MJ Health and Fitness Personal Training Studio

Are we becoming too reliant on running shoes?

Carbon plates, super foams and bigger stacks…running shoes are getting faster and more technical every year

They can certainly help—but they won’t replace consistent training, strength work and proper recovery.

The shoes might give you the final 1%. You still need to earn the other 99%.

What’s your go-to running shoe at the moment? 👇

Discipline v Motivation

Wet weather outside and a 4 hour drive up to North Wales this afternoon.

Could easily have binned the run off.

18k Zone 2 indoors instead

Not every session has to be exciting and you’re not always going to feel motivated.

Sometimes you’ve just got to get it done.

That’s where the consistency comes from.

18k in the bank @12.2kmph

Easy recovery hour tonight and Garmin decided to have a moment 😂

Started off telling me my heart rate was 145bpm, then jumped up to 158bpm at a pace I’d normally run at around 94–105bpm.

I knew straight away it didn’t feel right.

Breathing was easy, legs felt good and the effort was exactly where I wanted it, so I ignored the watch and just ran on feel.

About 30 minutes in it finally sorted itself out and started reading 100–105bpm.

Good reminder that the watch is there to help, not dictate every session.

Use the data, but learn how your body feels as well.

Sometimes the best bit of kit you’ve got is your own judgement.

Anyone else had Garmin completely lose the plot like this?

Been away on holiday with the family and had a proper break from training.

First run back today and straight into intervals

Tough session, legs definitely knew about it, but great to be back getting some quality work done.

Now it’s a focused 4-week block into Ealing Half Marathon.

Time to get the work in

55K DONE THIS WEEK.

Not every run was fast. Not every run felt good.

But every session had a purpose.

Tempo work.
Threshold sessions.
Plenty of Zone 2.
And some tired legs along the way.

The biggest mistake runners make is thinking every session needs to be hard to get quicker.

It doesn’t.

The easy miles build the engine.
The tempo work builds strength.
The threshold sessions teach you to hold speed when it starts to hurt.

Consistency beats smashing yourself every day.

55K in the bank this week. Now recover and go again.

Save this if you’re trying to get faster without just running harder.

THE RUNNING SESSION I’D GIVE SOMEONE WHO FEELS “FIT… BUT NOT FAST”

Try this:

15 mins easy running

Then:

3 rounds of:
5 x 20 sec fast strides
40 sec easy jog after each

Then:

10 mins steady Z2

The key is NOT to sprint the 20 seconds.

Build the pace gradually and make the final 5 seconds the quickest.

Why I like this session:

It builds aerobic fitness
It improves running economy
It gets some speed into your legs
It doesn’t leave you smashed for 2 days

Perfect if you’re training for a 5k, 10k or half marathon and want to start introducing more speed.

Save this session and give it a go.

Want more sessions like this? Follow my page — I’ll keep sharing workouts you can actually use.

You have to try this session

A great endurance run with just enough speed to wake the legs up.

15 mins easy/steady warm-up

Then 3 rounds of:
5 x 20 sec strides
40 sec easy jog recovery
10 mins steady Z1/2

The main focus is endurance, so keep the steady sections comfortable and controlled.

For each stride, don’t sprint straight away. Build into it gradually and make the final 5 seconds your quickest.

It’s a brilliant way to build aerobic fitness while keeping some speed and turnover in the legs, without turning the whole session into a hard interval workout.

Proof that Zone 2 works.

Last year, my Zone 2 pace was around 10kph.

Today, I was running 13kph and still staying in Zone 2.

That’s a big improvement without the effort feeling any harder.

No magic session.
No shortcut.
Just months of consistent aerobic training.

Same heart rate. Faster pace. Really happy with the progress

Tough run today

20 mins @ marathon pace
Straight into 20 mins @ half marathon pace
Straight into 20 mins @ 5K pace

No recovery between blocks.

Sessions like this aren’t just about running fast — they’re about learning to hold pace when the legs are already tired.

You don’t need every run to be hard, but the right hard sessions at the right time can make a massive difference on race day.

Build the engine. Then learn to use it when it hurts.