Just to update this post (it’s now 9.36pm), I have now played my first match, which we won. 3 sets and some good exercise had by all, EXCEPT that I have injured my leg again. Exact same spot, exact same pain. What a fucking pain in the hole! I am only hoping that this means it was never the running to start with that caused the original problem, but rather the badminton. That would mean I can’t really play badminton any more (which is fine since the season is over) but can still run and so keep training. I have called Orla to put the ice pack in the freezer and am making arrangements to get a leg massage to try and unknot the muscles as quick ad possible. Tits, arse, balls, wank I say!!

One Final Update (It’s now 11.15pm) I’m now finished my badminton match, and as predicted it took longer to get through 2 games of badminton than I hope it will take to run the marathon, at a time of 4 hours 15 minutes. What a sham. We lost by the way, Dunboyne Badminton club kicked our ass, but I did manage to win my mens double match if that’s some small consolation.

Anyway, that’s the end of the badminton season (unless Mount Pleasant come back to us to re-schedule matches that were missed) and I can’t say it has been particularly helpful for getting me fit. Tonight, I did work hard and sweat and panted and did all the things that make you think that you’ve been doing some physical exercise, but those nights have beem few and far between

Of course the big story from today is that my bloody leg is now at me again. I am gutted. I’ve been stretching and benging and flexing and doing all the thing the physio told me to do to minimise the risk of the injury re-occurring, but to no avail. I had originally thought that the problem must have been the running, but since the leg only started hurting when I was playing badminton today, I’ve been thinking it might be the badminton rather than the running! Still, whatever the cause is, now I can’t run or put too much weight on it again until it’s better. Arse to it!!

Arse to it!!

Ryan Phillips is a DJ on Dublin radio station Spin 1038. He is trying to train for the dublin City Marathon 2010, but keeps getting injured. Today was day 122, Thursday 26 February 2010, and once again, he’s injured. Pants.

Anyway, i pushed hard when i played and probably got a good 20 minutes or half an hour out of the session, and since i was wrecked anyway, i’m going to count that as a result.

I met a friend for lunch, but had a “healthy” 30% less fat pizza. As far as i can work out, what Milanos do is cut the centre out of the pizza and bung a salad in the gap. Hardly surprising it’s 30% less fat, there’s 30% less pizza!

The Low Fat Pizza Theory

I finished off the box of after eights i had bought myself on Friday and also had a packet of hula hoops today, so overall, it has not been the best of days. I’m down at the cheerios childline concert all day tomorrow, so i dont know when i’ll squeeze any exercise in…arse, arse and double arse…here’s to a more successful tomorrow!

Looking at it like that, it’s not hard to see why Orla finds that annoying, particularly when I do it with absolutely everything. Rainman anyone?

Anyway, I went training again today, which I think is probably a record for consecutive days training so far. Today was squash day, but I was late to bed last night, and had a hard show today, and it really showed out on the court. I had no energy and was just a foot short for every shot the counted. Mark, who I play squash against hammered me by 5 games to 2. I was originally planning on going for a swim after the squash, but I ruled that out fairly lively after seeing how in bits I was. Still, even though I wasn’t great, I got another good 45 minute runaround. It all counts people, you know it.

Squash Anyone?

This means that playing badminton in a competitive environment doesnt keep you as fit (in my uneducated opinion) as it used to, so the exercise I got at our match was good but not great. I’m starting go realise that just going to badminton training/matches isn’t alwasy going to be enough (on days like today, for example) to tick all the “get fit” boxes. That’s a bit disappointing, because now I’ll have to squeeze in going to the gym AND going to play badminton, which is a bit time consuming.

Since I know you’re dying to know, I won the mens doubles game I was playing, but lost the mixed doubles, and our team as a whole were pretty much thrashed. That’s being a bit unfair actually. All the games were very close, but the end result will flatter the other team I reckon. I think we might have lost 6-2….god maybe it was 7-1? Anyway, we lost, let’s leave it at that. We’ve another match tomorrow night, so let’s see how that goes!!

Incidentally, we played against a team from Dunboyne in the Dunboyne community centre. It’s not very well signposted, but if you’re looking for a map, find one here!

Hehehe, I said cock....