With all the gyms closed it seems the streets are busy with Gym Bunnies and Muscle Marys pounding the pavement. This is clearly causing some angst with the general public sharing the pavement with these new joggers. So as a seasoned (old) runner I hope this advice might be useful

Firstly, your jog is not more important than someone else’s safety. No matter how close you may feel you are destined to break a PB it will never trump this.

Plan ahead and I don’t just mean the route although that’s a good start. Avoid places where there may be queues or narrow pinch points.

Keep your head up. The temptation is to stare at the footpath directly in front of you. Although the state of the uneven footpaths are a concern you need to also scan ahead to help you plan. It is also good for your posture.

Run on the OFFSIDE footpath. (This is against the flow of traffic). This means when you see a pedestrian in front of you, (PLAN) you can keep your social distancing by moving into the road (if safe) without having the tricky (even for advanced runners) look over the shoulder.

Don’t cut corners. Run wide at junctions and bends to give you the best vision into the footpath ahead. This will avoid head on collisions and give you time to plan more social distancing (if needed)

Be aware of your surroundings. Many of us run with headphones in but cutting off all noise from the outside world may mean you miss something critical and put yourself in unnecessary danger.

Smile and say thank you. If someone gets out of you way for instance, why wouldn’t you? But people don’t. Don’t be one of those people.

Have fun...but not at the expense of someone else’s health.