Ok, so let me get things up to date so we’re all back on the same page. Back on Wednesday 27 January, I last posted about my daily training for the Dublin City Marathon. Things weren’t going too great, because I had recently had a bad case of shin splints that had kept me out of action for a week. Back at the end of January I had gone back to doing some cycling, cross training and swimming, but no running. I actually continued to train to the end of the last week in January (31st) but had lost some motivation and so not updated the blog.

Then I went to see my Chiropractor about my leg to see if there was anything about the way I was standing etc that might have been contributing to the problem I was having around my shins. In short, there wasn’t. Gemma said that it was nothing to do with the bones and was a purely muscular thing, so to go see either of my friends who were physios. And herein lies an important point in self-diagnosis. There’s a fair chance that whatever you think is wrong having consulted google, may not actually be the problem at all. I, it turns out, never had shin splints (as I would understand them) at all. What I had was damaged/aggravated/buggered up muscles in my leg surrounding the shin (I want to say the soleous muscle, but would probably be wrong….again.). My physio hero Clare worked on it for about half an hour and gave me loads of stretches to do to try and strenghten everything that needs strengthening and some more exercises and strecthes for other purposes which were very clearly explained to me at the time, but which make little sense now, some 2 weeks later.

Then, from 6 February to 13 February (whichever training days they are, 103 to 110, I think) I was away skiing, and you can’t realistically be expected to do proper training while spending whole days on the ski slopes in Meribel in France can you? I mean, I am only human and skiing is knackering tiring and very tough on pretty much every muscle in your body, particularly the way I ski. In point of fact, I suspect I got more and better exercise in the week skiing than I have in the last few months. Thankfully whatever miracle Clare did perform, my legs didn’t give me any trouble during the week and I actually think that the skiing my have been good conditioning and strengthening for the muscles that I need to build up.

SO, when you think about it, even though you might be fooled into thinking that nothing has happened with my training plan/regime for the last 17 days, there has only really been about 6 days of inactivity. Looks can be deceptive and all of that?

Anyway, the week away renewed my enthusiasm for the whole marathon affair and so training begins again in earnest tomorrow with a run/jog in Marlay (which until 2 minutes ago, I always thought was spelled Marley) Park and some light cross training. I’ve learned that I have to take it slow with the running, that I have to start on grass and work into it, that I have to stretch every day far more than any reasonable person might think necessary, and that if something starts to hurt, then I have to stop immediately, and not stubbornly continue until there is more damage done and more days training that I have to take off. Christ on a bike, I’m nealrly one third of the way through the year with very little to show for my efforts. This faffing about will have to stop……starting tomorrow

Spin1038 DJ Ryan Phillips is training for the Dublin City Marathon 2010. If you’ve just read this, then you’ll know it’s not gone well from Days 94 to 111. More Marathon Training tomorrow!