16 October 2017

Adults Strength & Conditioning (Circuit) training

Strength & Conditioning (Circuit) training is back for Autumn & Winter months.
Start date: Tuesday, 17th October 2017 at 8:00pm - 9:15pm
Venue: Ardfert Community Centre
Cost: €3 per session
Suitable for adults and teens over 16 years old.


Circuit training is a convenient way to exercise. It maximises the total exercise volume (number of sets, repetitions, and amount of weight) completed in a period of time. Exercises are completed in a row, and therefore, the time spent exercising is condensed. Separate cardiovascular training is not necessary. All body parts are trained in one session, and therefore, exercisers do not need to work out everyday.
Due to the lack of rest that circuit training demands, exercisers maintain elevated heart rates for the entire period of exercise. The combination of weight training and increased cardiovascular effort makes circuit training a beneficial type of cross training.





Benefits of Circuit Training (cross training):
"Simply stated, aerobic fitness develops faster than the muscular system (i.e. tendons, muscles, ligaments, and bones). For example, you may be able to hammer out a long run or a tempo run at 8 minutes per mile and not feel aerobically taxed, but your hips aren’t yet strong enough to handle the stress of the pace or volume of the run and your IT band becomes inflamed.
This experience is very common for runners who get injuries such as recurring shin splints or other persistent aches and pains when they first start running. Their aerobic fitness is allowing them to continue to increase the distance of their runs because they no longer feel winded at the end of each run; their shin muscles, however, haven’t adapted to the increased pounding caused by the increase in volume and they quickly become injured.
Therefore, it’s important that new runners and injury-prone athletes include ancillary routines, such as general strength training, into their weekly training plans to speed the development of the muscular system. In doing so, you’ll improve the strength and resiliency of your muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones and enable the muscular system to keep up with your aerobic developments.


What is holding you back from running more mileage and faster workouts each week? It isn't your aerobic system, but rather your body’s lack of resiliency toward increased mileage and harder, longer workouts.

11 October 2017

Kerry Cross Country Championships 2017 - Day 2

Day 2 of Kerry Cross Country Championships took place in Currow, hosted by An Riocht AC.
This time it was turn for juveniles uneven ages, Intermediate and Masters runners.

St.Brendan's AC was represent by following 14 athletes:
Boys U9 - Kevin Horgan, Ruairi Walshe and making his first start in cross country competition Max Fitzgerald


Boys U11 - Zach Walshe, Aaron Horgan, Darragh O'Flaherty, Eoin O'Flaherty and another first timer Ben O'Connor
Boys U13 - Tom O'Flaherty
Girls U15 - Eimear O'Sullivan and Daisy Nowak
Master Women - Moira Horgan & Ursula Barrett
Master Men - Artur Nowak

First race of the day was Women Intermediate & Masters and featuring Ursula Barrett and Moira Horgan, finishing outside medal positions in highly competitive age categories.



Following this race we had 3 boys competing in U9 race over 750m. All St.Brendan's AC athletes did very well with Kevin Horgan placed 3rd and Ruairi Walshe in 5th individually and 3rd in team standing with Max Fitzgerald in the team.

Boys U11 was another very competitive race over 1500m and our club had more success individually and in team competition. Five St.Brendan's AC runners line up at the start of this race. Aaron Horgan took the lead after the first 100m and not let anyone pass him to the finish line winning gold medal. There was more success in this race when Zach Walshe finished 5th (bronze medal) and St.Brendan's AC team place second overall in team standing.



Next race with our club member was Boys U13 with Tom O'Flaherty running 2500m and finishing in the middle of the pack, doing well considering that he just came second in Tralee Junior Parkrun few hours earlier.

The only girls from St.Brendan's AC took part in Girls U15 race over 3500m with Eimear O'Sullivan finishing in excellent 4th place and Daisy Nowak 9th place.

Last race of the day was Men's U17, U19, Intermediate (5000m) and Masters (7000m). St.Brendan's AC had Artur Nowak in Masters men category.

Big congratulations to all athletes who took part and represent our club and all the parents for support of our young and a bit older athletes. 

Gallery of photos on our FB page HERE.

01 October 2017

Kerry Cross Country Championships 2017 - Day 1

Kerry Cross Country Championships 2017
 - Day 1, 1 October 2017, Killarney:
Juveniles Even Ages, U23 & Novice
First cross country event of 2017 took place in Killarney.

St.Brendan's AC had a small group of juveniles competing in:
U10 Boys - Matthew O'Sullivan & Kevin Horgan
U12 Boys - Jamie O'Sullivan, Zach Walshe & Aaron Horgan
U12 Girls - Lilly Nowak
U16 Girls - Eimear O'Sullivan

Our juvenile athletes collected 4 medals on the day when Matthew finished 5th in Boys U10, Aaron also 5th in Boys U12, Zach 6th in Boys U12 and Eimear 3rd in Girls U16. Well done also to Kevin on his first cross country competition and Jamie and Lilly on good performances on the day.

In Novice category, St.Brendan's AC was represented by Linda O'Sullivan in Women's race and Declan Sheehan & Artur Nowak in Novice Men.


Gallery of photos HERE