On Fully Charged tomorrow

Bruno Mars - Last chance to get in the draw for an all expenses paid trip over to London to see Bruno play an intimate (and top secret…..shhhh) gig for a select few super fans! We’ll play a little quote from Bruno during the show and when you hear it, just get in touch by texting Spin on 085 7111038 with the word ‘Bruno’ and all your details and you could win

Smarty Pants - Liam is the new champion on Smarty Pants (Sarah only lasted 1 day, bless) and he’s playing for €100 tomorrow. If you think you have what it takes to beat his ass and take the cash we’ll give you a question tomorrow morning just before 8.

Twit Two - Rory has another full celeb update tomorrow morning just after 9. He trawls through all the celebrity tweets to make sure that you get all the latest gossip FIRST (without having to follow all those pesky product endorsing celebs)

Jason Manford – He’s playing at Vicar Street in September 2011 and we’ve a pair of tickets to give away for Pun of the Week on Punderwall. Here’s what you’ve got to do. Tune in to Fully Charged tomorrow morning at about 7.20 – Have a listen out for the story of the day and come up with a pun to go with it. Seeeemples.

Fully Charged with Ryan Phillips and Tracy Clifford is back on the radio tomorrow morning from 6.45, only on the Most Music Station, Spin1038, Dublin

ON THE SHOW TOMORROW

Pop Bitch - Tracy is still unbeaten for 2011 – Is there nobody out there (apart from Leanne in Ballybrack, obviously) who can beat her? If you think you’re the one to do it, then your next chance to come on air and prove it is tomorrow morning after 8 when we’ll give you a qualifying tune backwards. Most points wins, good luck!!

Bruno Mars – He’s only holding a secret gig in London isn’t he? Yes actually, yes he is. We’ve got tickets, and if you want them, then just listen in to Fully Charged tomorrow. We’ll have a little clip of Bruno Mars from our Fully Charged interview with him. When you hear the clip, text in to be in a with chance of winning

Punderwall - On Punderwall tomorrow we’ve got another chance for you to win tickets to see comedian Jason Manford playing Vicar Street in September. Producer Katie will give you tomorrow’s story from the news at 7.20 and if you can come up with a pun to go with the story, be pun of the day and get on the Punderwall, then you could win this tickets!

Fully Charged with Ryan Phillips and Tracy Clifford is back tomorrow morning from 6.45am, only on the Most Music Station, Spin1038, Dublin

ON THE SHOW TOMORROW

Westlife Tickets - Westlife have announced a 4th date at the O2 next year. It’s on April 9th and the tickets go on sale this Thursday. We, of course, have the tickets to give away first and before they even go on sale. So tune in tomorrow morning and listen out for a clip of Cian from Westlife. When you hear it, text in ‘Westlife’ and all your details to win.

Boots Vouchers – We’ve got €200 boots vouchers to give away each morning on the show to celebrate o celebrate the opening of the new Boots Store in Carton Retail Park, Maynoot. It opens this Wednesday, and they have €5 back when you spend €25. Tune in tomorrow to follow our fiver and win the voucher.

Tickets to PJ Gallagher – We’ve got ticket to PJ Gallagher up for grabs on the show tomorrow too (I know, wowsers, that’s a lot of prizes). All you’ve got to do is play War of the Words for your chance to head to his gig on 16 December (Christmas time, woop woop) and have a laugh on us. Tune in just before 8 for a question qualify.

Fully Charged with Ryan Phillips and Tracy Clifford is back on the radio tomorrow morning from 6.45am, only on the Most Music Station, Spin1038, Dublin – Follow the guys on twitter, they are @spin1038ryan and @TracyClifford

ON THE SHOW ON MONDAY!!

Westlife – Yeah, we’ve got a little world of our own, as we say Hey, Whatever, and go flying without wings!! Yes, you’ve guessed it, we’ve got a mega (yeah, I said Mega) Westlife competition on the show next week. So if you’re a fan of the boys, or if you have a ‘friend’ or ‘daughter’ that really wants to see them play live, then make sure you’re here from 6.45am!

Hour of Power – Boom. It’s back on Monday morning at 6.45 – We’ll have one Hour of Tunes all picked by you. Just send us a text and tell us what tune you want us to play! We’ll have the 7 O’Clock Power Play and the Road Rave too. So, if you see the Spinis out and about in their bright pink Minis pop up to them and ask for a Road Rave to pop around to! Here’s some of the tunes from this morning – (1) Christina Aguilera – Dirrrty (2) Cascada – Evacuate the Dancefloor (3) Far East Movement – Like a G6

Good News News - We’ve got a bit of a pick me up on Monday morning in case you’ve got the Monday-itis! All you’ve got to do is get in touch with your good news from the weekend! Say ‘Good News Guys’ and tell us what it is!

Spin1038′s 5 Word Weekend - Do something amazing over the weekend to make sure that you’ve got something to share with us on the show on Monday. We want to know what you got up to in 5 words. You only have 5, so use them wisely!!

Fully Charged with Ryan Phillips and Tracy Clifford is back on the radio on Monday morning. Dont miss any of the action over the weeekend, follow those fools on Twitter at @spin1038ryan and @tracyclifford

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....

My New Runners

I finally made it down to Amphibian King, the specialist running shop in Bray. As I’ve said many times before in my posts, I’m prone to injuring my ankles and knees when I jog. I’ve never been sure why, but my physio friends Niall and Clare said it was probably because of my gait and the way I was walking/running. So, I went down to see these specialists, and he tested my feet and recording me jogging a few steps to see if I was turning in or out on my ankles or what was going on. It turns out, my feet and gait are pretty ok, but the runners I was running in were rubbish (they were Nike Running runnes by the way) and had no support, so that may have been part of the problem. The other main issue is probably that I always ran on Threadmills (of which no more) and that I always tried to do too much too soon. The chap in Amphibian King, Sean (real name Csaba, apparently) told me that it was really important that I start off very slow and build up all the muscles because (here comes the science bit) everytime you land on a foot while jogging, it’s taking 3 times your body weight.

Anyway, assuming I’m given the all clear by some person in a white coat soon, I’ll be jogging in the new year in my brand spanking new (and expensive) running shoes. Huzzah!

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...

After 4 days off with my cold, that’s 4 days on the trot back in the gym, and feeling a bit more like I’m actually doing some marathon training.

On the negative, If I’m being totally honest, my diet has totally gone to shit. I had crisp sandwiches for lunch, and ate half a white sliced pan by the time I was done this evening, and I’ve been nibbling on chocolate treats and generally getting into the Christmas Spirit. I’ve been telling myself that it’s ok, and that I can let myself go for December and then reign it in in December. I know I’m kidding myself really, but I’m managing to convince myself it’s ok, so shut up!!

In other news I went for a blood test (as part of my general health check) and she took about 7 litres of blood (though that may be a slight exaggeration) which I thought was a little unnecessary. My arm is still sore now, almost 12 hours later. Bitch. Orla says I’m a wuss. Bitch

Take that Cross trainer!!

After just 10 minutes, mostly walking at a decent pace, my knee started to feel a bit iffy. I’m a bit worried that regardless of all the training I might do over the next 11 months, my knees just wont be up to jogging 26 miles. The doctor already advised me against doing marathons and said I should do triathalons instead (she’s never seen my swim, obviously). I’m going to go down to amphibian king this week or next and get decent runners as I’m determined to start my jogging come the 1st of January.

For what it’s worth, today was the sweatiest day so far. I decided to spare you the sweaty mess photos this time (even though I had an impressive puddle), so here’s some other random and more enjoyable photo instead, it’s of our Christmas Tree!!

Not me sweating