Being sick during training, or missing runs can feel like the end of the world to many of us.  The running schedule is not a lenient creature, it glares at us in disdain every time we cannot add a tick to a day, or plug in our miles or transfer data to it from our watches. Every day that we are unable to feed it, is a day of failure.  A failure to be prepared for the race.  And failure to complete a race (or even to do well in one) will lead to discouragement, which will, undoubtedly, lead to abandonment of the sport.

I have been training for the Barcelona Marathon for two months and have passed the half way mark.  However, for the past ten days, I have been sick or other people in my family have been sick, and training has been put on hold.  This weekend I am supposed to run a very long 30K run to get me ready for the 42K.  I am still not well, but I know myself, and I will do the run, I don’t care if I have to do it in a taxi.

My obsession with sticking to the schedule stems from the reason why I started to run.  I has been my weapon against smoking.  The day I quit smoking, is when I took running seriously, and I always have the fear that if I stop running, I will start smoking.  It won’t happen, but the addict’s mind is wired differently.