Ep 4 Ireland's No. 1 ranked trail runner Paddy O'Leary
· Trail Running Ireland Podcast
Eoin Flynn talks to Paddy O'Leary in San Francisco about his coronavirus research, how chance and determination took him to the top of trail running, turning professional with The North Face, and choosing the mountains over an Olympic marathon bid. Ruairi Long brings the race news, and René Borg explains how to get the general training phase right.
Ruairi reports that IMRA's lockdown events raised €2,640 for St. Joseph's in Dublin, and warns that the autumn calendar is already crowded. He also highlights the Azores Trail Run stage race, chosen to host the Golden Trail World Championships with a €100,000 prize pool. Eoin covers the cancellation of UTMB and its partial refund policy, and the virtual race across Tennessee that has drawn around 18,000 entrants.
René's rule for the general phase is "train, don't strain": steady, submaximal training that prepares the body for harder work later, because consistency is king. He explains how to judge easy effort by breathing rather than heart rate, and gives a rule of thumb from Training for the Uphill Athlete: start with about half your race's climbing per week and build to the full race climb by the end of the phase. He also explains why trail surfaces are kinder to the legs than asphalt.