Staying positive

I'm not exactly overdoing it with entries for February am I?

That's largely because there's nothing much to report in terms of running, diet or fitness.

I wasn't sick again after the post last Tuesday but remained...how shall we put this... 'loose' until Saturday and continued to get gripe pains and wind. Lots of wind. If somebody had popped a turbine in my pants last week I'd have made a noticeable contribution to combating the world energy shortage.

Aside from those ailments, by Friday afternoon I was out of bed and felt relatively normal again but found walking even 20m slower than normal and I felt somehow wobbly or disjointed when I did it. From that I decided to avoid trying any exercise on Saturday and then when Sunday came round I opted to skip anything then too. I'd got very dehydrated on Tuesday/Wednesday and still had a bit of that at the weekend (maybe even now too) and wanted the first run 'back' to be at least 'OK'.

So, no exercise to report but surely I've lost a good deal of weight?

Well, no.

I'll grant you that on Tuesday my calorific intake was limited to a bottle of (glucose laden) Lucozade and on Wednesday and much of Thursday I wasn't eating normally but I was drinking a mix of Lucozade and more glucose from sachets of Dioralyte, and eating a large packet of plain biscuits. By Thursday Evening I had a craving for chips - with lots and lots of salt. On Friday I ate relatively normally albeit that I couldn't really face meals so I picked constantly at carbohydrate heavy items - biscuits, bread, a packet of crisps, leftover noodles, leftover oven chips, more biscuits.

As I was denied exercise, at the weekend I was struggling for what to do with myself so found solace in cooking: 36 iced/fruit buns, a loaf of bara brith, a rather excellent meat and potato pie. Of course, cooking comfort food meant lots of eating too. Add to that a craving for sugary sweets (liquorice comfits to be precise) on Friday and sharing Revels and Aero Bubbles with Sue and Bethan on Saturday and the weekend would not be one that Gillian Mckeith would approve of.

So, some sickness induced fasting at the start of the week but then a less than healthy diet and almost complete inactivity. I'm apparently 0.8lb heavier today than I was at the same time last week.

However, I'm determined not to be downhearted. I've had only 2 runs in 15 days and haven't lost an ounce BUT the enforced rest may turn out to be a blessing.

My legs feel a bit tight due to inactivity but there's no residual pain in shins or elsewhere so, as long as I can run at least moderately normally now, its been a decent recovery from the training to date. It might have even been a good break mentally too. Not that I'd ever plan, or advocate, this length of time off as the peak of training begins but, I'd got up to 18 miles for the endurance run and there's plenty of time left. The glass is half full.

In fact, building on that particular theme, last week was officially a recovery week so the relative shortfall is limited somewhat.

I'm certainly looking forward to this week's training. As I didn't run yesterday I'm going to switch Monday's rest day for Tuesday's 9 miles steady as that will allow for a cross training/rest day in between each run this week which will limit the impact of getting straight back into peak training.

There's also a subtle change in the format as its the start of a new 'period' of training. Out go the 5k intervals and 10k tempo runs (which I fear I'd have struggled with after 2 weeks of disruption) and in come mixed intervals and half marathon pace tempo runs. The latter, I hope, will be more easily adapted to and lead more directly to marathon pace running. The intervals start with recovery pace then build through half, 10k, 5k and 3k paces with each interval getting faster but shorter. That should be nice and varied. On Sunday its a 20 miler.

Weight wise, the 11 stone target is beginning to look unachievable in the time left. It was just about doable this time last week but gaining a pound puts me 3lb behind target and unless the weight absolutely plummets this week (i.e. one of those freaky half stone loss weeks that can happen in the first week of a diet) I think something like 11st 5lb is a more realistic aim. That's OK. Whilst the extra 5lb would have made a difference I'll still be appreciably lower in weight than now and running will feel so much easier.