I found myself in the unlikeliest of places last weekend along with 4,000 other people, the ‘Hell and Back’ challenge taking place in Belmont Estate in Co. Wicklow. 12km of some of the most interesting terrain and obstacles I have yet had the ‘pleasure’ of running through. My younger brother and friends had bought their…
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…
At the beginning of the season I sat down with Amidou Dembele, one of our CE Squad members, to talk about his goals for the season. He decided he wanted to give the traditional Snowdon International race in Wales a go and on quick reflection I encouraged it strongly: not only did the long climb…
In 2006, Barry Minnock began an informal tradition within the Irish Mountain Running Association that was to gain in popularity quickly: an early Spring “Kerry training weekend”. Starting out with a weekend of running in close to mighty Brandon mountain, the event moved to Killarney in the heart of MacGillycuddy’s Reeks and began to feature…
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…
The “up and down” workout is a variation of the standard threshold run in our programmes: the “out and back”. Using the same high-aerobic intensity, this workout targets the specific requirements of mountain, fell and hill running and has a greater strength element. The “up and down” workout can be done every second or third week…
If there is one man who needs scarce introduction when addressing a crowd of Irish hill runners, it is undoubtedly John Lenihan, the legendary Kerry-man, who secured the coveted World Mountain Running Champion title at Zermatt, Switzerland, in 1991. While this was not his only international success (John won Snowdon in 1989 in a time…
(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…
