Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

I had a reasonably good run on Sunday. However, the fact that managing 8-minute pace for less than a half marathon without feeling wiped o...

This is without a shadow of a doubt the most frustrating training cycle for a long time. When I started out running I used to get injured a ...

Ah well. Holidays don't last forever, though I sure wish they did, especially this time round. On Wednesday we stepped into the plane in...

The internet connection is a bit sketchy here and once we get a connection I have to share it with 4 kids, so this is a rare chance to post ...

Ok, at some point this week I admitted defeat and admitted to myself that the best way to get out of a hole is to stop digging. I reduced tr...

I don't think my heart burn issues are a general digestion problem; I only ever suffer from heart burn 30 seconds immediately after a hi...

Well, so I had a chat with my coach and we decided to make a change to the plan and see how it goes. For the first time in well over 10 year...

I already knew I had to make changes, last Tuesday's disaster of a workout had shown that very clearly. My problem was, and maybe it was...

I have been feeling a bit strange that last couple of weeks. Obviously it's not that unusual for a runner to have hurting quads but my q...

I've never had a problem with motivation, that's for sure. The problem was generally going too far the other way, and this time I re...

When I tried my own Maffetone training 2 years ago, my initially high hopes were eventually dashed when I just would not get into proper pea...

Slowly, very slowly, the training is revving up. The coach is following a different strategy compared to what I would have chosen on my own,...

My new coach has certainly made a difference already - she has made me run a lot slower! I did try to dabble into Maffetone training a cou...

Let's have one final look at the data from Belfast. This is the pace analysis of my run. The major crisis points are easily vis...

Notes It's been 5 days since the race and recovery has been going rather well, with one notable exception. Obviously I felt rather des...

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Energia 24 hrs race in Belfast in 2014 had been my greatest race ever. Ever since then I have been itching ...

I could not remember ever feeling so exhausted, even though I knew I had been there before; I just had forgotten how much it hurt. The pro...

As any runner knows, phantom pains are part of the tapering process. It just happens every time. A few weeks ago I did have some real discom...

Running is mainly a solitary sport but from time to time we do get the chance to take part in a team event, be it a team scoring event like ...

Thank you to my employers in Fexco for allowing this to go ahead during work hours and to all my colleagues fo...