So what’s the story with Kesh Patel’s third book ‘The Complete Guide to Bodyweight Training‘? The plot can be summarised something like this: “Once upon a time, as we grew up, our own bodyweight was the only tool we had to develop our movement ability, strength and other basic abilities. Through playful experimentation we began to make…
by Irene Clark Just home after a fab weekend in Wicklow and wanted to thank you both sincerely for a really good weekend.The workshop has evolved into a real “must have” for all runners. In your own words the ‘gold standard’. It has become one of those workshops that you need to do on a…
Alan O’Brien, middle-distance runner from Crusaders AC, was a relative late-comer to the sport but rose quickly through the ranks of the sport to represent Ireland five times at full International level. As a late call-up to the European Team Championships in Slovakia, he was instrumental in securing Ireland promotion when he out-kicked the field…
“If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” That’s unfortunately the mindset I need to bring into my review of the Newton Distance running shoe which I purchased during a trip in Singapore a few years back and used on and off for a period of time following that.…
Our review of the text-book of choice of the “Lydiard Foundation” – Keith Livingstone’s “Healthy Intelligent Training” is coming up here shortly. But let’s ruin the suspense in the meantime: this is one of the most authoritative resources on how to train for running you will read and if you trust our word, don’t wait…
The Trail League is two races in and this Wednesday coming awaits the series final race: the memorably named “Devil’s Glen“. I cannot in good faith review this race as I laid out the current course and so am in many ways its architect. You do not review your own work! However, I feel I…
Walking around Dun Laoghaire before travelling to the Snowdon International race, I browsed a local bookshop and picked up hardcover book with an interesting looking sepia cover. Two runners were on the picture: Arthur Newton and Peter Gavuzzi, perhaps the fathers of modern ultra running, and this was their story, written by debutante author Mark…
After our natural movement workshop it was clear that to keep improving our running technique, Aoife and I would need to buy shoes that were not conflicting with what we were trying to achieve. Luckily, like the participants in our workshop, Tony Riddle and VivoBarefoot kindly provided us with a discount code for purchases in…
As those following our recent podcasts with performance nutritionist Barry Murray now, we are not too keen on supplements but we have been making an exception for beet root juice for a few reasons. 1) It’s not really a supplement but a food – as the only ingredients are beet root and lemon juice and…
A few month’s back I decided to renew my love affair with a gadget I owned a few years ago: the POWERBreathe, first of a new generation of “inspiratory muscle training” (IMT) devices, or in layman’s terms a gadget that allows you to train the muscles responsible for getting oxygen from the air and into…
by Keven Shevels and Stuart Ferguson I was lucky enough to receive a free copy of the latest offering in the ”Run Off-Road” series by TrailGuides: “The Mountain Marathon Book”, so let me share my impressions with my fellow mountain runners. This 224 page tome clearly aims to be the definitive treatise on the topic…
(author: Jim Kelly) It was early December, and Santa, in the form of TrailGuides editor Keven Shevels, arrived early, a crisp new copy of A Mountain Runner’s Guide to Snowdonia landing on my doorstep. I had become acquainted with Keven purchasing the company’s pocket training guides on all things off-road running which proved very popular prizes at IMRA races in 2008 and…
(author: Keith Richardson) Years ago when reading Feet in the Clouds it was hard to forget the amazing tale of ‘Iron Joss’, indeed the story laid out by Askwith created a great appetite to learn more about “the life and times of the legendary Lake District fell runner and shepherd Joss Naylor” as Keith Richardson’s new book is sub-titled. Simon Fairmaner,…
(author: Jeff Galloway) I had some hopes for this book having been disappointed with both cross-country books I had bought up to this point. So far only Lydiard’s chapter on cross-country in “Running with Lydiard” has done this great discipline justice in writing. Sadly, Galloway’s glossy high-end production contains little substance and holds far too many…
(authors: Garth Gilmour and Arthur Lydiard) Perhaps the fact that I have consumed several other Lydiard books and articles cloud my view, but I found “Running with Lydiard” the clearest, most precise and focused of the Lydiard books. As always, you simply lean back and enjoy the real-life examples and brusque prose of the old…
(author: Frank Murphy) This self-styled “athletic biography” tells the story of the marathon career of Leonard Graves Edelen better known simply as “Buddy”. Few who deserve to be remembered so well have been forgotten as widely, so the next time you raise a cheer to an over-rated modern sports performer, consider “Buddy” Edelen who died…
(author: Kenny Moore) When I put down this book, I was awe-struck by it’s epic scope taking the reader from the early Bowerman family’s settling of Oregon through half a century of Olympics, the growth of Nike out of nowhere, the tragic life and death of Steve Prefontaine and a comprehensive history of the athletic…
