I have missed out on quite a few races that I have entered due to
injury. The pattern would normally be...
Feel healthy -> Enter a couple of races -> Complete the first Race ->
breakdown -> Miss next race. Repeat to fade.
A year ago I made the decision that I would only enter a race once I
had finished the next one and was sure I was healthy and physically
able to do it. This didn't last long and towards the end of 2014 I had
entered the Thames Trot and then, for four weeks later, the Groundhog
Marathon.
Things were going against trend... I finished the #TT in good repair
and was looking forward to the Groundhog. Thinking being that with a
good 7-10 days of rest and small recovery type runs I could do a 25-30
mile week, have a weeks taper and with the residual strength from the
ultra training maybe even PB at marathon distance. It felt possible.
A week after the #TT I succumbed to a heavy cold <insert man flu gag
here> sore throat, bad cough. Even a couple days off work. Felt
rubbish, after about a week the cough went to be replaced by a
streaming nose. Through all of this the inevitable aches and pains
that come with a cold. I felt rubbish.
The irony here being that it all started 2 days after I had my flu jab
where I had boasted to the nurse that I had not had a cold in months
if not years!
I tried a couple of runs during that time when I was feeling ok and
while I was able to complete them it was possibly the worse thing to
have done, the improvement in well being being quickly returned to
rubbish in the space of a slow 5km.
This past week I felt like I had shaken off my cold. A few IPA's on
Saturday night seemingly doing the trick - medicinal you understand.
With Groundhog a week away, it's this Saturday, my plan was to do some
easy running this week and try for a long run of 8-10 miles to see how
it went. I ran this on Tuesday evening, quicker pace than I was
expecting I was just running on feel and felt ok. Afterwards I was
shattered and the following morning stiff as a board.
Waking up this morning I didn't feel great. Not as bad as before but
just an indicator that I have probably pushed to much too quickly and
that running a marathon on Saturday would be the wrong thing to do,
assuming it is even physically possible for me. It's a horrible
decision to make and not taken lightly but feels like the right thing
to do.
