Runner of the Month May 2018: David Davies

How long have you been running: since 2012
Favourite race: Severn Bridge Half Marathon and Liverpool Rock n Roll Half Marathon
Favourite distance: Half Marathon
Favourite time to run: Morning
Greatest achievement: London Marathon 2017

Back in 2012 I was in my fifties, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bordering on diabetes and was five stone overweight; weighing in at 17 stone. I live in Cardiff Bay and at that time I thought nothing of catching the train from the Bay up to town to save me walking.

I work as a minister of religion and when I went to visit parishioners they would offer me tea and cake to be sociable. I always accepted the cake (often a double helping!) and a cup of tea with two sugars. The weight kept on piling on and I often thought that it was odd how the clothes shops changing rooms were getting smaller; not me getting bigger! I went to the doctors for a routine appointment and the doctor turned to me and said “you do realise you are obese don’t you?” and to be honest I didn’t until I heard the words come out of his mouth (looking back it is hard to believe that I didn’t realise I was so unfit and unhealthy).

I joined the local Weight Watchers group in Grangetown and learnt how to eat smaller quantities of food, choosing the healthy option and I started walking. Then I started jogging around Cardiff Bay and decided to set myself a challenge to do the Cardiff half marathon. I started to go to Grangemoor parkrun as part of my training. Once I had completed my first half marathon in Cardiff with a time of 2:45 I had well and truly got the running bug. I wanted to join a club to motivate me to train and improve.

I was very nervous going to the first CDF session but everyone was really friendly, welcoming and sociable. At the first session I ran with Steph Ferry and she gave me confidence and encouraged me to set a good pace. Welcoming new people and being an inclusive club makes CDF something special.

Since then I have done a total of 11 half marathons, raised nearly £5,000 for charity and finally got an elusive sub 2 hour time. I always wear my CDF t-shirt at events to represent the club and I post a picture at the start of the race to the Facebook group; it’s great to see all of the positive comments from other club members when I finish the race.

1Last year I did the London marathon; which was a real step up from a half, but a wonderful experience. I’ve now signed up for the New York marathon in November. I keep up with the CDF news from the facebook group and try to train with them as much as possible. It’s great to see how people improve week on week and I have made many friends both in Grangemoor Parkrun and CDF.

Runner of the Month April 2018: Tor Jones

Your monthly opportunity to get to know a few CDF Runners a bit better. This month we highlight Tor Jones, fresh from a Half Marathon PB.


  • How long have you been running: 8 months
  • Favourite Race: London Landmarks Half Marathon
  • Favourite Distance: 10k
  • Favourite time to run: Mid-morning
  • Greatest Achievement: Smashing my PB in London Landmarks Half Marathon

Back in 2013 I ran my first half marathon whilst raising money for a local hospice back home in Stroud. I swore then i’d never run another!

In 2014 I then moved to Cardiff and thought to myself I couldn’t not run the Cardiff Half whilst I’m here. After much deliberating of actually entering, 3 years later the other half signed us both up for the 2017 Cardiff Half. When I began my training I quickly found that I wasn’t comfortable running alone and with a lack of structure my motivation began to wain; cue CDF.

I joined CDF in the hope that I would feel safer running through the Autumn/Winter months and add some structure to my training. What I didn’t expect to find so quickly was so many lovely people and dare I say it some enjoyment in running!!

Enter the London Landmarks Half Marathon (LLHM) in March 2018. After a few months of consistent running I actually felt good ahead of the race, despite having my training plan interrupted by the snow! I set myself the target of getting close to the time I had achieved in Cardiff (2:23:48).

I’ve competed nationally with trampolining and prefer to stay fit by going to the gym. I’m not a runner… or so I thought. The LLHM was run in a huge personal best time of 2:07:46. I’d somehow managed to improve my half marathon time by 16 minutes in less than 6 months. I have also improved my 5K and 10K times.

CDF are a friendly welcoming bunch, offering structured training with an enjoyable atmosphere. So if you’re looking for somewhere or someone to run with in Cardiff, why not check out their facebook group?

CDF Training Plan Mar-May 2018

Coach Rich Skyrme

With spring comes daylight in the evening, and a change of location for our training sessions. After the clocks move forward an hour, we move back into Bute Park where we’ve got a traffic-free green space much more appealing than the long dark of Lloyd George Avenue. If you currently meet us on LGA, please note the change of location at the dates below!

A goal when creating a training schedule for a group like CDF Runners is not to repeat sessions from the previous block, so these will differ from any of the sessions that have been run already this year. This block also presents us an interesting opportunity to incorporate the Commonwealth Games into our training schedule for the same week we’re being inspired by the athletes on the Gold Coast.

A shorter distance for our benchmark run this time around but the same principle; run the first benchmark as hard as possible, train for 8 weeks and re-test. Hopefully, you’ll see an improvement in performance!

Lloyd George Avenue

  • 21st March – 400m Time Trial (+ caterpillar run)
  • 28th March – 200m reps

Bute Park

  • 4th April – Time pyramid: 120s | 90s | 60s | 30s and back up
  • 11th April – Commonwealth Games tie-in: Race the Champs!
  • 18th April – Bodyweight circuits
  • 25th April – 1km | 400m | 400m (2 or 3 reps)
  • 2nd May – 1 mile | 1km | 800m | 400m
  • 9th May – Agility, Balance, Coordination (ABC)
  • 16th May – 400m Time Trial (+ caterpillar run)

If you can’t make a Wednesday session with us, try to incorporate that weeks’ session into your routine.

Mondays will continue as usual with options of 3k, 5k or 7k.

Runner of the Month March 2018: Holly Corlett

How long have you been running: 4 years
Favourite Race: All of them. Love a race
Favourite Distance: The longer the better
Favourite time to run: At winter in the dark and pouring rain
Greatest Achievement: Completing the Isle of Wight Challenge, 106km in 29h50m (without sleeping)

I love being outside and going on an adventure. Back home in mid-Wales, I would spend most days exploring the mountains, forests and rivers with the late, great Bethbo Baggins (my dog). I’m a big country person, so also love a lot of mud and clambering over obstacles.

I was trying to be cool one day, so I joined a gym. I was on the treadmill and the women next to me ran for an hour straight. I was in awe. I wanted to be able to run for an hour, so worked towards that for a couple of months and finally did it. I entered the Cardiff Half Marathon that year. I was absolutely terrified by the thought of running 13 miles but finished it. It was the best feeling.

To cut a long story short (and because I’ve been told not to give you my life story), I joined CDF Runners in October 2016. By March 2017 I had shaved 2 minutes off my 10k PB and 3 minutes off my half marathon PB. By May 2017, I had run my first marathon.

Joining CDF is one of the best decisions I have made. They have provided me with the opportunity to achieve and experience things that I would not have done otherwise. I feel very grateful to be surrounded by such friendly, supportive, understanding, funny and piggy people. Everyone is celebrated within the club and I like that a lot.

Time spent with the CDF family is time well spent. Diolch gang!


Holly is raising funds for the Wallich by running on a treadmill for 24 hours (TWENTY FOUR HOURS) – Sponsor her here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/holly-corlett


Want to be Runner of the Month? Of course you do. Doesn’t matter if you started running last week or last century, we want to know all about you.

Email cdfrunners@gmail.com or let us know in the Facebook group.

CDF Pride

CDF Runners is an LGBT+ friendly club! That means we don’t tolerate any kind of homophobic, biphobic or transphobic abuse, and we do our best to be supportive and inclusive to everyone so that people feel welcome and can be themselves. David tells us about his experience of running and why it means so much to him. Continue reading “CDF Pride”

Runner of the Month February 2018: Dan Lloyd

This is a monthly opportunity to get to know some of our runners a little better, and first up is Dan, who is often the first to welcome and introduce himself to new runners.


Been running for: 4 years
Favourite distance: 3k
Favourite race: Butetown Mile

My name’s Dan, I make music (under the name Flameholder) and I’m a part of CDF Runners.

I’ve always had an excitement for watching athletics on television and it’s kinda weird I never had the idea to start running myself until I was in my late 30s. I was in the shower one day, in the middle of depression over my ex-girlfriend, I saw my stomach was the biggest it had ever been and I said to myself: “NOPE, you’re gonna start running.”

So I went out with my old games teacher’s words stuck in my head – “If you want to enjoy running, run at a speed that is too slow for you.” I started running with the rules that I’d run too slow and stop whenever I wanted to. That run/walk approach worked and in the end I stopped wanting to stop. I only ran casually but as with anything that calls you in life I didn’t like the idea of letting it go so when my friend Anton told me Nike had a free running club I wanted to get into it properly.

We went to the local store and met the Team GB 3K steeplechaser Ieuan Thomas, who started the club with UK Athletics coach Fran Baker. The club later became CDF Runners and now it operates from Moti in Queens Arcade, Cardiff.

It was fun. Really fun. Upbeat.

I think I came in at the time when the club really started to grow to be more of a family and I’ve loved it since. The energy of it is social rather than being how fast you can run. So many people come through it and everyone’s different but everyone gets on. I’m like, allergic, to traditional downbeat British self-deprecating behaviour and there’s something about running that successfully cuts through that, it forces positivity into people.

I’m doing it on a diet of plant food and I find it fuels me amazingly. I’m consumed with fascination, I have to know how fast I can go. It’s cool when you start running how you learn from experience what kind of running suits you. I’ve joked that I’m just a frustrated sprinter before but I don’t really want things to be over in 15 seconds, I want something I can get into and I’ve found I like running everything from 400 metres to 10K for a long run; I’ve realised speed endurance is exciting to me. I do like doing Cardiff Half Marathon once a year though because it’s such a great event but I have a passion that I’d like to see more adults doing shorter distance running. More power to anyone who wants to do a marathon, it’s amazing strength that I don’t have but I think most people’s tendencies towards longer distance is purely traditional.

Most of the buzz for me is just training like an athlete is so cool. We obviously don’t train the same as elite athletes but we do proper sessions that they would do and I’ve come to think that doing activities with other people is really satisfying because you know every one of you is getting something out of it. I love seeing the way people will give a lot of time and passion (sometimes all of themselves) to something that’s not for money.

I think if you’re not using yourself physically, mentally and spiritually you won’t feel alive, running takes care of the physical but also reaches the other parts of that triangle. And what’s really at the heart of why we do it? I don’t know, follow your bliss.

Big respect to all our coaches past and present, especially Jon Harrhy. You are run club.


Want to be Runner of the Month? Of course you do. Doesn’t matter if you started running last week or last century, we want to know all about you.

Email cdfrunners@gmail.com or let us know in the Facebook group.

Yoga for Runners

By Lisa James

As a yoga teacher teaching runners, there are a few complaints I hear over and over from my students – typically related to tight hamstrings, impossible hips, a weak core, and lazy or tight glutes.

And, full disclosure, it’s not just students.

As a runner myself, I also know this all too well personally too! Because – in my experience – as a collective we’re a group known to under-stretch, over-run and rarely cross-train.

Which is all well and good of course… until the day of the dreaded injury!

So here’s the first in a series that sees me introduce some of what yoga has to offer as a complement to our running – and this week we’re focused on those ever-troublesome glutes.

These poses can of course be practised outside of a class to help support your training but are intended to be taught in-person. If you have any pre-existing injury, please take advice from a medical professional and regardless, (yes, I’m biased!) I highly recommend giving a class a go as part of your regular regime – you’d be amazed at the difference it can make!

Strengthening Poses

Bridge pose (setu bandha sarvangasana)

  • From lying flat on the ground bring the feet in towards the body, flat on the floor with knees up towards the ceiling. Take a breath in and exhale to engage the glutes and slowly peel the bottom, hips and back off the ground – lifting up towards the ceiling into bridge pose and opening the whole front of the body in the process (picture one). Hold here, spreading the weight between the feet and shoulders, and maintain a steady breath before using an exhale to slowly unfold the spine back down into the ground. Repeat within the boundaries of your own strength.
  • If you feel strong and controlled in bridge pose you can begin to add in a leg extension – maintaining an even height across the hips, and extending a single leg up towards the ceiling (picture two). Ensure a balanced weight distribution between the grounded foot and the shoulders, and keep the glutes engaged.

Chair pose (utkatasana)

  • From standing, with the feet and legs pressed together, inhale and take the arms up overhead then exhale and sink back into your ‘chair’ – drawing the belly button lightly back towards the spine and engaging the legs and glutes. Don’t let your knees come forward of your toes. See what you can do to take the shoulders around onto the back, keeping the chest nice and open so as to maintain the breath. Hold for a few breaths before inhaling to come out and then repeating.

Revolved chair pose (parivrtta utkatasana) with a step back to revolved lunge (parivrtta anjaneyasana)

  • Start in chair pose (see previous instruction). Bring the hands together to the heart in prayer position and, keeping the knees aligned and pointing forwards, hips even and sitting low – twist through the spine and abdomen to hook the left elbow over the right knee (picture one). Press the arm to the leg and leg to the arm – elbows are in line, forearms perpendicular to the ground and the shoulders draw back together.
  • Spreading the toes and grounding through the four corners of the right foot, start to slowly bring the left foot off the ground towards the left glute so you come to a balance (picture two). You’ll want to press the thighs together for balance. This might be as far as you come and that is perfect. Be sure to engage the right glute and take care to not ‘pop’ the left hip away to the side.
  • If stage two is managed with ease you can step the left foot to the back of the mat, all the time staying in your twist and staying strong and engaged through the right leg and glute (picture three). To come out – step back up to the revolved chair pose, draw the belly button back towards the spine to engage the core and release the arms from the leg and release up to standing.

High lunge (anjaneyasana) with knee drop

  • Begin in a high lunge position with the front knee stacked over the ankle and the back knee lifted with the toes tucked. Inhale to take the arms up towards the ceiling, wrapping shoulders around onto the back and opening the chest (picture one). Think about pressing back heel towards whatever is behind you, and lifting the top of the back thigh up towards the ceiling.
  • Find the breath in this pose and then, on an exhale slowly release the back knee to the ground, inhaling to lift it back into high lunge. Repeat this action with the breath – exhaling down, inhaling up – keeping the breath long, fluid and easeful. Do the same on the other side.

Low lunge (anjaneyasana) with leg lift

  • Begin in a low lunge position (picture 1) with the front knee stacked over the ankle and the top of the back foot flat on the ground. Inhale to take the arms up towards the ceiling, wrapping shoulders around onto the back and opening the chest.
  • Find the breath in that low lunge and then, on an inhale engage the glutes and press strongly into the feet to raise the back knee off the ground. Repeat this action with the breath – inhaling up, exhaling down – keeping the breath long, fluid and easeful. Do the same on the other side.

Table top with side extension

  • Start in a table top position with hips stacked over knees, wrists under shoulders and the belly button drawing lightly back towards the spine for a flat back (picture one).
  • Inhale and extend the left arm forward and right leg back – maintaining, as far as possible, the flat back position (picture two).
  • Exhale to take the left arm and right leg away to opposite sides. You’ll need to be very strong through the right glute, maintain the drawing back of belly button and engage the remaining arm and leg muscles for stability and to avoid putting excess pressure in the right wrist.  

…and release

Cow face (gomukhasana) legs

  • Come to a seated position, crossing your left leg over the right so that the knees come to stack on top of each other. Your left foot comes to rest outside of the right thigh, and the right foot outside of the left thigh. Thighs are together (picture one). If the knees don’t meet, place a prop of some kind (cushion/blanket for example) between the knees to pad the gap. Sit up tall, bringing length to the spine. You can rest the hands on the feet.
  • If it feels good for you, from here you can come into a forward fold (picture two). Keep the spine long as you walk the hands forward, hinging forward from the hips (rather than collapsing from the belly). Hold and breathe before repeating on the opposite side.

Firelogs (agnistambhasana) pose

  • Sitting cross-legged, slide your left foot under the right leg bringing the foot underneath the right knee and stacking the right foot on top of the left knee (picture one). We’re looking for a triangular-shaped opening as you gaze down at the legs. Rest the fingertips on the floor to the outside of the hips and sit tall, finding the breath.
  • Again you have the option of adding a forward fold – keep the torso long as you exhale and fold forward from the hips and not the belly. Hands come to the floor in front of you and the bum remains pressing back into the ground. Hold and breathe before repeating on the opposite side.

Pigeon pose (eka pada kapotasana)

  • From our table top position (see earlier) walk the hands about a hand span forward of the shoulders. Tuck the right toes and bring the left knee forward to place it down on the mat just behind your left wrist. Your shin will be on the diagonal, with the left heel pointing towards the right hip (picture one).
  • You’ll want to know walk the right right back along the mat so that the front of the right leg flattens down onto the ground. The right toes can be untucked so the top of the foot comes to rest on the ground too (picture two). Use your arms for support and make sure the hips are square to the front of the mat. We’ll also want to support and level the left hip so this likely means adding some padding underneath – a cushion or blanket, or even a nice chunky book.
  • If this is comfortable, and there’s no pain or discomfort in the knee, you might walk your hands forward and come down on the forearms (picture three). Again propping the forearms up on some height might be helpful here. Release the weight of your body and relax into the pose.
  • Wherever we land – breathe long and easy while you hold and then repeat on the other side.

Legs up the wall (viparita karani) and/or corpse pose (savasana)

  • After all of that it’s time for some rest! Take the legs up the wall (bum right in to the wall) for a few minutes for some restorative time (picture one) and/or take the body all the way down onto the ground, releasing all holding into savasana for as many minutes as you’d like of relaxation (picture two).

Lisa James teaches specific yoga for runners, and yoga for sport in the Cardiff area – a class timetable can be found online at yogalust.co or you can contact her at lisa@yogalust.co.

CDF Training Plan Jan-Mar 2018

Coach Rich Skyrme

Since Nike closed down, the weekly sessions have been planned on a week-to-week basis. Going into the new year, I wanted to try and plan these out in 8-9 week blocks as it gives the athlete the opportunity to test their progress at both the start and the end of the cycle. It’ll also mean that if you’re working on a marathon or half-marathon plan you’ll be able to use the Wednesday sessions in the best way for you. Continue reading “CDF Training Plan Jan-Mar 2018”

CDF Couch to 5k 2018

CDF Runners are delighted to announce a new Couch to 5k programme starting in February 2018.

After a successful programme in Spring 2016, we’re really glad to be able to offer the opportunity to more budding runners. All four graduates continued to run with us, and two of them have taken on the mantle of running our next Couch to 5k.

This will run from February 5th – April 7th 2018. You will not need to run every session with us, but from experience, we recommend that you try to keep to the routine and use the group to help you complete every run.

Ruth (L) and Liz (R) after completing a 24 hour race as a team.

Liz and Ruth have become enthusiastic runners and familiar faces within the club, and they’re now looking forward to passing on all they’ve learnt to new runners. They’ll be joined by Amy to form the core of the support team for the C25K runners, and they will be joined as needed by a host of other willing volunteers over the 9 week process.

We will be following the full NHS endorsed Couch to 5k programme which requires three sessions a week and builds up running at a steady rate.

If you’re interested in signing up, please visit our dedicated Facebook page, or email us. There’s no obligation at this stage and we’d be very happy to answer any of your questions.

CDF Runners Fundraising for The Wallich

CDF Runners are adopting The Wallich as it’s first ever charity partner.

As a running club based in the centre of Cardiff, we cannot fail to notice the shocking rise in rough sleeping on our streets. With Winter drawing in, and Christmas around the corner, we decided we should try and help out.

We reached out to The Wallich, a charity working with those experiencing homelessness across Wales, and we’ve agreed to help fundraise and raise awareness of homelessness and rough sleeping in Cardiff, signposting our members to where they can find out more.

Homelessness is a hugely complicated issue, and an individual case is very rarely down to a single cause. The Wallich specialise in providing services for people with multiple, complex needs; people who, because of their high support needs, are often excluded from other services and have difficulty in accessing accommodation. The range of services The Wallich offers is as diverse as the client group they work with and the underlying aim is to ensure all people have access to support appropriate to their needs. Long term solutions, rather than short term fixes, are developed in partnership with the client.

We have decided that this partnership will last around 6 months, at which point we will evaluate the experience and look at supporting new charities on a regular basis.

You can donate to our Team Page here: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/cdfrunners

There will be a number of events and opportunities to learn more about The Wallich, which will be promoted here and on our Facebook page.

If you would like to know more or get involved please email cdfrunners@gmail.com.