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

I can’t believe I haven’t done any training in 4 weeks. So it appears I’m going 3 months on, 1 month off now! That doesn’t seem like a sensible training plan by anyone’s stanards. I can explain away some of this (2 weeks injured, 1 week skiing) but the last week was quite simply me being in bad form and being lazy and not being in the humour to go out and do any training. Simple as that, I wasn’t arsed.

Now, I am once again arsed and am actually a bit re-invigorated, so today being a Monday I got my running shoes on and got them dirty (they were immaculate until today’s run, didn’t look like they had been taken out of their box) with a run and, if I’m breing honest, part walk around Marlay Park. Full Details of the workout below if you’re interested.

I have to say, it’s depressing how quickly the fitness just evaporates into the ether. I had put in about 3 months training in one shape or former (admittedly, very little running) but out jogging today, I felt like I could be about to die at any minute. I would say I walked between .7 and 1 of the 3.7 miles because of a combination of tiredness and fear that I was going to cause myself and injury!

BUT at least I got back out there and did something, which is progress and is particualrly suprising since I found myself tired and grumpy on the couch yesterday watching Oprah (Ellen was the guest, with her hot wife) and certainly not in the mood to go back out and run around a park in the freezing cold!

<a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/ireland/un/unknown/540126685620887656″ mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/ireland/un/unknown/540126685620887656″>iMapMyRun+: 22 Feb 2010 16:29</a><br/><a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/ireland/un/unknown” mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/ireland/un/unknown”>Find more Runs in Unknown, </a>

Summary
Name: iMapMyRun+: 22 Feb 2010 16:29
Type: Regular Run
Date: 02/22/2010
Start: 15:54:07
End: 16:29:25
Time Taken: 00:35:17

Workout Weight: 175.0 lbs.
Workout Route: iMapMyRun+: 22 Feb 2010 16:29
Total Distance: 3.73 mi.
Burned: 501 (kcal)
Workout Stats
Pace: 39:24 (min) 09:23 (avg) 02:40 (max)
Speed: 1.52 (mi/hr) (min) 6.39 (mi/hr) (avg) 22.42 (mi/hr) (max)

Spin1038 Dj Ryan Phillips is training for the Dublin City Marathon – Today was 22 February 2010, Day 119 of Marathon Training and saw him go for a run in Marlay Park, Rathfarnham.

Nice Place for a Run eh?

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

A hectic day and a hangover it appears are all that it takes to throw me off my stride when it comes to my training schedule. But I decided to let today slide, because I can pick up on the 4 miles tomorrow, then do the 3 miles as planned on Tuesday and be back on track. Whether I do two days back to back on Saturday/Sunday or whether I do them Monday/Tuesday isn’t a huge issue.

So, I’ve broken my training schedule, but only by a day, so things will be back to where they are supposed to be. It’s all good, everything is fine, let’s not panic!!

Ryan Philllips – Marathon Training for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 – Day 83 – Sunday 17 January 2010

I’ve still to much left over from me beer gut to see a six pack even if one was there (which it most certainly isn’t), but I’m hoping that if I keep plugging away at this, then when I start training properly again and start losing weight, the two will magically combine and conincide and I’ll be totally ripped! Hehehe, unlikely right?

As you can see, I still have a bit to go....

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….

To be honest, the message I got from the Doctor yesterday had me a little on edge because I don’t know what they saw on the ECG that made them think  I should go for the echocardiograph. So I called today, but the doctor was gone away for Christmas and there was just some guy on the reception and a locum doctor in the surgery. That didn’t really shed too much light on the diagnosis, so I did what any sensible person would do and sought free medical advice from the Fully Charged listeners over the radio. It turns out that an Echo is basically like an ultrasound they would do for a baby, but it’s of the heart and it’s to see what the muscles and walls of the heart are like. According to a listener who is a med student, a spike or something must have shown up in the ECG and that’s why they want to have a look at the muscles. She said my heart is probably not dodgy, but more likely “unique”. That was sweet of her, but didn’t really but my mind at rest.

My doctor is back next week and she’s supposed to call me to organise the Echocardiograph then. I’m sure it’s nothing major at all, but it would still be nice to know and not have it sort of hanging over me for Christmast. Bastards.

Here’s what BUPA have to say about it!

Interestingly, and of relevance to the whole marathon training thing, I got a call from my Doctor to say that maybe someone had already been in touch with me, but that I needed to go and have an echo-cardiograph done on the basis of my ECG results. As I said, I was rushing about trying to get everything done and Christmas presents bought and I actually forgot to call her back to find out what the story was and what I needed to do….Bit of a rubbish message to get 2 days before Christmas though!!

So to summarise, because of whatever showed up on this

I have to go and have one of these

BUT I’m not entirely sure when where or why. Lovely

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...

I don’t deel well with bad form and stress. My solution is usually to pig out. I say usually, which would lead you to suspect a “but this time, I’m happy to say I did not). But I did, massively, with loads of crisps and chocolate and wine and pizza and all sorts of good stuff. I must have taken on about 3000 calories in about 2 hours. And it felt GOOOOD!! At the time, not afterwards, obviously. But no training did mean I got to watch the Transormers 2 – Revenge of the Fallen which I still hadn’t gotten around to, that’s a result of sorts, right?? So after 2 days back at training, it was another 2 days off. A poor run of form If I’m going to make the start line in October 2010!

Better than training, though perhaps not as good for you