50,000 steps?  I've estimated that 50,000 is the number of steps it'll take me to run 26.2 miles.  On Sunday 26 April @ about 9am - I'll be lining up alongside another 30,000 or so fellow runners (including Paula Radcliffe) to run the London Marathon.  It won't be my first time.  I ran it in 2004, as it was something I'd always wanted to do.  I only started running in the August of 2003, and 8 months later I was running the famous distance. 

Unfortunately, I picked up an injury in training and this affected me on the day - making the run more difficult and making it impossible for me to complete it in my target time.  As I crossed the line I 'knew' I'd do it again.  Fast-forward to now, and I now have a little over 3 months to prepare myself for the race.  I've always done sport and been fairly fit - but I've never been a good long-distance runner.  Over the past few years, I've done less and less exercise, especially during the first 9 months of 2008, when I basically did nothing.  Poker isn't really conducive to a good fitness regime.  As someone who works the usual office hours and then spends evening playing poker or doing whatever, it's difficult to drag myself out of bed at 6 o'clock in the morning to go running in the pouring rain.

I've been trying to get a place in the London Marathon again ever since 2004.  In fact, I didn't get a place in the 2004 marathon via a ballot place - I had to get a Golden Bond place where I promise to raise a minimum amount for a charity who then give me a guaranteed place.  I ran for the British Heart Foundation in 2004.  Fortunately, the way the organisers run the ballot for London is that if you don't get a place 5 years in a row, you're guaranteed a place on the 6th attempt.  So the 2009 marathon would be my sixth attempt - and therefore I knew I'd get a place.

My plan was to start running in the summer, build up slowly and then be in good shape to start my training on the run-up (pun intended) to the marathon.  The training programme for the actual marathon is usually over a 16-week period, but you need to have a decent platform already - in other words, I really wanted to be doing at least 25 miles a week come the start of the year.  I haven't been doing 25 miles a week.  So I've missed my first target.  The thing with long-distance running is that you can't go from nothing (or very little) to putting in 15-20 miles runs.  It's all about putting in the miles, and it's something I need to focus on doing. 

If that doesn't interest you, this might.  I'm running for the NSPCC. 

You can sponsor me with an online donation here: 
http://www.justgiving.com/daniel-phillips

It'd be much appreciated.

Is this the most ridiculous red card ever?

Some have said that Ronaldo shouldn't have been sent off for a second yellow when he deliberately handled the ball earlier in the week (I think it was a harsh sending off, but no less than he deserved ).  But this is utterly bonkers!

Pure genius!

As it's described on the website:  I introduce the KazooKeylele! This is what the internet was invented for!!!!!

This is truly remarkable.

We've had the insensitive caption on the BBC site.  We've had the slightly incongruous sponsorship on Channel 4.

We now have some media-buying that hasn't been too well thought out.  Posters have been put up all over the place for the new De Niro/Pacino film called Righteous Kill.

The poster bears the strap line:   There's nothing wrong with shooting so long as the right people get shot.  Which is fine as strap lines for films go, but probably not here…

(Thanks to Caroline for bringing this to my attention, obviously whilst she was busy at work)

I mentioned inappropriate sponsorships in a post a while back, but I think they've all been trumped by a caption on the good old BBC website. 

It's the unfortunate story of the businessman in Shropshire who is believed to have killed his family and set fire to his house before killing himself. 

I'm sure whoever added the caption didn't do it intentionally.  They couldn't have, could they?  Not at the BBC, surely?

Edit (6 Sept): 

To view the original caption on the article, you're going to have to click on the image above. 

The BBC have obviously discovered their mistake, and someone's probably getting a bit of a roasting now…

EEK GBP: £0.05

On one of the forums I'm on, someone posted about a 100 push-up training programme that spans 6 weeks.  The idea behind it is that at the end of the 6 weeks, you'll be able to do 100 push-ups.

When I was doing karate in my teens, we used to do 60 push-ups during training, and I remember finding them a struggle.  So I was interested to see how quickly a 12-stone weekling could get to the point where 100 push-ups was achievable.

The training programme is broken down into 6 weeks, and each week into 3 days.  You start off doing a test to see how many push-ups you can do before you start the programme.  This determines the number of repetitions you do as you progress.  The whole programme can be downloaded and printed off from the site.

Anyway, I managed 30 push-ups in my initial test, and according to the programme, that's not a bad starting point. 

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