Goal achieved- Cork City Half...

5 Jun 2013, 4:10 p.m.

Ran the Cork City Half marathon on monday- finished with a time of 3 hours, 14 minutes, 51 seconds.  Delighted with myself, but I did get very sick afterwards. The day was hot 20C and humid, overcast for most of the time then became sunny when I had 3 m...

Ran my first race-5k trail run

4 May 2013, 3:51 p.m.

Ran a 5k trail run last night and didn't come last  I was 189th out of 210  The provisional results have my time as 00:34:59, pace 00:11:17. I hope these are accurate cos that's 3 minutes per mile faster than my usual average pace  Unfortunately, I left...

Entered the ballot for VLM2014

30 Apr 2013, 8:12 p.m.

My training is going really well at the moment. I've started running at a racecourse near where I work. The centre track, where the ambulances follow the race, is great for running on. Its a mile and a third round and, more importantly, flat. I ran twel...

Bad back strikes again :-(

6 Apr 2013, 7:06 p.m.

I did too much training last weekend- 5 miles Friday, 4 miles Saturday, 7 miles Sunday.  As I completed the Sunday run, I could feel the ache in my lower back on the way up my home hill.  I rested Easter Monday and did a 5 mile run on tuesday, again fee...

Speed or distance?

27 Mar 2013, 8:04 p.m.

Training has been varied in the last couple of weeks. I had a week off work and managed to run and cross train 6 days. The next week I struggled to fit two runs in, what with work and my mum being in hospital. You'd think having a relative in the hospit...

Confusion reigns

6 Mar 2013, 10:52 a.m.

Having devised a good plan outlined in the last post, I've done some more reading-i really should stop doing this cos I'm more confused than ever. I was researching how much time/distance I should be doing on the exercise bike when I came across loads o...

I don't feeling like I'm dyin...

23 Feb 2013, 5:29 p.m.

I've been training for a few weeks now and it's definitely getting easier. I'm still not running too far continuously but my mileage is increasing.  From tomorrow I will be building the  mileage on my long run week on week.  The plan I got from the grea...

Entered the Cork City half ma...

7 Feb 2013, 8:29 p.m.

Officially entered the Cork City half marathon today and added it to my Facebook status, so no backing out now. I'm doing OK with my training, walking/running 2 miles 4 days a week, although I did increase to 2.5 miles today.    I find it hard, sometime...

Two medals earned- run for 1 ...

27 Jan 2013, 2:12 p.m.

I managed to earn two medals today and am so pleased with myself My greatrun.org plan had me scheduled to do a 5 minute run, then 2 minute walk and 4 x 1 min run, 1 min walk.  But, I walked to the top of our hill (1/2 mile) as warmup then just started ...

woohoo, first nonstop half mi...

25 Jan 2013, 4:33 p.m.

Now, all you seasoned runners, don't laugh too loud. I feel very proud of myself that I managed to run for half a mile nonstop, mostly downhill in the rain. Next time I'm aiming for 1 kilometre. I know that that's only 0.62 miles, but 1 kilometre sounds...

Training in wintry weather

22 Jan 2013, 5:14 p.m.

Snowed yesterday for the first time since I've taken up huffing and puffing around the neighbourhood.  Yesterday was a rest day- well, no running anyway.  I was scheduled to do a 1.5 minute run, 1 minute walk x 4 today, but the local roads were too icy ...

Training while working shifts

15 Jan 2013, 9:48 p.m.

Just had my first day off work in a week, so have time (and inclination) to write a post.  After my 5k walk and totally knackered legs mentioned in last post, I rested until last wednesday  when I did a brisk walk of 1.5 mile around the hospital during ...

Learning the importance of re...

6 Jan 2013, 6:52 p.m.

I got up this morning still full of enthusiasm- yay to me! I go back to work on Tuesday after 10 days off and I know that training will be more difficult with my shift patterns.  So, I figure, make the most of my days off and the lack of rain at the mom...

first training session- 3 mil...

5 Jan 2013, 4:10 p.m.

Just completed my first session. I live in rural county cork and will be doing most of my training on the local roads.. These aren't great- no pavements- but little traffic either. The hardest thing is keeping moving when stepping off the road to let tr...

The first hurdle.......

4 Jan 2013, 5:21 p.m.

OK, so today I decided to do a few stretches.  Everything went well until I stretched my hamstrings. I've always had tight hamstrings -never could touch my toes.  I always get told off during moving and handling courses cos I can't squat and keep my hee...

trainers bought

3 Jan 2013, 6:44 p.m.

Finally got round to buying trainers today. I've been toying with the idea of starting running for a long time, but basically, I'm too lazy.  I've just given up smoking after 31 years and now want to get fit.  I was in Lanzarote in May for the Ironman t...