Sick!

In this ghastly photo of me - never let it be said I'm not honest with you all - you can just see what I should have known was a harbinger of doom. See that large spot above my eyebrow? It's not a fleck on your screen, it's a boil on my forehead. I get few spots ever but when they come, oh boy. They're bad. I could feel this stinker brewing on Friday morning and was wondering why it was there and what it had come to tell me. At about 10pm last night I found out, as I sat shivering on the sofa (we had guests) and could just feel flu descend like a blanket over my head. By this morning I realised I had it. Flu. I performed the bare minimum of my maternal tasks - made pancakes, cleaned up, put on laundry, ironed, lost my temper with 2 fighting children - before retreating to my bed where I have been tucked up ever since. No 10 miler with speedwork. And much more sadly - no Mika concert tonight. But sometimes you just know there is no way. And this is one of those occasions. I am not going anywhere.

So.. training! Well - I am not too worried. I have actually lost track of how many weeks I have been training and I have just used my last silver bullet week over my children's half-term holiday (damn!) but given the length of my training program (20 weeks) I think I can afford to skip a few days and jump back in when I feel better again.

After last Sunday's exertions I took Monday and Tuesday off from running, and did a very slow 5 miler on Wednesday morning round Highbury Fields in London where I was, by now, staying with my bestie, Dawn. Thursday morning I got up nice and early and ran a glorious 10 miler, running down to the Smithfield meat market and then along the Embankment and across Westminster bridge, and back across the Wobbly bridge and through the West End. Friday was another washout - spent all day in the car, taking the kids first to the Roald Dahl museum and then back home through roadworks and rush hour traffic. So yesterday morning I woke up determined to set things straight. The schedule called for a 14M long run this weekend, but as I had missed an 8 miler, I decided to turn my run into an 18 miler. Hardcore no? It went okay - AutoPause was on so I didn't record the time stretching between miles and the various pitstops I made -but all in all I still managed an sub 9 minute mile for the run. I was intending to do an 8 miler with speedwork this morning but well .. that didn't happen. So it goes.

I hope this post finds you all better than I am. Happy running!