Marathon Training – Day 89

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:51:31 +0000

Conflicting advice about shin slints abounds! Firstly, some people I’ve talked to, and some people on the interweb who’ve seen my youtube videos, seem to think that because of where the pain in my leg is, it’s unlikely to be shin slints at all. Then those who do think it’s shin splints, are split in the advice. One school of thought is “walk it off and run through it” and the other is pretty much the polar opposite “don’t do anything on it or you’ll do untold damage”

I’m not 100% sure what the hell to do, but what I can tell you is that after 5 days of not running on it at all, it’s still sore/tender to touch, I know for a fact it will hurt like hell if I run on it, and it was starting to cause me some serious discomfort when I walked up Djouce Mountain today. We weren’t going at a fast pace, it was very calm and relaxed, but about an hour into the walk (in proper light-weight hiking boots FYI) it was sore.

Anyway, the sum total of today’s exercise was a long walk about the Djouce mountain in wicklow. It’s definitely better than nothing, and given the inactivity over the last couple of days since I hurt my leg on Monday, I was just happy to be doing anything that constitutes exercise. I’m going to try and go to the gym tomorrow for a cycle. I’m really reluctant to push the leg though, for the simple reason that this day two weeks I’m going skiing, and the marathon is still 9 months away, so my priority is making sure I can ski pain free and not lose about €1000 because I overdo it in the gym or in the park out of stubbornness.

Anyway here’s a photo from up Djouce today, which officially counts as day 89 of marathon training!

Ryan Phillips training day 89 for the Dublin City Marathon 2010 – 23 January 2010

A walk up Djouce with a borrowed dog!

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:25:59 +0000

Today myself and Orla went and got our pretend dog (it’s really her parent’s, but we borrow it at the weekend when we go for walks, a win-win for all concerned) Tara and headed up to Djouce mountain in Wicklow for a walk. We took a little bit longer than we should have to get there, partly because Orla went the wrong way and partly because I insisted on trying to use the GPS on my iphone to get us there once we had gone wrong. But anyway, we did eventually get there and went for a nice saunter about the place. There is some really beautiful views up there on a clear day, particularly looking back across at the Powerscourt Waterfall. I got all (insert famous photographer’s name here) and trying to take lots of artistic fancy photos on my little point and click digital camera. I actually think that some of them came out ok!?

The only slight downside of the day was that my right leg was “at me” (which I believe to be the medical term) and caused a bit of pain. I’m really worried about that, not just because of the whole marathon training thing, but also because I’m skiing in 2 weeks and I don’t want to have any problems when I’m over there that would stop me flying down the Meribel slopes totally out of control.

The only other thing we did today was a bit of cleaning and clothes washing this morning (I concede the point, I am obsessed) and some internet browsing. We’ve seen a house we love on myhome.ie and we’re going to go and look at it during the week. We’ve no mortgage approval and weren’t really planning on buying at the moment, but what the hell, can’t do any harm.

Now I’m drinkin a vodka and coke (zero, in case you’re wondering) and getting ready to go into town with the lads. Orla is staying at home. There’s a steak in the fridge which I’m supposed to be cooking, but the student in me can’t seem to let go of the mantra “eating is cheating”. This has disaster written all over it!

Check out my photos below, impressive right?

The Life Of Ryan» wicklow

Marathon Training – Day 89

A walk up Djouce with a borrowed dog!