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!

The gym is great, and it’s so handy to have it literally on my doorstep, but on the flip side, one of the cross trainers has been broken since pretty much the first time I used the gym over a year ago, and nobody seems to be particularly arsed with fixing it. And today I noticed that all the heart rate monitors on the bike and cross trainer I was using weren’t working properly either. That’s annoying because I actually like to keep an eye on the heart rate so I have some idea whether I’m working at the right level for weight loss or cardio or whatever. I’m going to start wearing the heart rate monitor that Mark McCabe gave me to the gym, as well from now on I think.

Anyway, I’m still trying to take it easy on my body while still getting some useful cardio workout down all this week, so once again it was just cycling and cross training. Just 20 minutes on each today, then an abs workout. I can’t believe that I’m back up to 12 stone though. I’ve set a new target of losing a stone in fat (I may put some on in muscle) in the next 3 months. It might not seem that big a goal, and that’s because it’s not. If I can shed a pound a week I will do it, and that’s the idea, that instead of setting unrealistic goals, I’m trying to set a realistic one that I can be happy with, work towards but not starve myself of all the things I love (crisps, mostly) to get it.

It can be hard to motivate myself to go to the gym ABOVE other things that I also want to do (like write music, learn the bass guitar, update this website and on and on and on) but health surely has to be the most important thing right? So, if I have a choice between going and doing the exercise and anything else, then I guess everything else is going to have to take a back seat.

Taking a back seat

Spin1038 DJ Ryan Phillips is running the Dublin City Marathon 2010 on 25 October 2010 for Charity, follow his training here at ryanphillips.net – Today was Marathon Training Day 127, Tuesday 2 March 2010

First step, make a salad. Second step, go the gym. Third step, do abs workout. Final step, bring low fat popcorn and Sprite Zero over to the lads for FiFa 10 night. That’s 4 steps to glory and I followed them all. It’s always depressing going back to the gym or to any exercise after a prolonged period away from it (says the man who hadn’t done any real exercise in some 13 years until last October) because your base fitness levels have always dropped way more than you thought they would.

My right leg is still a bit out of sorts after the reoccurrence of my shin injury last week at badminton, so today I stayed away from anything that might make it worse and just cycled and did some cross training, 20 minutes of the former, 25 minutes of the latter. It doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but it’s more or less and hour on the trot of keeping the heartrate up at a decent level, so (in my humble opinion) it’s not to be sniffed at. A little each day presumably goes a long way, though I have yet to independently verify this myself.

Add an 8 minute abs workout into that equation, and a whole day of healthy eating, and we’re back in the game.

The plan, which I’m telling you so you can keep track of exactly where the plan falls to pieces, is to just cycle and cross train all week until Sunday to hopefully get some cardio back without putting the body through too much and give my leg time to fully heal (again) then start back running, but with a reduced training plan from Sunday. Fingers Crossed.

Hopefully if I’m a bit more patient and sensible and start of with very little running (2 miles for long run, 1 for short) for the first few weeks, I’ll finally be able to build it up without injuring myself!! But I think a run might also kill me, look at the state of me after the cycle and cross training today!!

Spin1038 DJ Ryan Phillips is running the Dublin City Marathon 2010 on 25 October 2010. That’s ages away, but he’s really unfit, and this is his training blog to see if and how he makes it to the finish line. Today was training day 126, Monday 1 March 2010

According to my plan, in was supposed to go for another run in Marlay Park, but all the muscles that have been causing me problems were tight and sore today, so I decided fairly early on that a run was not going to happen, nothing to do with the rain you understand!

The backup plan was to go to the Wyckham Point Gym and do some cross training and a cycle with some abs work and some weights. What I actually did was fall asleep on my bed, and no exercise. I got home late from spin (at about 3.30) and was shattered tired, fell asleep on the couch then just lost all motivation.

This is a load of bollocks, I don’t need to be told that. I’m a third of the way through my available training time and can’t even get off the couch to go to the gym. Does everyone find it this difficult or am I just a total sham of a man?? Don’t answer that, I know the answer and I will delete your comment!!

More badminton tomorrow, that’s exercise right??

Spin 1038 DJ Ryan Phillips is training for the Dublin city marathon on 25 October. Day 120 was Wednesday 24 February. It did not go well…

Indeed....

As it turns out, I didn’t play all that much badminton, it’s always just a nit of a free for all and nobody ever really sticks to the plan about times and courts and teams. It’s very frustrating because you spend ages getting in and out of town to go to training (took me 45 minutes in traffic this time getting in) the you get hardly any badminton played and very little meaningful exercise for your efforts. Still, given it was supposed to be a ‘taking it easy da after my run yesterday it probably just about served as a decent warm up and down and a bit of exercise.

I also got back into the 8 minute ab workout programme I have been trying to do (unsuccessfully) every day. The 4 weeks off and overindulgence in food and drink while away skiing have taken their toll, I am now about 5lbs heavier than when I went away and that evil little belly has reared it’s ugly head again. Bastard

The badminton season finishes up this week with a match and after that I think I will go back to the squash which I had to give up because it clashed with badminton. They have serous training every week with a coach and a ladder system and everything which I think will suit my temprement a bit better (ie the badminton was a pile of arse and a complete waste of time for getting fit, so I’m going to try squash!!)

In summary, today was an ok day at best, things really need to improve!!

Ryan Phillips is a dj on spin1038 in Dublin. He is training for the Dublin city marathon 2010 on Monday 25 October 2010 and this is his training blog. This was day 120 of training, Tuesday 23 February 2010. Check back for more tomorrow!

Ok, so let me get things up to date so we’re all back on the same page. Back on Wednesday 27 January, I last posted about my daily training for the Dublin City Marathon. Things weren’t going too great, because I had recently had a bad case of shin splints that had kept me out of action for a week. Back at the end of January I had gone back to doing some cycling, cross training and swimming, but no running. I actually continued to train to the end of the last week in January (31st) but had lost some motivation and so not updated the blog.

Then I went to see my Chiropractor about my leg to see if there was anything about the way I was standing etc that might have been contributing to the problem I was having around my shins. In short, there wasn’t. Gemma said that it was nothing to do with the bones and was a purely muscular thing, so to go see either of my friends who were physios. And herein lies an important point in self-diagnosis. There’s a fair chance that whatever you think is wrong having consulted google, may not actually be the problem at all. I, it turns out, never had shin splints (as I would understand them) at all. What I had was damaged/aggravated/buggered up muscles in my leg surrounding the shin (I want to say the soleous muscle, but would probably be wrong….again.). My physio hero Clare worked on it for about half an hour and gave me loads of stretches to do to try and strenghten everything that needs strengthening and some more exercises and strecthes for other purposes which were very clearly explained to me at the time, but which make little sense now, some 2 weeks later.

Then, from 6 February to 13 February (whichever training days they are, 103 to 110, I think) I was away skiing, and you can’t realistically be expected to do proper training while spending whole days on the ski slopes in Meribel in France can you? I mean, I am only human and skiing is knackering tiring and very tough on pretty much every muscle in your body, particularly the way I ski. In point of fact, I suspect I got more and better exercise in the week skiing than I have in the last few months. Thankfully whatever miracle Clare did perform, my legs didn’t give me any trouble during the week and I actually think that the skiing my have been good conditioning and strengthening for the muscles that I need to build up.

SO, when you think about it, even though you might be fooled into thinking that nothing has happened with my training plan/regime for the last 17 days, there has only really been about 6 days of inactivity. Looks can be deceptive and all of that?

Anyway, the week away renewed my enthusiasm for the whole marathon affair and so training begins again in earnest tomorrow with a run/jog in Marlay (which until 2 minutes ago, I always thought was spelled Marley) Park and some light cross training. I’ve learned that I have to take it slow with the running, that I have to start on grass and work into it, that I have to stretch every day far more than any reasonable person might think necessary, and that if something starts to hurt, then I have to stop immediately, and not stubbornly continue until there is more damage done and more days training that I have to take off. Christ on a bike, I’m nealrly one third of the way through the year with very little to show for my efforts. This faffing about will have to stop……starting tomorrow

Spin1038 DJ Ryan Phillips is training for the Dublin City Marathon 2010. If you’ve just read this, then you’ll know it’s not gone well from Days 94 to 111. More Marathon Training tomorrow!

I did some upper body weights, and discovered that I am still a puny little man who can’t lift squat (that’s a clever weight lifting pun in case you missed it). I always found it hard to do weights in the gym because I have always had strong muscular legs, but very weedy arms, and it’s always a bit embarassing doing weights with other guys around lift 2 or 3 times what I’m using. Anyway, today there was nobody around, so I didn’t really have to worry about it.

Then I did a 10km cycle on the bike and the 8 minute abs workout. So I was exercising for about 50 minutes. I was starting to get cabin fever from not being in the gym, but I was just being abit ridiculous because it has only been a week for gods sake. Shame my diet has gone to such absolute shit. I worked off about 400-500 calories today, which wasn’t that much anyway, but I had a creme egg (it’s the season you understand) and about 10 biscuits before I went to the gym, so it’s all a bit shambolic!!

Anyway, back in the gym and back on the bike. Woot Woot!!

And I'm back o the bike....

I’m not 100% sure what the hell to do, but what I can tell you is that after 5 days of not running on it at all, it’s still sore/tender to touch, I know for a fact it will hurt like hell if I run on it, and it was starting to cause me some serious discomfort when I walked up Djouce Mountain today. We weren’t going at a fast pace, it was very calm and relaxed, but about an hour into the walk (in proper light-weight hiking boots FYI) it was sore.

Anyway, the sum total of today’s exercise was a long walk about the Djouce mountain in wicklow. It’s definitely better than nothing, and given the inactivity over the last couple of days since I hurt my leg on Monday, I was just happy to be doing anything that constitutes exercise. I’m going to try and go to the gym tomorrow for a cycle. I’m really reluctant to push the leg though, for the simple reason that this day two weeks I’m going skiing, and the marathon is still 9 months away, so my priority is making sure I can ski pain free and not lose about €1000 because I overdo it in the gym or in the park out of stubbornness.

Anyway here’s a photo from up Djouce today, which officially counts as day 89 of marathon training!

Ryan Phillips training day 89 for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 – 23 January 2010

I don’t really see any point in waffling on trying to fill up more space here. I’m injured and very disheartened. I could still be doing exercise that doesn’t involve my legs (like weights and situps and the like for example) but I can’t be arsed. I know that’s terrible, and not the spirit at all, but there you have it, I’m a bad person, bite me!

My diet has also gone to hell, but I’m in a place (where I’m moaning and sulking about my shins) that I can actually enjoy it at the moment. So I’m stuffing myself relvatively guilt free, though of course I know that this is fairly short sighted of me!

If you’re looking for whover ate all the pies, it was me…..or this bloke

When they do a statue of me, it will look like this!!

I got a bit depressed about the whole thing today. It’s a horrible helpless feeling to be sitting on your hole and waiting to be able to start training again, especially when, like me, you’re only at the very start of training to begin with. I mean, the most of run is 4 miles and already I’m out with an injury. The guy in amphibian king did warn me that this was likely to happen at the start if I went at it too hard, but I hardly think that 3 and 4 mile jogs is too hard? Or at least I didn’t think it was, but I’ve a bad case of shin splints that beg to differ.

I’m due to go for another run tomorrow, but I don’t think that’s going to work out. I may try a bit of cross training or cycling depending on how the legs are and what my physio friends say is the best thing to do. If I don’t do that, I’ll still go to the gym to do some weights or something, because I need to do bloody something!

I accidentally cut off the top of my head in the video and I’ve noticed that it’s not in youtube as widescreen so the caption is off the screen, it was a bad day overall

Ryan Phillips training blog for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 – Day 86 – 20 February 2010