in the last few years, you have Laura to thank for making it to the start line. We have a chat with Laura this time because we want her expertise to make us better runners. First of all, we find out how she started her running journey – which is comparatively recently – and how she got into coaching. I want all her advice on setting up my own running group, and Holly wants to know how to join a group without feeling nervous about being at the back. We then ask her about our goals and how to achieve them: Holly wants to make the time to run more regularly, and I want to know if I can run double A races in March (spoiler: I can’t). We’re going to be running one Workshop Pro a month with a revolving door of coaches, nutritionists and health experts – so do please drop us a line with any questions you might have. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts – these reviews mean the WORLD to us, and really help us to keep this podcast going. And guess what, if you like this podcast, you’ll love Women’s Running magazine! If you join Women’s Running Plus right now, you’ll get our fab magazine delivered to your door every month AND you’ll get a FREE base layer from Zerofit, worth £40. Just enter X21WRPOD at the checkout.