Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

Whoever designed my training schedule must have had a sadistic streak. Only three days after the 20 miles run it called for a mid-week 14 mi...

20 miles sounded like a very long run, especially after the torturous 18 miles run two weeks ago. I woke up a couple of times the night befo...

This week the mileage is seriously cranking up. 12 miles on Wednesday, 11 today (including 6 miles at LT speed), and the longest run is yet ...

I think it’s fair to say that if I lived in Dublin, I would not have taken up running as a hobby. Most of the pathways are concrete, which i...

The 18 miles run just 14 hours after the Killarney 5km fun run was pure torture. It didn’t help that the sun came out after 4 miles and was ...

Don't eat a dinner just an hour before the run DOH! Don’t wait behind some, well, heavier runner at the starting line. They are bound t...

The Good Lady Wife has informed me rather late that she made an executive decision that the whole family are going to spend next week in Dub...

A run of 17 miles sounded very daunting, and I was somehow dreading it all Saturday, but when I got going, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I fear...

I managed to get through the two hard days without too much troubles, but I am quite tired now. Walking up the staircase into the office was...

A few weeks ago I stupidly decided to give the wife a special surprise and got her 2 tickets for a concert of some aging overrated rock-grou...

I’m really losing it. I set my alarm in time for my 10 miles run today, and set it for 5:20 instead of 5:40. I didn’t even notice at first, ...

Actually, I love dogs. I used to have one when I was a child, until it died of old age when I was 16 or 17. But when I’m out running, things...

I’ve noticed that I mentioned my heart rate in four of the last five entries, so I’ll leave it out for a while, or I might sound obsessed wi...

I must be completely bonkers, because I got up at 5:40 in the morning for my 10 miles run, despite hearing the wind and rain outside. Gettin...

When I started running, I checked out a lot of web sites, and was really frustrated about the amount of jargon they used without explaining ...

I had to go to a wedding on Friday (which was set in beautiful Dingle, about an hour drive from home), and stayed there for most of Saturday...

I stupidly decided to change the schedule and try to run up a hill until I nearly pass out instead of running a comfortable 10 miles. Well, ...

I’ve recently bought a heart rate monitor to help the training. It’s a very cheap one, a Polar F1 for 47 Euros – the cheapest I could find, ...

I had a really great 12 miles run on Sunday. Strictly speaking I ran too fast, but I was not pushing myself hard at all, I just ran at what ...

Thursday was actually a strenuous day. Not only did I run 9 miles in the morning, I also played football for an hour in the evening and then...