My name is Stephen Rooney and from a young age I have always been into sports.
But guess what, I hated running and I mean really hated running. My first ever experience was taking part in the community games 400m and finishing last. I played soccer and determined that the least amount of running could be done by a goalkeeper.
Over the years I was lucky enough to win two all-Ireland Colleges medal with Summerhill College Sligo at U-14 and Senior level. In the U-14 semi-final, I was managed to save four of the five penalties taken against me.
While growing up it was always my dream to play for my country and at seventeen years of age, I was the youngest ever player capped by the Republic of Ireland Junior soccer team. We played Scotland in 1990 in my home town of Sligo.
In the final years of soccer, I tore cartilage in both my knees, so I spent more time in the gym rehabilitating than playing. When I stopped playing football I wasn’t training as frequently as I used to, so I started road running, and adventure racing to keep active. As a result of this, I have run fourteen marathons, some half marathons the other races that are becoming more and more popular.
My weekly training schedule consists of five nights running, split up into a tempo run and easy run and a long run, a night of cross training and one night or morning of strength and conditioning exercises. I also have the luxury of having three kids and a wife who is competing in an Iron-Man here in Cork in June 2019, so life is busy.
However, it’s all about time management and getting in the work required, like everyday life I suppose.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll delve deeper into training that you may or may not find interesting .