6 weeks. That's how long the medics said it would take before I could start training again. 6 weeks! That's nearly a month and a half. That's far too long to have to wait after 9 months of seemingly never ending pregnancy. I knew that Irish Olympian Sonia O'Sullivan didn't hang around for 6 weeks … Continue reading Getting Back in the Saddle
My alarm goes off. Its 6.15 am. “Damn”, I think, as I slowly roll over and switch the incessant beeping off. Its still dark outside the flimsy dust-ridden curtains. I’m in Tanzania on a work assignment. And for the last week, I’ve been in its rural western part, near the border with neighbouring Burundi. But … Continue reading Dawn Dirt Road running Western Tanzania
I’ve not been looking forward to the start of September. Because on my training calendar, September marks the start of my tempo training runs. After 4 months of lovely long slow runs, all of sudden, I’m meant to add some speed to the fat cushion of endurance I’ve gradually built up all this time. Speed … Continue reading Finding a Place to do Terrible Tempo Training
I can be notoriously bad at doing strength exercises. I just want to get out there and run around. But when body parts started to creak and grind, then I figured I could no longer avoid doing the strength training that is required. According to the book, Serious Training for Endurance Athletes, the goal of … Continue reading Becoming Strong
There was that pain again. In my right hip - the same one I injured when I fell off a horse aged seven. I was in the middle of long hard winter training and the mileage was starting to take its toll. Usually my hip hurts and I am well used to it, and indeed … Continue reading Miracle Man
It was Monday morning. I was back at the office. My weekend run in the Wicklow Mountains seemed oh so far away. As usual, I opened up my outlook inbox to see what emails I had to deal with that day. Nestled amongst various work tasks I found an email from a fellow mountain runner. … Continue reading Have you seen this shoe?
The Wicklow Way is a 132 km walking trail that travels south from Dublin, up and over the Wicklow Mountains, before finally finishing up in Clonegal, County Carlow. The Irish Mountain Running Association avails of this trail on a regular basis through a popular series of annual races. First off there’s the Wicklow Trail and … Continue reading Running the Wicklow Way
How do you learn to read a map and use a compass? How do you get good at route choice and cluster order? Who do you ask about fell-running shoes and mountain-running bags? How do you work out what to eat and drink, and how often to do so in different types of races? Courses … Continue reading Mountain Mentors
Training for races can become a very serious thing. So I decided last weekend to sod the training and instead have a bit of fun on my runs. I was down in Waterford for the weekend and there they were: the Comeragh Mountains. At 16km in length, they are a tidy range of mountains, with the … Continue reading Fun Runs
It had to be done: a night run from Drumgoff to Glendalough. So instead of the usual warm pub and cold pints last Friday night, I found myself instead in the dark in Glenmalure Inn car park at 7.30pm. Paul Nolan, Jason Reid and myself had thought it a grand old idea to go running … Continue reading A Foray into the Mountains in the Middle of the Night