It seems to have been a case of one step forward and two steps back so far, and this latest lurch back has been the toughest one to take yet. My illness was something of a mystery to me for much of the week, but by Friday it became clear that I had suffered from the Nora Virus. It is a particularly nasty virus that hits sufferers with sickness and diarrhoea and particularly bad stomach cramps in my case.
I had felt fine on Monday and enjoyed a comfortable 10.5 miles run home from work. I had already planned out my speed session for the Tuesday evening, as I wanted to do 4 x 1 mile reps off a two and a half minute recovery. I didn't feel particularly great by the time it came around, but being stubborn I still gave it a go. I felt terrible throughout, and by the end my pace was way off, as my splits of 4:58, 5:06, 5:12 and 5:33 show.
As soon as my session finished, my toilet problems started. They didn't pass until Saturday afternoon. Although I did manage to maintain some sort of running at least, it was little more than jogging pace as I couldn't muster much more than 7 minute miles, and had to dive into fields and public toilets on numerous occasions...
As the week went on I felt worse and worse, the constant stomach pains and visits to the toilet had left me with barely enough energy for work, never mind anything else. Despite this I didn't make my decision not to do Inskip Half until Friday evening.
There simply was no point in doing the race, even as a tempo session or built in to a steady long run, even if I did recover from the illness in time. I have made the mistake of racing when I am not fit on a few previous occasions and it is never a good idea, but particularly over a distance like the half marathon where the energy exerted is so big. I made that error at Cardiff last year, racing just a week after a chest infection, it took ages for that particular scar to heal mentally and the lesson is one that has stayed with me. I am in no doubt that if I had done Inskip I would have set myself back a long way.
Looking at my training since Christmas, I am happy with 14 of my runs out of 28 days. That means that half of the past month has not been good enough. Running is all about peaks and troughs, and I have been fortunate to have hit a massive peak in October/November last year, the last few weeks have been a bit of a dip in form and fortunes, but I am hopeful that if I keep my head down I will be heading back in the right direction again soon enough. March and April are my next big target months, so I will use the time between now and hen to try and get myself back in the best shape possible.
My crosscountry season so far has been pretty much none existent, but if I manage to put a solid week in over the next few days I will hopefully manage to get my 2017 off to some sort of a start by taking part in the Northern Championships next Saturday.
Total mileage for the week: 51
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:36
Total mileage so far this month (January): 194.5
Average miles per day 2017: 8.84
