Between juggling her Masters and her running, Irish 800 metre athlete Ciara Everard is a busy woman. JOE spoke to the Kilkenny runner to get an insight into her schedule.
Spending every day, and we mean all seven of them, in college would probably be most students’ idea of hell. Ciara Everard isn’t your average student, however.
The European Senior Indoor 800m Finalist and three-time National Indoor Champion is combining her Masters in physiotherapy with her training and she is loving every minute of it, saying that it is more manageable than last year, her final year in college.
“I’m working in the DBC in UCD High Performance gym, so working where I’m training,” she told us.
“The college has been very accommodating, and they appreciate that training comes first. The Masters is a positive distraction and I think it’s important to have an academic balance. Physio isn’t the type of thing you can just leave for five or six years and come back to it, you need to keep up to date with it.”
And it is quite the schedule that Ciara has at the moment.
“Monday and Wednesdays are two-full evenings with the course and then a full day Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my training days. Monday and Wednesdays I will hit the gym in the morning before work in the evenings.”
“Saturday will be a hard session and Sunday would be a long run, something in and around 70 minutes.”
A typical training day would see Ciara get up for nine and go for a short run, maybe 20–30 minutes just to loosen up the joints, followed by a lot of stretching and mobility work for half an hour.
In the evening, she will have session with her coach James Nolan, which will compromise of hills, tempo runs and interval training for this time of year.
Diet
Of course, looking after one’s diet is one of the primary concerns for any athlete and in that regard Ciara is no different and admits that keeping to a regimented plan has had a huge impact on her running career. She explains her typical food intake on a training day.
“If I get up at 9, I would just have orange juice or a banana before I go for a light run. I’d avoid anything heavy. After the run I would have breakfast which would be porridge with berries and seeds and then for 11 o’clock I would make my own granola bar and have that with a piece of fruit.”
Lunch at one o’clock is generally an omelette with spelt bread, or salmon on brown bread. At four o’clock, just before she goes on her running session, Ciara would have a cereal bar or a high density snack to give her a boost prior to the workout, and maybe a banana. During the workout itself she would drink Lucozade or fruit squash and afterwards will have a proper meal, normally chicken or pasta.
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“I have to be very regimented. I have to plan out what I am going to eat, sometimes even the day before so I resist the temptation to go into the shop and buy something when I’m hungry. My nutrition is really well planned and I try to eat every two hours.”
While she concedes it is one of the most difficult aspects to contend with – “the temptation to go to the fridge for a snack can be difficult to resist at times” – she knows the benefits are very worthwhile.
“Diet has made a massive impact on my training in the last couple of years. I have changed my diet and really seen the benefits. For the way I feel in training and out of it, it is very worthwhile.”
At the moment she is currently in the midst of heavy winter training, putting in the strength work in the gym, but has her sights set on the World Indoor Championships in March and the European Outdoor Championships next August in Zurich.
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