The training plan that I commenced in the summer was intended to act as a platform from which to continue to build back to some level of fitness again.

Of course, life doesn’t always play ball, and things went awry almost immediately.

A few days prior to running Congleton Half Marathon I had my first winter cold; I could see this in all the Garmin metrics which showed an elevated resting heart rate (RHR) and depressed heart rate variability (HRV).

As it happened I felt OK running the race, although Garmin was showing my training score as “Strained” due to the HRV/RHR statistics overnight suggesting that my body wasn’t recovering as expected.

Things went from bad to worse with picking up another cold whilst at my local bell ringing practice (a small enclosed room is conducive for the easy spread of airborne germs) and this one proved to be a real stinker.

Coincidentally I was due my annual vaccinations and whilst I thought I was recovered, or at least recovering from the cold, my Garmin stats continued to show the vitals were very much out of whack. And this was reflected in feeling generally rubbish.

All in all, the “strained’ training score lasted 6 weeks. Not that I was doing any training, save for coaching my group once per week and leading the other groups on very gentle, albeit hilly runs.

So the lack of any update here is a reflection of the fact I haven’t done very much at all since. Thankfully I resisted the urge to rush out and book another event off the back of a decent race effort in Congleton.

Ultimately there isn’t a need to enter anything as I don’t feel I have anything to prove to myself; entering Congleton was about trying to rebuild confidence in my running and my foot, whilst trying to get to a point of closure that I could be happy with the training block. Getting back into the dizzy (and now somewhat expensive) world of entering events willy nilly was definitely not the goal!

So for now, it’s life in the slow lane whilst the body recovers from the various winter viruses it is dealing with. A holiday with some sightseeing, walking and possibly some short runs will hopefully help with that re-charging, and then hopefully everything will return to some form of balance again.