Back on Track

Regular followers of this blog might have noticed an absence of recent updates, so it's probably a good time for me to take a quick look back over a busy last few months before we hit the go faster button once again!

Following last years marathon in Amsterdam, I shifted focus to continuing my education and worked on attaining a European-wide recognised qualification in Exercise, Health Studies and Personal Training, which I secured at the start of this year.

Weekends spent studying at The Mardyke in UCC were not always family friendly in terms of time spent away from home but short term sacrifice is often the first step to a long term gain and with a very understanding partner in Victoria, the work got done...on both sides of the fence!

Since the turn of the year, I have been adding some real world experience to the information digested from within the classroom environment. With the fast paced nature of the health and fitness industry meaning science and research are always throwing up new suggestions, you realise quickly that to stand still is to fall behind. 

Balancing the challenge of setting up your own business, fulfilling your duties in a Monday-Friday office role, making sure your own training gets done while helping others with theirs and the occasional nappy change for a highly charged one or two year old is a bit similar to the act of plate spinning that you might have seen when you last went to the circus.

The juggler at the circus has plenty of experience and it wouldn't be a good show if he failed to keep everything moving in the right direction! However, when you are new, you can often get the balance wrong and the inevitable happens. Something slips!

So, after a slow start to my own racing year, I'm really excited about getting back in the groove with a summer planned around an inaugural track season before dipping my toe in the muddy waters of the cross country world come Autumn time.

Dropping back to the shorter distances of 1,500m-5km will allow me to really work on developing speed endurance over the next year or two, while at the same time sparing the body from the higher mileage training required for the longer events.  

When the time comes to go back to the marathon, I want to be reasonably confident of a 2.45-2.50 finish to ensure a significant improvement on my current PB of 2.57.

Big goals require small steps to follow one after another. The first one is over a mile next Wednesday evening at the opening meet of the John Buckley Sports Graded League.

Let's go!