Ep 5 21-time Irish international mountain runner Ian Conroy
· Trail Running Ireland Podcast
Eoin Flynn talks to his long-time teammate Ian Conroy about 21 caps for Ireland, coming back from injury and depression, and winning gold at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships. Ruairi Long brings the latest race news, and René Borg explains how to move safely from roads to trails.
Ruairi welcomes the extended 20 km travel limit, which reopens the mountains to many runners, and reports on IMRA's virtual 5 km relay. Eoin congratulates the Irish team that finished second internationally in the virtual Race Across Tennessee. They also discuss fastest known time attempts, and the international calendar, including the rescheduled World Masters Championships in Madeira and the planned World Championships in Lanzarote.
René explains that trail running costs more energy than road running and works the ankles, knees and hips through greater ranges of motion, so runners should add one or two trail runs a week rather than switching all at once. Because pace means little on varied terrain, he suggests training by feel using five simple gears: easy, medium, hard, very hard and sprint. He describes a "staircase" fartlek to help learn them, and reminds runners that a training plan should be written in pencil, and that most runners need holding back more than pushing.