Diary of a Rubbish Marathon Runner

In my prime I went for years without injury, quite unusual for a runner, but my Achilles heel has always been my, er, Achilles. It started a...

Well, some things are hard to explain. After running a lot of easy miles I decided to stretch my legs a bit again and anyway, I had to catch...

And so, finally, 2020 draws to an end. One thing we can all agree on, it was a truly shitty year, so good fucking riddance. There might have...

Clearly there are still some of you out there reading this because I got admonished this week for not updating this blog often enough not ju...

 In a strange masochistic way, I always wanted to know what it would be like to run an entire marathon on a treadmill. I think it was Jo Fea...

That Last Person challenge I mentioned dragged out quite a bit longer than I thought it would. I had resolved to stay in only for as long as...

Today would have been the day of the EcoTrail Wicklow race, had it not been cancelled a few weeks ago. I had actually been reasonably optimi...

Just so that this doesn't get misunderstood: I do not believe in dieting. I have never followed a diet and never will. I have never star...

It's a prediction I would have preferred to be wrong about but as it happens I did call it right: The EcoTrail race has been cancelled. ...

Training keeps going really well, I am really pleased with how it is going. I haven't felt as good for at least three years, and my HR a...

I don't want to be too hopeful. The last two years my performances have completely tanked (after already declining for three years befor...

We all know how this works. You intend to do something, put it off for a minute, then a minute has stretched to the end of the day, and then...

Jesus, has it been 4 weeks already? I know time flies as you're getting older but this is going at hyperspeed. The one thing I had gen...

Last week I finished off the 8 week 5k training program I had been following on Zwift. It was very strange in 2 completely separate ways - f...

So I haven't written a single post about running since February, about 3 months ago. What happened? Nothing in particular, really. I jus...

I do apologise in advance. I have been silent for 10 weeks, which has never happened before, and now I'm coming back with a real downer ...

Not for the first time it struck me how many people are involved in your race experience. I know running is a solitary pursuit at the majori...

I was a tad nervous going into this year's Donadea, knowing full well that a tough day was ahead of me. I basically stopped training abo...

Exactly 10 years ago I was actually looking forward to my "significant" birthday. It was exactly at that time that the silverwar...

Last Saturday I headed down to Shanganagh Park for the weekly parkrun. I'm not entirely sure why, I think it was that I felt good on Tue...