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Just back from a week in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. Great week, stayed in a lovely hotel by the sea, hired a car for the week and toured the entire island while managing a few days by the pool or on the beach. That’s the good bit… As to be expected there were…

I’ve been going for my pre-marathon long run for quite some time now but somehow circumstances have have prevented me from getting on with it. The fact that these circumstances are entirely within my control is… well, OK… I know, no excuse! With the marathon in less than 2 weeks… time is running out and…

The second Donadea 10K was a struggle to get to let alone run having polished off an excellent bottle of Chateau de something or other that night before but run it I did and in record time too!! I crossed the line in 54 minutes 8 seconds (coming in 262th out of 523 runners), that’s…

Today I moved into a whole new survey category… bye bye 25-39…. hello 40-55…

My best 5K to date is 25:03 (Malahide) and I really wanted to beat that today. The course was perfect for a fast run and the weather couldn’t be better. I was running with Seamus who wanted to run it in less than 20 minutes and I thought that if I kept up with him…

This was the 3rd race in the Dublin marathon series. It’s been less than a week since the Great North run in Newcastle where I had tried to beat the 2 hour barrier for a half marathon but failed. I was going to give this race everything and try to beat 2 hours again. I…

A pint of the plain is your only man! Sent from Brogans pub on Arthur’s Day, just before the excellent Jerry Fish & the Mudbug Club AND the even more excellent Undertones entertained us for the rest of the night… We should have an Arthur’s Day every year!!

The journey from Newcastle to Holyhead was a lot easier than getting to Newcastle a few days earlier, perhaps the first trip provided some essential rear conditioning! Although I left Newcastle early I stopped off to say cheerio to Paul in his shop and then to sample some excellent cherry crumble in Kerry’s equally excellent…

Last night Paul had warned us that the forecast was sunny with a high of 20 degrees C, useful info to have before a long run but only useful if remembered and as my memory is marginally better than that of a gold fish it was no surprise that I forgot to slap on some…

This was to be the first trip overseas with my motorcycle and would involve a few major hurdles! The first was particularly difficult: packing the night before and getting up at the unbelievably early time of 6am to catch the first ferry of the day which, to my complete surprise, I managed to do without…

I think there’s a little more to riding a motorcycle than getting to the top of traffic queues… I think we all have an awesome responsibility regardless of which mode we use; bikes, cars, horses or feet. There are gobshites in every category: some pedestrians don’t look, observe traffic signals or use crossings; most cyclists…

All day yesterday my feet felt a little uncomfortable and when I got home last night I realised that I had several blisters as a result of that morning’s run. I was wearing the same trainers that I used for Gael Force 6 and I was fine then so I guess something had changed between…

This should have been a 5 miler but as I have been seriously slacking recently I upped (real word, honest) it to a little over 7 miles. Like all of my best decisions it wasn’t a conscious one… I had a bit of a Forrest Gump moment and just kept going. Just before setting off…

I have just booked ferry tickets for my trip to Newcastle and as I’ll be taking the 1200GS I’ll have to think carefully about what to pack… hopefully I can get away with just the two side panniers, I’d rather not take the top box! I’ll be landing in Holyhead on Friday morning. It’s been…

This new race worked through the grounds of Malahide castle, see http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12692223 for location and route. Based on my lack of training during the week it came as a complete surprise that I would run well and it can as an even bigger surprise that I crossed that line with a new 5K PB of…

Our downhill jaunt came to an abrupt end as we swung left onto a semi-off road track that took little time becoming a fully off road track. There was no way my road bike could handle this terrain and I had to walk while the occasional mountain biker flew past me. This was where the…

The transition from stage 3 to 4 took an outrageous 15 minutes. It was a chance to take a breather, eat and get some dry socks on before the first cycling stage. I only had one pair of footwear (running shoes) which were covered in mud, peat and thoroughly saturated; if I do this again…

I managed to get 4 hours sleep which is what I need for a normal day, but this being an extraordinary day I probably could have done with a little more. After a massive bowl of porridge (oatmeal) and a last minute kit check I was on my way to Westport House. I was part…

Friday afternoon and I’m trying desperately to get out of the office but somehow everything unpleasant managed to hit the fan at the same time! 2pm was my planned departure time but the powers that be had other plans. How can so many emergencies happen at the same time and why don’t I learn how…

This is the annual 10 miler that forms part of the Dublin City Marathon series (5, 10 and 13.1 milers). I wasn’t really sure if I was ready for this race having, yet again, failed to train during the week and on the day I arrived a tad late but one of the benefits or…