The day Janathon nearly broke me

That day was today. Time flew by at work and before I knew it the end of the day was here, well after a lot of coughing and spluttering from me. Nothing serious, just one of those pathetic dry coughs that won’t shut up. A glass of water usually does the trick but this annoying little thing was persistent and wouldn’t be calmed by water. In fact the H2O just aggravated it which meant I drunk hardly anything today.

 I headed on to the sweaty tube followed by a sweaty bus ride which I ended up standing on for over an hour due to a ridiculous traffic jam. I felt faint and a little bit nauseous (the lack of water probably didn’t help) and a 5k run was definitely not appealing. I even put out a question on Twitter to my fellow Team Bangs girls asking what I should do. The best advice was to listen to my body and take a rest. But, did I heck!  I wasn’t letting Janathon get the better of me on day 24. So even after a cheeky rest on the sofa, I got my kit on and off I went. Miss Stubborn at her absolute best.

I can honestly say that tonight’s 5k run was officially the worst run ever! The whole thing felt impossibly hard and I was hurting more than I’ve ever hurt before. My calves were so tight; they felt like they were being twisted in a vice. In fact, I was on the verge of tears most of the way round. Partly because my legs were hurting so much and probably more so that I was panicking I’ve overdone it. I’ve harped on about it enough. It’s the biggest mistake that beginner runners make and a beginner runner is what I am. I did a lot of running at the weekend and maybe Janathon is starting to take its toll. The fact that I was probably fairly dehydrated definitely would not have helped either.

I have a boxing class scheduled for tomorrow night but I am not going to let my stubbornness get the better of me. If I am really not feeling good I am going to head to the pool to do some lengths followed by a chill out in the sauna instead. Janathon was intended to help motivate my training and it has definitely done that. There are far more experienced and talented Janathoners out there than I am ever going to be and my ultimate aim is to complete the Paris Half Marathon, not to destroy myself. I am going to remember this in the remaining week of Janathon. I will power on through but with caution.