Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

I got a surprise the other day when I checked my resting HR. It used to be 41/42 back home in Kerry but shot up to 50 when I moved to Dublin...

Training for a big race is always a bit of a balancing act, trying to train as hard as you can while staying on the right side of recovery. ...

There is ever so slightly contradicting feedback this week. The numbers aren’t particularly great, my HR is far higher for any given run t...

I was totally shocked and saddened to hear those awful news. I regarded Mike Curley Cunningham as a friend of mine. He was a fantastic runni...

Recovery from Saturday’s marathon has gone pretty well. Initially I thought I had aggravated my leg injury; Niamh noticed me limping on Sund...

When I initially earmarked the Lakes of Killarney marathon in my race calendar I obviously assumed it would be my most local race of the ye...

After turning my life upside down with my move to Dublin, it will take time to settle into a new routine and work out things until everythin...

I might not be a Greek demigod but I do share a weakness with one of Old Homer's finest. My right Achilles has a tendency to act up ever...

In my ideal world I can run as much as I want without any intrusion from the outside world. Alas, this is not my ideal world and real life d...

It's one of MC's favourite sayings, that how you recover from a workout says more about your conditioning than how the workout went....

I have read several books by prolific writer Matt Fitzgerald before. That’s not surprising – if you’re a runner who reads a lot about run...

Let's start with a confession: I would not have gone to Longford if I had picked my own race. I would have gone to Connemara instead, a ...

In the early stages of the week I couldn't make up my mind if I was recovering properly from the mountain or not. The legs sure felt a l...

I shouldn't have said that the curve is always pointing upwards I guess, because it did get a kink on Friday. Looks like I jinxed myself...

Ah well, I guess the form curve can't always point steeply upwards when you're in training ... Actually, scratch that. Looks like ...

The good news is that my back gradually got better with each passing day, to the extent that it is only just about noticeable by Sunday. Tha...

On Monday morning I got up at the usual time and got ready for my run. Things were progressing like they do every other morning, me mostly o...

There was another 5k on this weekend, even closer to home. It was also closer to my heart because this really was one for the local communit...

Maybe it’s crazy, or maybe it’s just a sign how old and boring I have become the last few years, but I was actually much more excited by see...

"Do the race", he said. "It's going to be fun!" he said. As I've said a few times, training has been going r...