Deep down I actually pretty much knew it already when I wrote my last post, even if I had not quite accepted it yet. As soon as I said it out loud, the injury got worse all of a sudden. Until then, the heel had tended to be sore for some early parts of the run but the discomfort always went away. Then I did a short, easy 5 mile run and for some reason that particular run really seemed to aggravate it. I was hobbling around all Saturday, and even I recognised that the planned 17 miler the following day would be a very, very bad idea, so I binned it and the next few days as well. Then we jetted ..read more

I'm five weeks into marathon training and it definitely has started to bite. I had a few runs that were pretty damn hard work, and not because of any pace targets, it just was hard work to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I can definitely see some results already. For a start, there are a couple of pairs of Jeans in my wardrobe that a few months ago were completely out of the question, and when I needed a pair the other day, wouldn't you know it, they fit perfectly and were actually comfortable. So I know that I have lost some weight, even without weighing myself. My resting heart ..read more

Sunday definitely was a hot day, and I was starting to design Paul's voodoo doll in my head halfway up Vico Road for his insistence on doing the Killiney loop again. Ah well - we all survived, and in fact we were going a good bit faster than the week before, though that was mainly down to Antonia having joined the boys' group and definitely pushing the pace a bit more then I would have done on my own. But in the end I was surprised by how decent I was still feeling. It might only have been 13 miles but that's still my longest run in months and I would have been able to go a good bit longer. So ..read more

If someone is still reading this, congratulations on your patience. If not, well then this blog is back to what I intended it to be when it all started back in 2005 - my own little running diary, to enable me to look back at my marathon training and see what it was like, what went well, what did not. Also, after years of being told that the title of my blog is just wrong, it got back to being pretty accurate, depending on where you draw the levels, of course. I'm reasonably sure I will never run under 3:30 again, and as long as I stay under 4 hours for my next marathon, I'll be happy, which is ..read more

Ray D'Arcy had started a challenge at the start of the year, to run a marathon every week for the entire year, and of course to collect money for the LauraLynn children's charity while doing so. Since I cannot think of a more deserving charity in Ireland, I signed up for it.   Spotted on the way to the start Covering a distance of 26 miles in a week isn't exactly a major challenge, so for most of the year I was just ticking along. I did a few more challenges alongside that one, most notably the East Of Ireland last person standing one, twice, which always went on for weeks and, a ..read more

In case you were wondering, that was at the start I had started to doubt if I would get to race again in 2021, my last race having been the Donadea 50k all the way back in February 2020, just as the world was on the brink of sliding into the pandemic. But here I was, on the start line, a mere 19 months later. Well, actually it's all relative. I wasn't standing on the start line, rather we gathered loosely in the general vicinity of the start area, and as the countdown reached 10 seconds or so we casually started to make our way towards the start, owing to the fact that the virus hasn ..read more

We moved house about six weeks ago. Not very far, just from one end of Bray to the other, so not a big deal. However, what that did for me was to put Shanganagh Park within easy reach. Initially I thought that was great, having a nice, big park available for a few easy laps any time, but as it turns out it doesn't actually quite work that way. There are printed signs on the tarmac saying "Keep Left", and there are arrows all along the loop to reinforce that message. It's a actually quite a simple concept really, you'd think people would get the hang of it quickly enough.  I had seen the e ..read more

Ok, this time I really left is too late with the update. I actually had things to say - what was lacking was the motivation. I guess the lockdown is starting to get to me. I'm sure it the same for most of you out there. Early February was the anniversary of my last real race, the famous Donadea 50k. I might have had a shocking run but it was my only race last year, so something of a highlight, if rather unexpected. We did a virtual 50k. It would not be Anto if there were no event. On the day of the race itself I woke up to a surprise scene, there was snow outside and the roads were icy, so I w ..read more

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 again a couple of months ago when my right Achilles tendon started to feel a bit stiff, especially in the mornings but I could definitely feel it throughout the day. This eventually just about settled down when all of a sudden my left Achilles decided to step into the action as well, which is a bit unusual because almost all of my niggled and injuries (and cramps!) happen on my right leg. In fact it stepped into the action with a vengeance because it was wo ..read more

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 up on some of those virtual events I had signed up some time around Christmas but was too lazy to actually do. The one on my mind was the virtual Beaufort 10k, because that's the annual race organised by my old club in Kerry. In order to get some zip into the old legs I did a fast mile on Friday morning in Bray's Peoples Park. I certainly didn't do an all-out mile time trial but I thought I did put some decent effort into it, so I was a bit shocked to see ..read more