This week was the first proper setback during this training block. Last week, I had standard cold symptoms and dialled running back considerably. But seeing as it was a rest week anyway, I didn’t miss any key workouts. During this week, by contrast, I was supposed to return to high mileage with long (around 3 hour) efforts planned for Tuesday and Sunday. Unfortunately, on Monday afternoon the cold symptoms came back with a vengeance.

The symptoms persisted through the entire week, causing me to miss all planned runs. The main effect that this may have during the race is psychological. Missing a few key workouts (and, more importantly of course, having an imperfect Strava graph) may come back to haunt me during the late stages of the race when I would be very tired anyway. Physiologically speaking, I don’t think the effect would be noticeable.

This training block lasts for 20 weeks. It was always going to be unlikely that I’d be able to execute the block without any setbacks. Because endurance training is all about consistency over time, managing illnesses and injuries is an inherent part of the process.