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!

It’s not so painful that I can’t walk or anything like that, in fact it feels fine except for if I touch it (it’s very tender) or if I crouch down, like to pick something up, when it is very sore. According to several internet armchair experts, I need to combination of rest, ice, elevated legs and stretches. Lots and lots of stretches. And so that’s what I’m trying to do. I was hoping that I would be back to short jogging on grass by Thursday (it’s now Tuesday) but the way my legs are feeling, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

It also means no squash or badminton and I just found out this morning that I am supposed to have two matches in the next two weeks. That’s pretty bad timing isn’t it?

Hard to write a blog about marathon training when you’re not actually doing any….but I’ll still try!

Ryan Phillips trains for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 – Day 85 – Tuesday 19 January 2010

Today was another day off from Marathon Training. Or, as I should properly call it, a rest day. Having done the 3 mile jog on the threadmill yesterday, my legs are a bit tired, but not injured or feeling too shabby so that’s good news. I’m back in the gym tomorrow for another 3 miles, then again on Sunday for 4 miles.

From next week there’s something every day when I’m not jogging to keep the fitness progressing, so from next week on there should be a lot less “rest days” where I do absolutely nothing, and at the least there should be some situps, or squash or badminton or something ever day…said he with cautious optimism

Tired Legs....not actually mine, but you get the idea

Firstly, the good. I played a full hour of squash and run around like a lunatic chasing balls I was never going to reach. Having been humiliated off the court last week, I managed to hold my own (I’m being modest, I killed him) today, and a good workout was had by all.

Then however, we move on to the bad.

The Bad

And of course, then the ugly….

The Ugly

I don’t really know what happened to be honest. I arrived home and was going to to straight to the gym, but I needed to go and drop my laptop upstairs and go to the toilet. Then I took some Rubex for my cold, and a phone call from a friend about a law thing, and next thing you know, I had stuffed all this lot down my gob and not gone to the Gym at all.

I’d like to say it pretty much balances out, but while the crisps and coke are relatively low fat and low in bad stuff, the sour sweets and M & S chocolate bites are most certainly not, and there’s no way I exercised off anywhere near that number of calories in 1 hour of playing squash at my leve.

Arse to it anyway, this has been a bad day at the metaphorical office…

I decided to go over to the gym and just aim to do 15 minutes on the bike and 15 on the cross trainer. Almost just to keep my hand in as it were.  But then I found some hidden reserves of energy somewhere and did 25 minutes on the cross trainer and 20 minutes on the  bike. I’m not sure I can remember the last time I was so impressed with myself! Nor, for that matter, can I remember the last time I sweat so much. It was dripping off me. And, when you don’t have any real idea what the hell you’re doing, sweat is a good indication of things going well. What I don’t really get is why my heart rateand my burning calorie rate is higher on the cross trainer, but I sweat more on the bike….that is something of a puzzlement to me.

Better still, while I was training, I figured out what I’m going to do for my God Daughter’s Christening present next week. Total result.

Hoping to take a break from the gym and go out for a real no fooling run in Marley Park tomorrow. Weather permitting, obviously, I’ve no intention of running the marathon of it’s raining, so I wont be needing to train in the rain. Kidding.

Here’s some before and after pics of training today!

The Dreaded Cross Trainer

Before

After

I did my, now customary, 20 minute (7km) cycle on the sit down bike and 20 minutes on the cross trainer at a cost of 500 calories to my diet, which is great. While I was there I realised that I haven’t been in the gym since Sunday (Squash on Monday, Badminton on Tuesday and no exercise on Wednesday) because I was doing other exercise the other days. I definitely need to start going to the gym more regularly during the week, because this week (as last) I’m going to end up in the gym Thursday – Sunday then not at all on Monday- Wendesday, which seems like a bit of an arseways way of going about it.

I think I’ll try and get to the gym Monday Wednesday and Friday each week and then slot other bits and pieces like swimming etc around that, just to try and regularise the routine and hopefully maintain some consistency and not get injured!

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?

After my day off yesterday it was back to training today and I went off for my weekly game of squash in Trinity. I suppose it’s the nature of the beast that the first time you play, the hardest you find it, and it gets progressively easier each time. This is good in that it shows progress in terms of physical fitness and also ability, but I can’t help but feel slightly cheated when I come off the court and I’m not absolutely shattered beyond words. Still, I got a good around, and good stretches and, in the words of the wise retailing Giant, every little helps.

Food wise, I successfully managed to avoid eating too much junk today and all in all today gets a thumbs up for Marathon 2010

I'm neither of these two...

I ate a load of Halloween leftovers this morning (while trying to find my clothes!) which sank the diet for the day, but was on best behaviour after that and treated myself to a can of coke zero and some low fat crisps last night. I think i’m totally awesome drinking coke zero, but then I saw a report in the paper this morning that said drinking 2 cans of diet coke a day can DOUBLE your chances of getting serious kidney disease (or something) which I’m assuming also holds true for coke zero? That’s a disaster frankly!!

How could this be bad for me?

Operation “drink gallons of water” continues a-pace, with more wee breaks than seems healthy or helpful!!

Back to training tomorrow afternoon with another game of squash!

My logic (yes there is some there) is that the marathon is a year away at this stage, so for the next few months, I’m just going to concentrate on general fitness and achieving some level of same, without necessarily concentrating on distance (or in fact any) running. Before I hit the tarmac, I need to strengthen my ankles and knees, because they are prone to injury and basically cripple me every time I do any sustained trainig.

In the meantime, I’m relying on swimming, squash and badminton to get my base level of fitness up to some sort of acceptable stanard….

That being said, how fooking long is a real swimming pool?? Like most of you, I’m used to swimming in gym size pools, which are rarely 25 meters. Most are somewhere between 17-21, and those extra 4-5 meters are actually A LOT when you’re back swimming lengths of a pool for the first time in years. A LOT I say. I don’t fully get the layout of the Trinity College swimming pool though, it took a fair few minutes of suspiciuos looking wandering around to find out where I was supposed to change and how to get there without seeing anything I shouldn’t be seeing. In the end, all I saw was naked men, which I guess is a result, albeit a bit of a disappointing one.

Wont lie to you, I’d say I only did about 15 lengths, maybe 20 at a push, and they were done 4 or 5 at a time. Breathless, yes I certainly was. Unfit, absolument. A LONG way to go to run 26.2 miles, certainly. Cautiously optimistic, yes. Going to have a mini Dairy Milk to celebrate my work today, indeed.

Day 3 tomorrow, and I’ve a badminton court booked and ready for action….but no parter at the moment, which could potentially be a problem.

I'll be in there somewhere