Reflecting on the Week - 18th January

Distance: 32.2 km
Time: 7.06
Elevation: 353 m
Fastest pace: 4:15/km
Max HR: 187 bpm

This week was about finally putting the cough behind me and not rushing the comeback. I gave myself a few extra days off, which always feels like a gamble when there is a big goal on the horizon, but it turns out patience is a decent training tool. In that space I drafted most of my Badwater 135 application. Trying to explain why I want to run across Death Valley at 40+ degrees really makes you sit with your “why”.

The running itself was simple but reassuring. The low-key highlight was a Dads’ Dawn Dawdle with Bruce and Tom, an easy 6 km shuffle at first light. No workout, no targets, just catching up and checking that the lungs were finally behaving. My heart rate still spiked a bit, which is a reminder that illness does not magically vanish just because you are bored of it, but the effort felt under control.

Later in the week I had a punchy 10 km around Cheltenham that properly woke the legs up. It was the first time since the cough that I felt like a runner again rather than someone “trying to get back into it”. Clocked in another strength session in the gym, this needs to be bedded in as a more regular habit now - it was holding me back in Daytona.

Recovery was the main theme. That meant cutting and keeping the runs short, actually listening when I felt tired, and remembering that Badwater preparation is a long game. Right now the focus is on arriving healthy enough to handle the real work, not forcing hero weeks in January. Application nearly ready, body nearly ready. Next week the programme starts in earnest.