Hiatus v2

It would seem I spoke too soon.

I woke up on Monday morning to muscles so tight that walking was hard and stairs were almost impossible.  I bathed, stretched and massaged but it made little difference.  Using the cross-trainer on Tuesday was out of the question.  Unfortunately I couldn't bring forward my appointment with Jennie and so I hobbled through to Wednesday evening.

Jennie tried to reassure me it's just tight muscles (nothing's damaged) and this is perfectly normal for this stage of my training.  In fact, she says it's relatively mild compared to some cases she's seen.  The cause is probably a combination of high mileage, hard surfaces and weak muscles which allow my knees to roll in (the rest of the muscles in the leg then tighten up to compensate for the area of weakness).  She gave me a thorough massage last night but I'm still walking with a limp today.  The good news is that my left calf is much better this week - perhaps switching trainers has made a difference there.

An added complication is that I've developed a cough - and not just a wee tickle in my throat but one that rattles through my chest.  Given the marathon is only 24 days away I saw the doctor this morning.  He declared it to be a viral infection which I just have to wait for my body to fight off.

Although neither Jennie nor the doctor have prohibited running I'm clearly in no fit state to run.  I'm absolutely gutted that after five months of sensible, steady paced training, following all the sound advice I've received, my training should come to a juddering halt so close to the marathon.