Trapped on Planet Sickness

Urgh. I keep thinking I'm going to make my bold comeback to the world of exercise, and you know it just isn't happening!

My first day back at work yesterday left me shattered. By yesterday afternoon I was gazing vacantly out the office window, with colleagues looking at me sideways while making dark mutterings about people who spread contagion. I was in bed before ten and slept heavily all night.

My aims for today were possibly a bit ambitious. I thought perhaps I could manage Balance at 11.10, then if I was feeling okay I could try for Duck's RPM class. I thought there was at least no harm in packing my gym gear and that I could play it by ear. However I was left wheezing after the walk from the house up to the road on the way to work. I've never heard my chest rattle in quite that way. Even then I still thought that RPM might not be as hard on my respiratory system as running, and that I still might be able to give it a go.

I met Duck for coffee at 9.30, and by that time I'd already decided that there would be no exercise for me today. I was just too gunged up still and any attempt to get into Downwards Dog would lead to agonising sinus pain. Duck took things a step further though and banned me from any more exercise this week. Sigh! On top of that I'm not going to rejoin Jog Squad this time around, because even if I can start back with the running next week I'll need to take it easy and will have missed too much training. She's going to write me my own programme, so that hopefully I'll still be able to run Rimutaka, although Wairarapa is a write-off now.

I was starting to feel that I needed to give Jog Squad a rest anyway. The last Squad really just wasn't meeting my needs, and if I'm going to start showing some improvement I need to start doing my own targeted training. I'll miss the social side of things, but there's the Marathon Clinic and Scottish Harriers to consider (I can hear Kate crying 'Scottish, Scottish' from here).

So I'm left hanging around getting unfit again and gaining weight. However once I get back into things I'll have a new, targeted programme to train to, and on the positive side my body's had a good chance to recover from its various aches and pains. I've been feeling vaguely stressy and uncomfortable with myself, and it finally hit me that I was suffering genuine physiological exercise withdrawals, so I'm looking forward to recovering. In the meantime, I'd settle for just being able to taste something (anything) again, and for my nose to stop releasing toxic chemicals....

I'm quite interested in getting into a heart-rate training programme though. The ability to track progress through measurable physiological changes somehow appeals.