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