In 2018, I launched my course Triathlon For Beginners and subsequently set up a Facebook group to facilitate peer support. Six years later and I am pleased to announce the group has now hit 100,000 members. My Running For Beginners group did the same in January. I have some battle stories from what spammers will try in a group that size . But it has been wonderful to watch so many people sharing stories, encouragement and support ..read more

With Storm Kathleen sweeping over our islands I wasn’t sure what parkruns would be on. There was a nervous wait from 8:00 to 8:30 as I refreshed all of the Facebook pages hoping to see someone would confirm their parkrun was on. Royal Canal parkrun were the first to confirm so was delighted to join them. The course is an out-and-back that starts from the town centre. It is pan-flat with no locks on the course. I set off thinking I would not be able to match last week’s time, especially as there would be more of a headwind coming back. But as it happens, I managed to set another walking PB of ..read more

I’m a British Triathlon certified strength and conditioning coach and I teach a course on using bodyweight exercises to build strength that you can do at home. It has been available via the Resilient website for a while but yesterday it became available on Udemy, too ..read more

After five weeks of resting and physio, I’m still not able to run. So, thinking about what old man sports I could do, I decided to watch a race walking tutorial and see if I could improve on my 5k walking pb of 35:38 set earlier this month. It turns out that with only a basic understanding of the technique, the answer is yes! I managed to take over a minute and a half off my time and achieve a new pb of: 33:57 I was expecting some soreness after and I did get it but not where I expected: my arms were the most sore and continue to be so ..read more

I’m delighted to be running again. Tolka Valley was the last parkrun I needed to tick off the Dublin set. A nice small affair with a field of 38 runners and plenty of volunteers braving the rain to support the event. Nice views over the city, too ..read more

She’s only gone and bloody done it! The Barkley Marathons is a notoriously difficult race. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a nominally 100-mile race (nobody is sure how long it really is) that consists of five 20-mile laps through Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee. The elevation gain is huge and much of it is off-trail running. It contains many cult elements: the start time can be any time from midnight to noon for example and is announced an hour before when a conch is blown. There is a 12-hour cut-off for each lap, giving athletes 60 hours in total. The terrain is so tough that most years ..read more

A few pictures from this year’s Stepaside parade ..read more

The Godfather is a 1969 novel by Mario Puzo which famously produced two amazing films and a third film. The novel itself was so good. I read it on a recommendation not sure if I would like the genre but it was a gripping read and I really enjoyed it ..read more

Naas parkrun celebrated their 10th anniversary last weekend. There was cake! The course is on Naas race course and it is 2.5 laps of the ambulance track. They do mean a half: you start on one side of the loop and finish on the far side, meaning an extra 1,500 metre walk back around and through the stables to the car park. A good way to burn off the cake ..read more

Have you ever seen snow before? In case you haven’t, here are some pictures ..read more