Steve Haywood Health & Fitness

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We always get lots of visits to the website from people looking for fitness tips and running tips, particularly beginners to the sport of running. And that’s great, because one of our main aims is to help people get into running, as well as to improve and maintain their running – and all-round fitness. If [...]

Advanced too hard? Try the intermediate 5K training plan by clicking here. Well done on improving your 5k time after following the intermediate running programme. You have now been training for around 6 months and running should be a natural part of your life but hopefully still enjoyable. To satisfy that competitive itch it’s now [...]

Intermediate too advanced? See the beginners programme by clicking here. Congratulations on completing your your first 5k race with the beginners programme put together by you for you. This means that  you have been training for around 3 months and your body and mind are adapting to your new lifestyle. I very much hope you [...]

Here are two simple tips to help with running relaxed, even when pushing the pace along. Keep you hands loose and relaxed, not flopping around but not clenched fists either. Once you screw your fingers into a ball it tenses up the rest of the body making your stride pattern shorter and generally tiring you [...]

The seasons are turning once more and it’s time to get the waterproof socks and high-vis tops out again. Here are some of the top selling Winter items among fitness fanatics this month: Inov8 Flyroc More and more people want off-road shoes for training in muddy conditions during the Winter – especially if they are [...]

About a month ago I decided to enter this years Great North run and raise money for Candlelighters. This meant altering my mind set from leisurely jogging to a more constructive training programme, one that would get me round the half marathon in a reasonable time. I knew I would have to step up my [...]

I have trained and advised people regarding their running for some time now. For people looking to start running for the first time or for those who have just started there are always lots of questions and one of the most fundamental to crop up is “How do I train?” This may seem simplistic but [...]

In the sixties there was a band called the Swinging Blue Jeans who sang a song called “The Hippy Hippy Shake” which was also sung by the Beatles. This was during the era of flower power and the advent of the Hippy movement, which was based on a return and respect for nature (there are [...]

I have been an avid reader of running magazines and articles for a long time and have seen trends and fashions come and go and even be re born. For a while now the phrase “junk miles” has cropped up now and again, inferring that some miles that are run are in fact useless miles. [...]

The Innocent Railway is a disused railway which has been converted into a cycle path. It runs underneath part of Holyrood Park through a tunnel and then skirts Arthur’s Seat, Duddingston Loch, runs alongside the A1 to Milton link and then carries on for the beach at Musselburgh using Brunstane Road. The path is even [...]