If you had told me when I was at school that running would become my passion I would have laughed at you. I did well in most ‘academic’ subjects and I was musical too but I was not sporty. Even when I started running back in 2003 I could not ever conceive it being such a massive part of my life.
I started taking running more seriously in 2015 when I started coaching at my local running club. Coaching showed me that the satisfaction I was getting through my own results could be multiplied many times by helping others.
I am a qualified Level 2 Coach in Running Fitness through UK Athletics.
I also started to take an interest in nutrition when I became vegetarian again in 2018. At first I wanted to make sure I was still getting everything I needed but I soon realised that optimising nutrition could improve performance too.
This led me to study nutrition with the BTN Academy and I am now a qualified nutritionist as well.
Learning about running and nutrition has dramatically improved my own performances. To date I have a marathon best of 2:46 (Boston 2023), qualifying me for most of the major marathons, and a half marathon best of 1:17 but I hope that I will continue to improve.
More importantly, I hope to be able to reach out and help more people like you in their running careers.
The aim of running rules is to give structure and focus to your running goals whilst retaining the fun side too. There are training tips, mental hacks and hopefully a bit of humour too along the way.
Maybe you don’t know how to get started, or maybe you’ve been running for some time but are unsure how or even if you can get to the next level. Maybe you are already smashing it but want to keep learning and improving.
There will be something here for you. By starting this site I hope to be able to extend my support to fellow runners beyond my local club. I always love to hear what problems other runners face and what parts of my articles help most.
If you have specific questions you want answered or would like a sounding board for running ideas or issues then please email me at alan@therunningrules.com.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and best of luck in your running journey!
Oh and my name is Alan Ladd – not the short American Western actor…
Marathon history
- Belfast 2003 – 3:41:16
- Belfast 2015 – 3:57:24
- Belfast 2016 – 3:25:40
- Antrim Coast 2018 – 3:39:15
- Dublin 2018 – 2:58:46
- London 2019 – 2:53:50
- Clonakilty 2019 – 3:08:05
- Berlin 2021 – 2:49:07
- Manchester 2022 – 2:48:11
- London 2022 – 2:48:36
- Boston 2023 – 2:46:47