Sunday 3rd - Saturday 9th February

Training Report:

This week's training was a case of slowly but surely wins the day. I felt I'd recovered enough from my severe man flu to start running again. But it was key that I didn't do too much to soon, a virus can really lower your immune system and it's important that the body recovers properly. I'd learnt my lesson in the summer on trying to push on with an intense level of training during an illness and it just doesn't work.

I was careful to make sure I was fully recovered from each session before commencing with the next. If that meant doing less than planned, fine. It's best to let you body recover and do a decent session and help your progression than do a poor session just for the sake of doing a run, that ultimately will not help your fitness in any way. So I missed out sessions when I felt I needed to and did a lot of stretching and mobility exercises. I also made sure when I did run I didn't push myself to the limit. I wanted to finish each session feeling strong, leaving something in the tank. To finish every session dead on your feet having given everything is never a good thing. This is especially so when you are getting back your fitness after an illness. This was sometimes quite hard to do because due to all the rest I've had my legs felt really fresh and were desperate for me to use them to the max. Occasionally I'd lapse and my pace would quicken, but it wouldn't last too long as the additional strain on my lungs and heart, which have been affected during my illness, would quickly let me know that the pace had to slow or I'd pay big time a bit later!

With my final league match of the season on Sunday I had to decide whether to take part. It's easy to stop yourself pushing it in training, much less so in a race, when you know where you should come and who you should be beating on a normal day. But by Friday I was confident enough that I could push myself a bit more and not knock myself back.