A personal trainer once told me the best fitness regimes start on a Wednesday. This was my poor excuse for not engaging with any “new year, new you” nonsense until January was eyeballing February and I’d dealt with the Christmas stilton. So this puts me weeks behind the podcasters in the field.
Rob Deering and Paul Tonkinson, the marathon-men comedians behind the — bizarrely — tremendously likeable Running Commentary podcast, have already kicked the booze for January, undertaken several epic runs around north London and gone into way too much detail about Deering’s visit to a chiropodist — though Tonkinson’s friendly interest in said appointment was genuinely endearing.
George Lamb, meanwhile, is five episodes into his 18-week London marathon training regime for Audible’s free Mo-Joe podcast, with athletics coaching from the Olympian Mo Farah and nutritional advice from Joe “the Body Coach” Wicks.
I live in a southeast London neighbourhood girdled by the marathon route. We gather en masse to cheer runners past their first mile, then walk downhill to buoy them at the fifth. The atmosphere is ebullient but also emotionally charged as you crane to spot runners you know and note the heart-rending losses that spur on so many of the runners there to fundraise. It was chastening to hear even sports giants such as Kelly Holmes and James Cracknell tell Lamb of the staggering mental exertion of that 26.2 miles.
The Instagram stars Tally, Vic and Zanna, the #GirlGains personal trainers who present Radio 5 Live’s Fit & Fearless podcast, caution against signing up for a marathon to get fit. “Train to run, not run to train,” Zanna says. This new show can feel like crashing the spa bit of a hen weekend, with its chatter about personal “journeys” and overuse of “lovely”, but
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it abounds in sound advice and inclusive encouragement. Their Why Weights Make You Badass, Not Bulky episode made me dig out my yoga mat and 3kg dumbbells, and do a circuit.