Welcome!

Hello folks! Welcome to my 1st weekly blog where I will recount the trials and tribulations of my training week. I started this venture as an opportunity to share the knowledge I have amassed over 20 years of running encountering many highs and also a fair share of lows.

For this 1st blog I have included a bit about my background in running and how I got started: I’ve been running competitively for Shercock AC a club based in East Cavan since 1999. I first joined for the social element but as what tends to happen, I got gripped by the athletics bug very quickly. I tried every discipline when I was younger, but it quickly became apparent that the endurance events rather than the power-based events were my calling mainly down to my size or lack thereof. I loved the hustle and bustle of cross country running, the hills, the mud, the pain and the fighting for every position for your team, those that say athletics is an individual pursuit have clearly never ran on a cross country team. I was extremely fortunate to be part of an athletics club with some hugely talented athletes around my age and we were fortunate to be selected to represent Ireland on 3 occasions for the European Club Championships. I found my calling on the track in the 3000m steeplechase event which consisted of 4 barriers and the dreaded water jump each lap. I loved the event and won many medals at Provincial and National level culminating with winning the National U23 championships. However as with every athlete injuries weren’t far away and over the next few years I endured an endless stop start journey of trying to get my body to a level where it could train consistently for more than a few weeks, which I’m sure many reading this will have encountered. I still however remained closely involved in the sport serving in various admin and coaching roles.

Coaching was something I keenly loved and gave me the same kick I got from competing myself. I have worked over the last number of years as a Learning and Development Professional and see a great overlap with coaching runners. During this time I moved to being a self-coached athlete and have improved consistently at all distances from 5k to the marathon. I ran my first marathon in 2017 totally underestimating the distance running the first half in 75 mins and the second half 7 mins slower to come home in 2.37. Nothing like the marathon to humble you! However having learned from my mistakes I completed the 2019 Dublin Marathon in 2.29 running almost identical 1st and 2nd half splits which was off just under 50 miles average a week for the 12 week build up due to a nagging achilles injury I had to manage during the build-up. The catalyst to moving to be a self-coached runner and getting more involved with coaching others was when my brother Paul asked for some advice for a 5k fun run which he competed in 23 mins. 4 years later he has improved his 5k time to 17.15 and has ran 4 marathons with a steady progress from his 1st one in 3.17 to his current best of 2.56 with the best still to come.

My main goals this year were the Rotterdam and Dublin Marathon. Unfortunately, both got cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. Rotterdam cruelly got cancelled just as we were beginning our taper for the race. My goal for Rotterdam had been to run sub 2.25 and felt I was in shape to do so however I banked that training and still feel it served a great purpose and made me a stronger runner. During the lockdown I used that period to work on my strength and being more consistent with a typical week consisting of a 20 – 30min tempo run, hill session and a long run of 13 – 16 miles everything else was just easy running to recover from the hard sessions. I continued this pattern up until July and it seemed to work as I ran a 5k pb in my 1st and only race since March. Over the last few weeks I have been dealing with minor foot injuries and took a few weeks off which was needed and built back up slowly with easy running combined with cross training (us runners tend to jump back in the deep end too quickly). I am hopeful of some road races and cross country races happening in the near future however if they don’t I intend to build my strength and focus on being consistent with a view to running a marathon in the Spring with the aim to break the 2.20 barrier which this blog will serve as an insight into the no doubt incredibly tough and exciting journey that will be!

Hopefully, I haven’t bored you all thus far, I intend to update this blog weekly with how my weeks gone! If you want to get in touch, please do so using the contact details on the website!

Thanks for reading 😊

Noel