Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

As you might know, I have four small children. The fact that they bring home a constant stream of germs from school/preschool comes with the...

In previous training cycles I have often seen improvements at various times of training and stagnation at others. In fact, I have come to se...

Fear not, Ewen , I have no immediate plans of kicking this blog into touch just because of the existence of dailymiles , but you never know....

Since we waited until Thursday to do the interval workout it was inevitable that I would not be fully recovered by the weekend so the coach ...

For the first time in the entire marathon training cycle, with just over 4 weeks to go before the marathon, the coach sent me out for a clas...

Roberto , taking time from running a sub-2:40 marathon, had a perfectly valid point: I am quite puzzled by how fast your run your "Easy...

Following the glory of Sunday's race it was time to knuckle down and get serious about training again. Marathon running isn't all ab...

Before I get sued, let’s rectify one mistake in my race report. Gary has pointed out that he has already run a 2:48 marathon and has a more ...

I had absolutely no idea what today’s race had in store. I have not raced since September 4th , more than half a year ago (I have done races...

By Monday I had figured out what had knocked me sideways during Sunday’s run. It was not fatigue, it was not the cold, it was the medicine. ...

There seems to be an impression that I don't like following advice. Not sure where that comes from, maybe from my irrational hatred agai...

Everything is going to be different from today on. Ireland is voting for radical change. According to the media this is the most important d...

There is not much to report because all I have been doing since the weekend were a few recovery runs, not because I overdid things but becau...

So said Kathryn as our paths crossed on Sunday in the pouring rain. I was just past the 12 mile point and working too hard to give much of a...

Shea had gotten up early and subsequently had half an hour spare after breakfast. He asked me what to do and did not fancy reading, writing,...

Shea just learnt a lesson about electronic equipment and water the hard way, but somehow he seems determined to blame it on his mum. A bit l...

I can sleep easily again. The coach’s verdict was not as damning as feared. Since this was my first back-to-back workout under his guidance ...

It’s Sunday afternoon, I'm knackered and I am left in no doubt that, yes, I am training for a marathon. For the first time since startin...

Just a couple of minutes after setting off I noticed a car slowly approaching from behind. As I'm running on public roads, that’s nothin...

I was a bit apprehensive before Tuesday’s hill workout because I did not know how much effect Sunday’s long run would have on my legs. There...