I had envisaged a week where my mileage came in at about 60-65 miles and maybe at a slightly reduced pace to the previous weeks too, as I looked to recover my body ahead of the next big target. However, what I had foreseen was the fact that I would wake up on Monday morning feeling terrible and suffering from some sort of horrible virus, a sickness bug that would trouble me throughout the week and leave me feeling both lethargic and a bit dejected as the bug got me down.
The virus wasn't the only difficulty I had to contend with last week, as working away from home would see me living on site for a few days, and feeling exhausted and this probably had an impact on just how poorly I would feel too.
Having managed to jog around for an hour after work on the Monday, I decided to completely write off my Tuesday and Wednesday runs in order to try and allow my body to fight the sickness I was feeling. Then, on Thursday, I attempted to get back on track with my usual tempo run. It was a decision that didn't turn out how I had planned it, as the planned 10k session had to be reduced down to 5k at a slightly slower pace. That was because I just didn't have the energy to complete the session, so took the decision that I would rather call it a day and conserve my energy, in the hope that it would aid my recovery more than needlessly tiring myself out any more.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw me continue to steady jog 6-7 miles per day, as I decided against going out and completing my usual long run.
I finished the week with 44 miles of training completed in total, not a complete disaster, but most importantly I felt more like normal by the Sunday night and was running again fairly steadily without the same coughing, spitting and spluttering that I had been fighting all week long.
It wasn't the ideal rest week ahead of this week's half marathon, but I am hoping that as long as I am able to recover in time and get on to the start line in good shape from here, then possibly the enforced rest may even benefit me in a strange way - as it has almost forced me to taper my training ahead of the race!
Total mileage for the week: 44
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:48
Total mileage for month so far (March): 188
Total mileage so far 2016: 818
Average miles per day 2016: 10.22
