Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

Maybe it would have been all different if I had read Mike’s advice before Friday’s long run. Run as slowly as you want, he said, and reward...

It’s Thursday evening, and I’ve got the usual Thursday evening feeling of dread coming up. Somehow I’m not looking forward to tomorrow’s 20-...

Andrew tagged me, but I’ve been tagged before. If you still want to know what rocks my world, you can look it up here . I got a slight shoc...

I don’t know what made me do it, but what’s done is done. Once again I turned what should have been a nice and easy training run into some r...

The kids certainly enjoyed the fine weather of the last two weeks. Going to the beach every day is not a treat that is too common here in Ir...

Picture the scene. Monday morning, 5am. Shea storms into our bedroom. “Daddy. I can’t dream!” “Well, go back to bed then” “No, I don’t dream...

Things that broke in Nana and Gaga’s house while we were there: An old rosary that used to belong to Nana’s granddad (but got fixed again) (...

Guess what the following sequence means: 5:50, 7:00, 5:50, 7:30. No, it’s not the pace of my most recent intervals. It’s the times in the mo...

It’s only Tuesday, but I can already see that this is not going to be an easy week. 67 miles in singles on unfamiliar routes is going to be ...

The basking in glory after Friday’s race didn’t last too long. Saturday morning I had to sneak out early to get 5 miles of recovery run unde...

First of all, please accept my apologies for the last entry. I know it wasn’t a pleasant read; thing is, it wasn’t a pleasant run either. I ...

How detailed should I describe today’s events? It depends how much I want to gross you out, I suppose. After feeling very tired on Monday I ...

Runners always tell other runners to take a break They never take breaks themselves when advised to do so I seamlessly manage to fit into th...

Like most runners out there, I didn’t listen to all the well-meant advice of taking it easy and taking a few days off running. I did listen ...

I was determined to follow my resolve and run Wednesday’s 12 miler slower than on Monday. I didn’t know that the choice would be made for me...

Funny, just the other day I was thinking that it had been a long time since the last meme made the rounds. I must be psychic, because here i...

According to you guys I’m either on the verge of injury and burnout, or I’m going to set a big PR in Dublin. Actually, I kind of agree with ...

It was only a matter of time until someone would start questioning the authenticity of my accounts of Cian’s misdemeanours. Well, I can assu...

Oh yes, back to form he certainly is. Cian, I’m talking about. Yesterday evening I had to mind the boys on my own, because Niamh took Lola a...

Shea and Cian are in much better form. They are still covered in spots (Shea much more so than Cian), but they have stopped itching, and we ...