18kg Lost. Injury Overcome.
Marathon on the Horizon.

I have been working with Phill for 12 months now, and to say I am overjoyed with the results would be an understatement.

When I first approached him, my goals were relatively straightforward: improve my half-marathon time and increase my 5K and 10K pace. However, after completing the initial "Hot Pen" onboarding exercise, it quickly became clear that there were deeper priorities to address, particularly establishing a healthy work-life balance and finally tackling weight loss, something I'd always struggled with and falsely assumed running alone would fix.

My journey wasn't smooth sailing. Early on, an accident forced me to completely stop running for four months. Mentally, it was a very difficult period, and I found myself in a dark place. What impressed me most was how Phill adapted. Rather than putting everything on hold, he helped me focus on what I could do instead of what I couldn't. Together, we shifted our attention to strength training, something I unexpectedly found very rewarding and enjoyed. That change of focus was transformational. It gave me purpose, lifted me out of a negative mindset, and allowed me to absolutely smash the strength and weight-loss goals we'd set while I was injured.

Fast forward to today, and the physical results speak for themselves. I look in the mirror and find it hard to believe the results. Since the start, I have dropped from 111kg down to 93kg. Reaching the sub-100kg milestone was huge for me, but Phill taught me to look beyond just the scales. When I hit a temporary four-week weight plateau, he kept me calm, focused on trusting the process and follow the nutrition targets, and this successfully shifted my attitude toward food, moving me away from strict tracking into awareness-led eating and properly fuelling for performance.

Our return to running has been built the right way, with patience and zero shortcuts. We went from careful walk/run interval blocks to protect my achilles, to building up to continuous 40-minute easy runs and eventually ticking off one of my 90-day goals of a comfortable, relaxed 10K training run. Even when injuries or tiredness threaten to disrupt us, like a recent achilles flare after combining a run and a weights session, Phill's guidance to rest completely rather than try to heroically push through meant I bounced back quickly and safely for a 75-minute long run just days later. He is now designing a flexible marathon plan for the Loch Ness Marathon that fits perfectly around my life, family holidays, and weekends away.

Before working with Phill, I also carried a lot of anxiety around running, constantly feeling like I wasn't good enough, fearing I'd fail every time I went out, and worrying people were judging my speed. Phill created a safe space where I could talk about these feelings. By opening up, we implemented positive self-talk and mindset strategies that completely shifted how I feel — hitting a "no vest" milestone on a local run was a quiet but massive victory for my confidence.

You can easily get a training plan generated by AI these days, but AI can't change the plan when you're tired, when you have an injury relapse, or when work gets in the way. It can't talk you through your doubts, send you personalised weekly video feedback, or provide detailed monthly progress updates that keep you visually connected to your VDOT fitness scores and trends. The human connection and the mental side of coaching are what set Phill apart.

The structure of the "Fit for Life" program has made a world of difference to me. The wider community elements, from the daily motivation of the group chat to participating in local events like the Frimley Lodge Parkruns and Windle Valley Runners club sessions, keeps training varied, social, and highly motivating even when energy dips.

My anxiety has lifted, I am stronger, fitter, and a lot lighter in so many ways. I now look at what I can do, rather than what I can't. Thank you, Phill!