Wiped out

I always look forward to having some time off over the Christmas period: catching up with friends, cleaning and decluttering the house, spending time with family and enjoying a few runs during daylight hours along my favourite tracks.

Instead, this holiday season brought snot, sweating, persistent coughing to the point of muscle-tearing, a clogged ear (and subsequent vertigo symptoms), the inability to walk up stairs without sitting down midway to catch my breath and a headache reminiscent of someone standing on my head, giving it a little kick every now and then.

This holiday season has been utter bollocks.

I had hoped my misery would at least be justified with a diagnosis by the doctor of which particular brand of 'itis' I had contracted, but, alas, I was left feeling cheated when I was told it was 'just a bad cold'. It was at this point I thought perhaps I should man up and take myself out for a walk. I left the house, walked about 10 metres and broke into sweat. Bad cold, my arse.

When the fever stage finally passed and I started feeling a bit more alive again, I was left feeling so utterly exhausted that it was dangerous to sit down for 5 minutes, for there was a very real possibility that I would fall asleep for an hour. After about a week of this I decided I had had enough. It was time to take some control of the situation and go out for a run. I had no idea how this would go but I felt positive that it would be ok as I was now able to get up the stairs without feeling out of breath. I managed to plod along for a whole 5 minutes and the next day my hips ached.

It's very hard to accept the toll that a respiratory illness can have on your body and that you may need more time to recover. If you're anything like me, it's a struggle to sit and do nothing for 10 minutes, let alone for a week and a half. I'm currently convinced that I've lost all the fitness that I built up over the summer and autumn period and that training for my next half marathon in May is going to be extremely hard work.

Sometimes, however, it's better to accept that not everything is within our control and that it might be better to start afresh. In the end I was glad to see the back of the holiday season and return to work, to reset my mind and look forward to what this year will bring. It's going to be hard work but I'm determined to get back to half marathon fitness...and then see where the journey takes me after that.