Anyway, when I got back from Marlay Park (after walking 4.5 miles remember) I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer and my 8 Minutes Abs thing, and that was it for Day 129. Then, naturally, I went about undoing all my hard work by eating 8 Jaffa Cakes and a big Centra Bag of Bacon Fries….Nice Job, dumbass

Ryan Phillips is a DJ on spin1038, a radio station in Dublin Ireland. When he’s not talking shite on the radio he’s training for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 on 25 October….or he’s sleeping, watching porn or eating junk food….but increasingly it’s the Marathon Training. Follow his progress here each day or on Twitter or Facebook. Thursday 4 March 2010 was day 129 of his training.

Marlay Park. Lovely place for a nice walk!

Anyway, after swimming yesterday I was scheduled to hit the cross trainer and the weights again today. My arms weren’t able for the weights, so I just did the cross trainer for half an hour. Is it just me or does anyone else find it quite difficult to keep any level of fitness up? About 3 weeks ago I was doing 40 minutes on the cross trainer and not being too bad afterwards, then I take a week of with injury and I am close to death after 30 minutes. I guess some of it depends on the day and how tired you are when you start off and all of that, but it’s still always a bit of a leap into the unknown when I get onto the gym gear as to how far or how long I wlil go before I need the conside a lie down.

Today, that was 30 minutes.

Spin1038 Radio DJ Ryan Phillips is taining for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 – Today was Marathon Training Day 92 – Wednesday 28 January 2010

Back to the gym today, and a little bit of gym rage. I’m used to going to the gym in the afternoon, but I got help up yesteday doing stuff so I didn’t get to the gym until just after 6pm and it was full of people. I was not impressed. There were girls on all the threadmills, 3 friends who were working out together, which was sweet and nice and lovely except they had all just started when I arrived. Grrrr..

I spent 15 minutes on the Cross Trainer to warm up and keep busy, and to keep an eye on the threadmills so I could jump on as soon as one of them got off. Eventually one did, and I popped on. According to the training schedule (which putting up on the site is on my “to do” list) I was to do a 3 mile “hard” run today. Again, I had hoped to run a course outside, but also want to be able to track my distance and speed at tihs early stage, when I have no idea of my pace or what I’m doing., so that’s how I ended up waiting for the threadmill to start with.

I decided to try and minimise the risk with my ankle so I put on an ankle support on my left ankle and did my 3 miles at a faster pace than the last two runs. The threamills are in kiometres, so the pace I ran on Sunday was 10km/ph, then on Tuesday it was 11km/ph, so today I went up to 12km/ph – Running at 12km/ph gets you round the marathon course in 3.5 hours, which is my target.

The ankle help up fine, which I was delighted with. I’ll keep wearing the brace until I build up the strength in it with my exercises and wobble board. In terms of fitness, I also coped fairly well with the distance and speed. Was pretty tired at the end mind you!!

Feeling really good at the moment, this is starting to feel like progress…said he tempting fate!

She wasn't one of the offending girls...

The reality is that despite what the training guide said, I had decided to go an do 30 minutes on the cross trainer, some weights and the whole 8 minute abs thing. Then I got in a bad mood and couldn’t face it so I ate a tin full of biscuits instead, hurrah!

With the benefit of hindsight (20×20 vision as it is) I am glad that my bad mood got the better of me, because during training on day 78 my ankle was very sore, but I’ll leave that until day 78′s entry I guess…

It’s a funny thing this training. All through my life, from school to college I was what my dad sometimes calls “a last minute merchant” where every project and college work I’ve ever had was always handed in on the last day. And so with the Marathon so far away, I haven’t got that sense of urgency I work best with. I still subconsciously (and sometimes a bit consciously too) think that I can just train harder next month or whatever and still get up to pace and fitness in time. It’s as much a psychological thing as anything else this running and marathon training. And I’m rubbish at these psychological games, which is awful news!

If it's good enough for Ferris....

I had a right pain in my hole trying to find out from VHI where I should go and where and what was covered. They were looking for treatment codes and doctor’s names and all sorts of things so eventually I just lost interest in the conversation and nominated Vincent’s private. Hopefully I will be covered.

Anyway, when I spoke to the doctor, she told me that as long as I wasn’t getting chest pains or anything I could keep training as normal, so I finally hit the gym for the first time in over a week. Just eased myself back into it with 25 minutes on the cross trainer and 20 minutes on the threadmill. I’m not supposed to be running on the threadmill, but the guy in Amphibian King told me to try them out in the gym on the threadmill in case they didn’t fit properly or something, in which case I could bring them back because I still hadn’t worn them outside. They are pretty cool, feel much better than the runners I have been running in, but I could still feel my knee getting at me after 20 minutes on the threadmill.

I was running at a really slow pace, because I wasn’t really running but more trying out the runners. Still, I ramped up the pace to the pace you’d need to run at to finish the marathon in 3.5 hours, and it is FAST. I lasted about a minute at that pace, but in 10 months time, I’ll be hoping to run at that pace for the whole race. To be totally honest, right now, that doesn’t seem possible at all, so I’m wondering if I should lower my expectations a bit and aim for the 4 hour mark instead of 3.5 hours.

Anyway, it was good to be back in the gym (even if it was freezin), and that the ECG thing isn’t urgent (even if I still am a bit aprehensive about the tests)

Back on track a bit at least….

I was all chuffed with my day’s work on the cross trainer (it is only 27 December, still pretty impressive to be back in the gym in my humble opinion) that I posted a picture of the results on facebook so everyone could give me my Kudos!

Impressive, or so I thought...

Sadly, the kudos was in somewhat short supply from a certain Mark McCabe. 30+ indeed….

I was thinking on the cross trainer earlier that I’m now keeping my heart rate above 150 for about 40 minutes straight, but to do the Marathon you need to be able to keep it (a) as low as possible and (b) assuming it goes fairly high, there for a long time. So by 25 October I need to be able to keep the heart rate roughly where I am now, but for 3 and a half to 4 hours, rather than my current 40 minutes. It’s a fairly big ask really!!

Count it as another successful day anyway and we’ll worry about how to keep the heart going for 4 hours another day!!

Keep it going for 4 hours, that's the trick...

Anyway, I got back into the gym after 3 days and it felt great to be doing some exercise. I’ve been trying to figure out an exercise timetable for the New Year after realising that it’s 10 months to the Marathon on Christmas day. I need to get jogging and swimming into the training regime, because cycling and cross training will only get me so far! I was thinking of doing 3 days on, 1 day off, like this Jog – Swim – Cyle & Cross train – Day Off – in a cycle like that. But I’m wondering if that’s going to be too much without a day off. And maybe I Should try Jog – Swim – Day Off – Cycle & Cross Train – Jog – Day Off – Swim – Cross Train/Cycle – Day Off

Still trying to work it out. I still have to get down to Amphibian King to try and get a proper pair of runners too, but having talked to my physio friend, it looks like I will need inserts or orthotics, so even good decent runners might not do the trick.

Here’s the money shot from yesterday’s training!

Huzzah!!

I need to get my diet back under control though. It’s all bread and junk food as far as the eye can see at the moment. I’m finding it a lot harder this month, partly because I’m not as motivated, and partly because I feel I can justify a worse diet on the basis that I’m exercising a lot more and can afford to take on more calories. I keep telling myself and come January I’ll leave all these bad habits. I’m lying to myself aren’t I? Still, lets call today a realtively great success!! Huzzah!!

After that I did manage a good 30 minutes on the cross trainer to be fair, but it probably wouldn’t have put a dent in the amount of crap that I shoved down my yapper last night. Still, it’s better than the last 2 days and that’s something to be at least mildly thankful for!!

I know how you feel