Two Average Runners

Huw is in the last few days of his taper before his 100-miler, and he shares how he’s feeling going into race week. Alice shares an upcoming run she’s agreed to pace. She also talks about her dad’s big sports event coming up, which shows where she gets her competitive streak from. Then it’s on to your questions: someone who’s been running for a year and is starting to get bored wants to know how to keep the excitement going. We also answer questions on how to run again after an injury and how to deal with the comparison trap on Strava.

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This week, Alice is two weeks on from Chicago and easing back into training. Huw is about to start his taper, and he talks us through his plan for his 100-miler and the time he’s aiming for. Then we answer a listener question on how long it really takes to recover from a marathon, and what we’ve learnt from getting it wrong. There’s also a question on how we handle races that turn out longer than planned, and Huw’s got a story or two.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com

Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Alice is back from the Chicago Marathon. She walks us through race day and whether she made her sub-3-hour target. Huw is back from his vision quest on the course for his next race, and he shares how it went and what he learnt. Alice has her eyes on another goal in a few weeks, and she talks about what she and her coach are changing in the build up. Then we answer a listener question on what our 2027 race plans look like.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com

Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Alice flies out for the Chicago Marathon, and she shares a few last-minute experiments during her taper. Huw’s training is starting to come back, and he talks about a vision quest he’s headed off to for a few days. Alice walks us through how she’s getting her head ready for race day, which takes us into what goes on in the mind in the long middle miles of a race. Then we answer listener questions on whether you need different shoes for different runs and what to eat before a run. We close on hydration before a race, which matters a lot when you’re a nervous wee-er.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com

Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw ran 48K the day before his 46th birthday. Alice shares her latest race milestones, and she's 10 days away from the Chicago Marathon. We answer a listener's question on our top three tips for new runners heading into their first marathon, which gets us talking about our first marathons. Then a listener with a cold, who isn't sure how she'll handle a hill session on her schedule, asks what we do when we have a cold.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com

Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week it's just Huw. With Alice out for work, he's taking on the listener questions solo. He's been trying something different on his long runs, and walks us through how a hot 20-miler in Texas went. Then it's on to your questions: what really fuels a passion for running, how to face a big scary goal like a first 100-miler, and dealing with DNFs in running and in life. Huw also gets asked the closest he's ever come to quitting running. Plus, a listener's daughter has some questions after hearing Huw get numbers from strangers on Strava.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

Alice is three weeks out from the Chicago Marathon and in her last big week of training. Huw shares his big plans coming up in 2027. Alice's afternoon run clashes with school closing time, and a pavement full of scooters sets us off on our running pet peeves. Then we go down the rabbit hole about negative splitting a 100-miler, sparked by a friend’s comment. We close on an old UTMB story and Huw's pacing plan for November.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw has been up past his bedtime feeding 14 years of training data into an AI, and he walks us through what came back. Alice ran the Big Half with 25,000 other people, and Huw has a different view about her finish time. Then a listener asks us to rank the things that actually matter for runners, which gets Alice going about people fuelling long runs on low-sugar drinks, and the man who turned up to a race having eaten one banana.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Alice has the Big Half on Sunday, her last race before Chicago, and a Strava crown on a segment she’s fairly sure nobody else has ever attempted. Huw is back from two weeks in Wales and already thinking about his next trip away to train, which takes us into a deep chat about training camps - what they look like, what the point of them actually is, and more. Then it’s on to listeners’ questions. The first: where do we draw the line between healthy and unhealthy ambition, from someone whose partner reckons he’s already crossed it. The second comes from a 41-year-old who took up running two years ago and still fights the instinct to quit when things get uncomfortable - can that kind of grit be built later if you didn’t grow up with parents who pushed you?

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw has a new coach and a hundred-miler on the calendar for the first time in two years. He gets into why he picked this one. Alice went under 39 at a 10K in Battersea, fuelled by half a Monster and very little sleep afterwards. After two marathons that went sideways, a call with a sports psychologist has her wondering whether the problem is her legs at all. She may have just discovered what really went wrong. We get into whether you can still get faster in your forties and fifties, sparked by a chat about a 52-year-old who beat Alice at that 10K and then apologised for being slow. Huw shares an inspiring Leadville comeback story about his friend's first 100-miler. And we close on a Strava message from a listener who's pretty sure we talked about him on the podcast and is pleased about it.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

Huw is back on proper leg sessions with his trainer after Soft Rock. Alice has a 10K coming up and no plans to taper for it. Then we get into a stack of listener questions. The first sends us both a long way back - to where the drive to chase hard goals actually comes from, and the earliest signs of it (folk dancing, eisteddfods, and a public speaking contest Alice decided she was going to win). Then the best things running has given us that have nothing to do with running. And finally, what to feed a six-year-old before and after his first 2K junior parkrun, which brings us right back to the orange at the finish line.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

Huw is three weeks post-Soft Rock and, in his words, so close to being back. Alice comes home from 8.75 laps of a London park with a half marathon PB, some strong opinions on gun time versus chip time, and a story about the peer pressure around fuelling - how much is too much, whose plan do you actually trust, and what happens when you stick to your own. We get into running in a pack, how A, B and C races fit into a training block, and the small comment from a friend that opened up a bigger conversation on how "easy" is always relative. We close on a warm-up tweak Alice has found that's making a real difference.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

Huw is deep in the recovery grind after Soft Rock. Alice’s running is finally starting to click. Then we get into a deeper conversation, sparked by a listener question, on the comparison trap: what it’s like running with people faster than you, whether Strava makes it worse, and where we land on being competitive with others versus mostly competing with ourselves.

Contact us
Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw is a few days back from Soft Rock and shares how the recovery is going and what he's eyeing next. Alice has a 5K PB to celebrate and a growing collection of oddities from her Battersea Park loops. We give a Tour de France debrief (with a favourite Pogačar moment thrown in), and get through a stack of listener questions: the worst post-race goodie bags, our weirdest pre-race superstitions, returning to running post-baby and building back to half-marathon shape, and the eternal question of what to do when you need to pee at the start line.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

Huw is back from Soft Rock. A multi-day version of the Hardrock 100 he ran with a friend across the Colorado mountains. Wildfire smoke, altitude sickness, closed sections of trail, moments he thought about quitting, and moments he pushed on; a rollercoaster of an event, having to adapt and problem solve under pressure. We talk about Josh Kerr's mile world record and the moment that finish landed, get into the Tour de France, and share a solid training update from Alice. Then we close on a listener question about how to tell the difference between your brain genuinely protecting you and your brain just being scared.

Contact us
Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw is days out from being three days deep in the Colorado mountains. He shares that he hasn't finished a big race since his dad passed, which is clearly on his mind heading into this one. We get into what he expects to happen when it gets brutal. Alice leads us into a proper conversation about pressure, sparked by a chaotic 10K start line and a very different approach to pain, courtesy of her partner, Dale, who apparently has a few choice words for himself when things get hard. Also, it turns out a toddler on a balance bike might be the most effective taper strategy in sport.Contact us
Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw talks about being just days out from his biggest mountain adventure yet. Alice has a situation developing at parkrun: a topless, Scandinavian-looking stranger who's been quietly clocking her splits for months, and has just started acting on it. We get into two listener questions this week. First, whether to run with headphones in. Then, whether AI running apps and coaches actually work, plus a run through running advice we were both given that turned out to be completely wrong for us.

Also, apparently the Tour de France might come through the Brecon Beacons next year, and Huw's already planning the family road trip.

Contact us
Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week we recap Western States: course records broken, three men under 14 hours for the first time, and Molly Seidel's remarkable finish after things went sideways at mile 94. We get into the Fuelin app: how we're both using it, what's working, and what it revealed to Alice about her own fueling. Huw's been rethinking his goals with his UK move on indefinite pause. We answer a listener question on how we deal with a race that goes badly. Plus updates on our own running and Serena Williams' return to Wimbledon - with a surprising mindset going in.

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Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, the UK is in a heatwave, and Huw (from Texas) is unimpressed. We get into how to actually use the heat to your advantage with heat training, plus tips for surviving it, and answer a listener question on the same. Alice has moved house, which sent us down a rabbit hole on what to look for in a place to live when running is a deciding factor. She also tells the story of her solo 5K attempt after the real one didn't happen. We get into what getting older means for your speed, and Huw gives us a preview of Western States this weekend: why it could be one of the fastest on record, and what Molly Seidel's move to trails means.

Contact us
Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners

This week, Huw rocks up to his Harvard Business School reunion, and barely anyone recognises him. Alice dives into the history of Comrades, and why it's called the greatest human race - by the end of it, we commit to running it together in 2027! Huw's sister, Nia, set out to walk a marathon in the Brecon Beacons for Alzheimer's UK in memory of their dad, and Strava makes her an ultramarathoner. And following our chat last week about weight loss and performance, a listener sent in a video of a cyclist who did the same race heavier, with more muscle - interesting results. Link in the show notes on YouTube.

Contact us
Email: twoaveragerunners@gmail.com
Instagram: @huwjedwards @dralicepenn @two.average.runners