Townshend Performance Insights

Quality and interval sessions need to be hard or very hard to be effective and easy/endurance days need to be easy! A mistake we often see as running coaches is when runners do all their runs at a medium or hard-ish effort. It's not slow enough to be restorative or boost aerobic capacity and yet it's not fast enough to produce meaningful physiological change. You just get good at running at that medium pace, and don’ get any faster. The first part of the equation is to run y

What Is Ultra Pacing — and Why It Matters When you run an ultramarathon (anything significantly beyond marathon distance), one of your biggest challenges is how to distribute your effort over many hours so you don’t collapse late. Pacing is the art of managing your speed, effort, rest, walk breaks, fuel, and terrain to minimize excessive slowing and to preserve energy. Poor pacing can lead to big slowdowns, excessive fatigue, injury risk, or getting cut off by time limits. Go

In our data-driven age, we have no shortage of metrics for running - but hills remain a thorny wrinkle. If you run at 6:00/km on 6% uphill, how do you know if that’s getting harder over time? Or whether your 2-minute hill reps are consistent? Heart rate and RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) are still valuable in real time - they can shift with fatigue, hydration, sleep, heat, etc. - but for post-session analysis, we want something more standardized. Bringing in Normalized Met

When it comes to improving as a runner, the question isn’t if you can run - it’s how well you can run. Every athlete, from beginners to seasoned marathoners, benefits from a balanced approach that combines structured training, strength work, mobility exercises, and proper recovery. With a gradual and adaptable progression, supported by strength workouts, drills, yoga, stretching, and a balanced diet, we see athletes improving their performance every single day. Everyone can

Some incredible achievements continue to come from endurance athletes across the UK (and globally) - people like Philip Sesemann , Tom Evans , Sarah Perry , Alex Yee (and many others) are pushing boundaries. But behind every breakthrough performance lies years of disciplined training, intelligent planning, and gradual progression. Here’s a more modern, detailed take on foundational training principles - plus practical examples and tips you can apply to your own running journe

A clear, no-nonsense guide on why gentle stretching, mobility, and foam rolling matter after running, cycling, or strength training. Learn how fatigue makes tissues more vulnerable, why a calm cooldown protects muscles and tendons, and which key areas benefit most. Perfect for anyone wanting smarter, safer recovery and better movement for the next session.