That total is a little lower than I had in mind at the start of the week. I dropped a run and had an extra rest day on Tuesday - partly because, as Monday wore on, I began to feel more and more tired, and partly because ministry is just so busy at the moment that I felt I needed to give the time to that. I was a little concerned that after feeling so strong last week, a 'mere' 9 miles should have left me feeling like I needed an extra rest day.
However, by Wednesday evening I realised that the combination of Vicks First Defence and my immune system were losing the battle against that suspicious scratching feeling at the back of my throat. I woke up on Friday morning with a full blown sneezing, coughing, stuffy-nosed cold. This morning I added a gravelly voice to the mix. I was half-tempted to give parkrun a miss this morning, but I was down to volunteer as a pacer. This is someone who deliberately runs to finish in an agreed time (which needs to be comfortable for them), in order to give a lead to a slower runner who is trying to beat that time. I was down to pace 35 minutes, which is just as well, because I would not have run much faster anyway. As it happened, nobody needed my services, but I did it to pace anyway, ran nice even splits with a bit of a speed-up at the end, and finished in 34:37.
After coffee and a shower at the Manor Sports Complex, I queued to post some Christmas parcels before heading over to Chesterfield Road for a coffee morning and a welcome bacon buttie, as I had not had breakfast. Christmas is fast approaching, and my diary this week is fairly insane, with of course a lot of extra services which need preparing. Ordinarily I would also be doing additional visiting as I take communion to housebound members - but it is not wise to visit frail people and cough and sneeze all over them. Instead, I shall phone them all, explain why I will not be seeing them until New Year and hopefully have a good chat.
I'm not sure how much running I shall do this side of Christmas. The standard advice is that, with a head cold, you are OK to run if you feel like doing so, whereas with anything chesty you are better not to. So, at the moment, I could run if I felt like it. I must say, I did feel much better after this morning's run than I did before it! But we shall have to wait and see, because colds are tricky beasts which can change from day to day.
I've written on here before about the importance of having a plan, and just following each step as it comes. The other side of that is that you have to be a bit flexible, because sometimes life gets in the way of your plan. It's important to have a plan but also not to be so totally wedded to it that you attempt to follow it 100% when circumstances make that unwise. Many marathon runners won't be starting their mileage build-up until the New Year anyway, so there is plenty of time. I would ideally like to run that half-marathon distance before Christmas, and complete 110 miles in December - I'm up to 48 so far. But if the combination of work pressure and a small virus mean that can't happen, it's not the end of the world.
One thing that's not going to change, however, is the date of the London Marathon!! 17 weeks tomorrow I shall be toeing the line.... well-prepared, and ready to go. Thank you for your support - it makes a big difference.
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