Her Story

Humble Beginnings

Fiona’s running journey started with a simple charity 5k in her local area with her daughter. Having never run before she found it both challenging and exciting, barely making it home before merrily deciding to attempt another 5k in the next few days - determined to improve her time. 

2 years later she joined her local running club and became more and more involved with the sport, taking special interest in the coaching sessions they held on Tuesday nights. 

Her Coaching Journey

She soon became a Run Leader through the UKA Leader in Running Fitness programme and within in year or two started to work towards her full UKA coaching qualifications, obtaining the first in 2014. 

Here she took over the helm as head coach at her local running club and has been coaching for over 10 years. 

Through her combined 14 years of run-leading and coaching experience, Fiona has supported many local people in starting their running journey. By creating plans that encourage gradual improvement, she has aided complete beginners in growing from never having run before to completing their first 5k in as little as 8-10 weeks. Following this, she has helped these ‘former beginners’ by crafting follow-up plans to help them to easily work towards extending their distance to 10k, half marathon and beyond.

“The beauty of coaching at a running club” Fiona says, “is that I get to work with all ages, genders and abilities. One moment I am running a group session for people aiming to complete their first 10k, and the next I’m giving advice on how to improve pre-marathon training to someone who’s been running for decades” 

From being local club coach for over 10 years Fiona understands the importance of keeping her knowledge up to date and is constantly reading new research on different training methods. It helps that she genuinely loves the sport and wants to know all that she can! 

The Birth of Lace Your Trainers

To celebrate 10 years of being a UKA/England Athletics running coach, Fiona has set up Lace Your Trainers - Run Coaching. 

Fiona’s main goal is to inspire confidence in those who may doubt their running ability. To help people take those first steps into running and to support improving runners in taking the next steps toward their goals; whether it’s to increase distance or to try and improve their time.

Her Coaching Philosophy

Fiona writes training plans on an individual basis, she doesn't believe in one size fits all; it absolutely doesn't. Even though there are some great plans to be found out there, most will need to be changed and adapted to fit the athlete. One of the first things you should ask when choosing an off-the-shelf training plan is 'Who is this written for?' and the second is 'Who is it written by?’ 

Do you fit the athlete profile that the person writing the plan had in mind? How do you know?

Fiona's philosophy is to look after the athlete. Everyone is different and responds to training in different ways. Although the basic overload and adaptation process may seem very straightforward, everyone has different history and lifestyle factors which affect them. 

How their body reacts to training needs to be respected so that they can avoid injury. Often people can over-train, thinking that the more they do the more they will gain, but sadly this is not generally the case, they may breakdown and become injured or ill.

How Does This Benefit You? 

Fiona will provide you with a personal, unique and bespoke plan, taking into account not just your running level and base level of fitness, but your lifestyle, age, gender and even personality. This is why Fiona will make sure to spend time getting to know you, fully understanding your motivations and goals before offering a personalised plan that will gradually challenge you at a pace that allows your running to improve, but also your body to heal and recover in between sessions.  

She will also be able to talk through with you your prior experiences, perhaps when races didn't go to plan, or when things have gotten in the way of your training in the past. She’ll help explore with you what may help to overcome this in future.

She will also check in with you on a regular basis just to see how things are going, if things need adjusting or if you need some encouragement. You can also contact Fiona with any questions that pop up along the way.

As you get near to your main goal she will help you prepare your approach for the event, nutrition plans and how to save that big performance for race day. No one wants to leave their best running back on the road in training.

Menopause affecting your training?

Fiona is also a trained menopause champion and is aware of how menopause can have an effect on your body which can in turn have an impact on training and running. Again this is different for everyone and there are great benefits to be gained from being active, but if you need some help to navigate your way through training at this time, Fiona has experience of this.

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For more information just get in touch, we can book a phone call, take you through the options and prepare to Lace Your Trainers.

Fiona Leatham

UKA/England Athletics:
Coach in Running Fitness
Endurance Coach
Fell, Hill, Off-Road and Trail Leader

Co-Founder and Event Director of Alderford Lake parkrun, Whitchurch, Shropshire.
Two times Comrades Marathon Finisher (Up and Down runs).
Multiple Marathon and ultra marathon finishes.