Back in the swing aiming for home run

It's almost a year ago since I was in Dublin for a press conference after winning two European titles in Budapest. Now, after a very different stage in my life, I was back again yesterday - as an athlete.

I have committed myself to running in the Loughrea five-mile run on October 16th, and having to come to Dublin for a press conference to announce this has brought home very clearly the fact that I still have a life as an athlete as well as that as a mother. Things have been going alright. I started back training 10 days after Ciara was born. She was born on the 10th, and on the 20th of July I laced up my running shoes. I think 10 days was always in my head as the time to make a light start. I went up to the track, and Alan (Storey) and all them were up there. He said to try a few laps of the track. "Run off with Lisa there, stay on the track and if you don't feel too good you can stop."

I'd walked up and I'd brought Ciara with me. She was in the pram and everyone was talking and asking questions, peeping into the pram. Next thing, the group I was supposed to run with were gone, I had to chase after them to keep up, so I was out of breath by the time I caught up. Not a good start. Besides being out of breath, I was stiff and awkward, felt like I was going from side to side instead of forward. I started off doing 23-minute runs, and increased it slowly to 28. Then one day, when my mother was over here, I went with Nick to the park, we met Lee Troop from Australia and I ended up running 40 minutes by accident. Generally though I have been sensible. The day after my first session back I went to Teddington and met Gerard Hartmann. He sized me up and I ran for 23 minutes with him. Alan came in to see how things were going.

"You looked a bit awkward when you were running last night." How do you mean? "Like you were trying not to go to the toilet." You'd feel like that too if you thought your insides we're going to fall out. "You might not like what I'm going to tell you now . . ."

"Yes?"

"The clothes you have been wearing . . ." I thought he was going to order me to wear another crop top to stop me bouncing around too much, but he wanted me to wear full tights, long-sleeved T-shirt and a rain jacket. You're running slower and not as far as you'd like, so the more clothes you wear in this hot weather will mean that your heart will be working harder. So now I'm running around sweating buckets, increasing all the washing I have to do. Things have progressed though. This Saturday I ran with Gerard and he said I looked much better. We ran for 28 minutes and it felt very comfortable.

Went to the track last Tuesday week, having run in the morning. I was hoping to get in on a proper track session. I said to Alan I want to come to the track and do my second run, and while I was there I was hoping to do a few strides. Half nervous about asking though. I didn't get a chance to ask. Alan said you can run with Robin tonight.

Not the Olympics, but a start. Robin is one of these legendary club runners, he comes to the track every Tuesday, and so dedicated is he that he owns tracksuits that are coming back into fashion again any day now. He's in his fifties. Big glasses on him, an old dedicated club runner. He usually runs with three or four girls. So Alan said run with Robin, there's nobody with him tonight. This was a joke while I was pregnant: that my first session would be with the women's group and Robin. I was surprised and excited though to be doing a full track session. I had all the heavy gear on. I was hovering around trying to get Alan's attention to ask if I could take some of the gear off. I couldn't catch his eye though, he was so busy organising people, so I ended up doing the whole session with all the gear on. The return to track sessions was a big step. For the other days, I've come up with a suitable routine in the end also. After doing the accidental 40 mins, Alan was a little nervous about me running too far too soon, so we devised a plan. He suggested working on the bike in the gym and then coming outside and running for 20 mins. This on top of doing 30 minutes running in the morning. Running shorter, but running twice a day. So I started doing that. The routine became a run in the morning, then go for a walk with Ciara, and in the evening cycle to the gym (three miles), do 30 mins on the indoor bike, run for 20 minutes and then bike home. And this week I moved up a group at the Tuesday track session. Alan is away on holidays and he sent up a piece of paper for each group.

There's four groups, the fast group, the second group, and the group called the millennium group - they have some formula that their ages add up to 1,000, nobody is too sure how. Anyway I was in the millennium group for a night. Robin's group is bottom group. So I warmed up with him and told him the news. I was moving up. I felt bad, but Robin was delighted. It's good, good that you're coming back. Accommodating Ciara has been a novel experience. I usually walk with the pram to the track. The other day, though, we were on the path by the river near Hampton Court and I was late. I was going to the track, which is about five miles away, and I wanted to be there by seven. By now it was after six and, as Hampton Court is one of my favourite places to train, I couldn't resist the urge to run a little with the pram. Luckily we have a pram which is like a mountain bike. Ciara seemed to enjoy it. Another night it was starting to rain as I made my way home. I'm flying along and Ciara is looking up at me and I'm talking to her - and then I had this feeling that somebody was watching me. I turned around and all the fellas from the training group on Park Road were watching after me.

WE WENT to the meet at Crystal Palace last week, we went down on the train. I had Ciara in one of those kangaroo pouches and all these people were craning necks trying to peek at her. Just her feet sticking out and this really funny sun hat on her. People were taking pictures, which didn't really make any difference. Just a sun hat and feet.

She slept through most of it, but not all of it. We were standing at the top bend, waiting for the women's 5,000 metres to start, the runners were called to the start and, miraculously, this little cry from the pouch - Ciara was awake. She knew which race to wake up for, which impressed me. I ended up looking for hot water from a man in a chip van to heat a bottle with. Not something I ever imagined I'd be doing at a track meet. Nick found us a place sitting next to John Walker in the stand. They were giving John a presentation and then he was heading on to Zurich. His youngest daughter, Caitlin, was helping me look after Ciara. Every time they shot the starter gun she nearly jumped out of my lap, so we tried putting our hands over her ears when it was about to go off. I'm not sure what annoyed her more. Her first meet must have been a strange experience. Myself, I've begun looking at my targets for the next year. I've seen the qualifying standards for Olympics; if I gradually get fit enough I'd like to run those times in Australia, if not by the end of the year then early in the Aussie season. If I could qualify from 1,500 to 10,000 by end of year I'd be very happy. Training now is moving back to full tilt. By the time of the world championships in Seville I'll be back to the regular routine.

Gerard Hartmann is going to Seville with the British team to round off his summer. I'll be checking in with him in Limerick before I head to Australia in November.

I was with him the other night in the park and he said there were a couple of the Clare hurlers with him, Stephen McNamara and Jamesie O'Connor. I had to be careful not to slag them too much in case they got too wound up.

This year Larry Tompkins sent me over a Cork jersey. We were at an awards thing and he said he was looking for a few fast wingers. I said I'd train if he sent me a Cork jersey, so he did. I was down with Gerard and he said the two Clare lads were out in the park pucking around. If I had known I would have worn my Cork jersey and run past them.

I'm definitely going to try to make it to Croke Park for the All-Ireland final. I went to the football last year and it was a pity Cork weren't there, but I prefer the hurling and this year will be too good to miss.

Meanwhile I have a new sponsor, BUPA. They are sponsoring the race in Loughrea that I mentioned earlier. It's a revival of an old event, and Brendan Foster, Seb Coe and other stars from around that era used to run in it, so it was once quite a big deal. Now they want to bring it back again which seems like a good idea.

It's organised by Brendan's company, Nova, who do the Great North run. Anyway, they have invited me to compete on October 16th, so I have to be fit and ready to go by then. A home run is as good a target as any.

Sonia O'Sullivan was talking to Tom Humphries