Training Week 15 & 16 - London Flu part deux

Sick, sick, sick, sick!!! AND Getting stressed out about being sick which I'm guessing isn't helping me get better!! On the plus side injuries are having a good time off recovering! Maybe its just my body saying 'ease up son, lets not get all crazy on the training until you really need it'...then again maybe its the extreme cold weather followed by what is in comparison warm days (think we got double digits on the weekend..although hard to tell from bed) creating a great environment for cold and flu.

..anyway week 15: Total write off! Only made it into work mid-week as I don't get sick pay and therefore affect earnings and therefore my eligibility for a Visa extension.

Now week 16 was slightly improved, managed 3 incredibly mucusy runs before the body collapsed again and I had a round two with the flu from Saturday morning.

Mondays run:
On-call with work and call-outs started at 5pm just as I arrived at the gym so had to postpone until Tuesday.

Tuesdays run: 7km indoor.
A gentle...no actually scratch that, an arduous 7km journey with all manner of mucus threatening to expel itself all over gym equipment..fortunately I kept my dignity intact and completed this with minimum spillage.

Wednesdays run: 8km outdoor.
Outdoors where no deserted patch of grass was safe from what I was bringing up..just so you all know I don't ever spit normally, but these simply aren't normal times!!! Anyway for extra exertion I made this a hill run..ok to be fair it wasn't really for extra exertion I just wanted to be running downhill for the second half of the run to make me feel better about my new lack of fitness.

Fridays run: 5km outdoor.
Feeling the early effects of the flu..and I admit also being in a hurry to get into town for a birthday dinner, i decided on a nice relaxed 5km run. It was quite pleasant, what helped was there was still sunshine at 5pm at night which is a nice change.

Week 15 Results

Distance Covered: 0 km's
Total running time: 0 hours
Average speed: 0 km/h
Money raised: £10.00 thankyou Heather!!!

Week 16 Results

Distance Covered: 20.4 km's
Total running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Average speed: 11.0 km/h
Money raised: probably £50.00 (way back when discussions were first being had about working on-call for our franchise's bid submission I did volunteer to work a night for a donation to my charity, so true to my word I will put a nights wages into my charity just as soon as they're paid to me)

Training Week 14 - London Flu...

Righto this week was all about slowly getting my body back into running, short runs, no heroics and if I was feeling pain pull out and try again the following night...well at least that was the plan..but then Sunday night this happened:


And no one was prepared.


...ok..except maybe her:




Anyway although the snow was a right pain for most of England with the complete cessation of public transport, for a broken down first time marathon runner it provided a perfect opportunity to get some different sort of training in, without aggravating my current injuries too much..that being a gentle 6km walk/climb/jog/trudge/slide from my home in Beckenham to my work in Croydon, and back again at the end of the day.


I then followed this up with (and a big thanks to flatmate Gareth digging his car out of the snow and driving me) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night on the treadmill at the gym. 8km on the Tuesday, 9km on the Wednesday and 10km on the Thursday, the legs we still sore but no where near the levels from the previous weeks training.

Unfortunately Friday night had me feeling the beginnings of a nasty flu..its Wednesday now and its the first day that I've been able to stay out of bed for any significant amount of time, still the worst of it is over so fingers crossed I might get a couple of small runs in on the weekend.

One more thing before I go, a big thanks to all of you who've sent me in some sponsorship ideas and those family and friends who are actively putting ideas into action and raising money on my behalf, its been a tough and incredibly frustrating couple of weeks with injuries and illness but hopefully I'll be back fighting fit by the weekend and I can put through a few ideas then.

Cheers,

-Josh

Week 14 Results

Distance Covered: 39 km's
Total running time: 5 hours (approx)
Average speed: 7.8 km/h
Money raised: possibly £60.00..(I have a letter stating that the gang of thugs who attacked me on a train home from work back in September have kindly offered a donation of £60.00 to my cause..and by kindly offered I mean they've been arrested and have been ordered to pay compensation..still it all counts!!!)

Training Week 13 - INJURY! a bit of a backward step

Not the greatest running week by any means. After my half marathon run on the Saturday I had the Sunday off and attempted an easy 10km run home from work on the Monday, unfortunately my legs didn't feel great from the start, I persevered with it thinking they would come good after a couple of km's however after about 4km I found I could only jog in small bursts and by about the halfway stage I was reduced to a two leg limp..which I can tell you looks even more ridiculous when you're wearing tights and a blue red and white 'Where's Wally lookalike' hat...I don't know why I happened to choose the route with the least public transport available so unfortunately I had to walk the remaining 5km's home..not fun at all.

Still I figured this might have just been 'one of those nights' us runners have and that maybe I'd be alright running the following night...WRONG..an easy 5km run lasted only the 1km before every step felt like someone was driving a scalding hot bread knife through my shin handle first..again I chose a bad public transport route and had another mammoth route to walk.

Wednesday morning I called a physio and made an appointment for the following day..this was then delayed until Friday as the receptionist made a mistake and booked it in the clinic 20 miles away as opposed to the one across the road..still the Physio bloke was pretty cool, looked at my legs got me to do some stretch's and then gave me the diagnosis of tendonitis..and then he tells me the treatment for it is deep massage and 'I'm sorry but this really isn't going to be comfortable'
What followed was 30 minutes of pain that had me thinking I'd be happier running the marathon with tendonitis that go through anymore of this misery..in fact I don't care what you say mum but this was right up there with child-birth! And it cost me £50.00!

Well that was the running for the week..fingers crossed next week will be improved, but for all those budding masochists out there give marathon running a go..it'll blow your mind.

Week 13 Results

Distance Covered: 15.2 km's
Total running time: 2 hour 1 minutes
Average speed: 7.4 km/h
Money raised: £0

Cheers,


-Josh