How Hard Is It To Take A Sick Day?

This week's training
Saturday: Rest day
Sunday: 12 mile run
Monday: Sick day
Tuesday: Sick day
Wednesday: Flexibility exercises
Thursday:  Hill session, Body Balance & flexibility exercises
Friday: 6 mile run & flexibility exercises

I hate being ill. It doesn't happen often thank goodness but I'm not a good patient. I don't much enjoy the broken sleep, congestion, snotty nose and unpredictable appetite part. I quite like the being-off-work part, although the ability to work from home these days means it's harder to justify taking a proper sick day. And if I can justify a sick day then you can be sure I can't be going out gallivanting around in my running gear. So I fester on the sofa in my sweatpants under a blanket, drifting in and out of consciousness as some Scandinavians try and solve a murder on TV, feeling sorry for myself and thinking of how I could make better use of the time if only I felt well, imagining that my fitness is deteriorating with every minute that passes.

I'll stare out of the window at the glorious sunny day and think how I should be out there making the most of a day off work by doing a long run... completely missing the point of being off sick. I stress about my next race. How will I ever cover the distance now I've missed two, no three, training runs in a row?!

My Monday looked a lot like this.

This is irrational. I need to rest. My body needs to recover, to sleep, to repair. These things happen and the race will be what it will be. I will complete the distance. It may not be comfortable but I know I can do it. Provided I'm sensible. So I've spent some days this week practicing the art of not worrying about my missed training runs and trying to enjoy afternoon naps. I cancelled my long awaited bike maintenance class and caught up on my Nordic Noir instead. I took a few early nights and ate lots of fruit and veg.

I'm grateful that I was able to enjoy my weekend before this, whatever it is, set in. A visit to London to see a friend started on Halloween with pizza and films. Can you believe I've never seen The Addams Family all the way through before? We paid a visit to Tate Britain to see the Turner exhibition (my favourite artist ever since school) and I got all inspired at the European Outdoor Film Tour, which was at the Royal Geographical Society. All the times I've visited the Royal Albert Hall and I never realised the RGS was just around the corner.

I think the illness started to kick in on Sunday. My planned long run turned into 12 miles paced by some Audiofuel. It was good to practice running slowly. While I've been thrilled to be hitting 8:xx miles more regularly that sort of pace won't do me any good on my ultra so it was not a waste of a run at all. I doubt I'll get in the sort of miles I want to before race day now but there's no point fretting. If I don't let myself get better I won't be running it at all.

How do you cope when you're ill?

I'm running Gatliff 50k on November 30th in aid of Hospiscare and in memory of my Aunt. I'd really appreciate your help in trying to raise £1000. If you can spare a few pounds please hop over to my JustGving page to donate. Thank you.