Day 82 – The Cold Cometh

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As I suspected yesterday, the vague tickle in my throat and the slight fog in my head have not graciously departed. No, they’ve unpacked their bags, settled in and brought friends. The cold has officially arrived and my head currently feels like it's filled with wet cement, while my throat seems to have been sandpapered by an enthusiastic DIYer. So, I am on full rest—well, as full as possible when you spend your day teaching teenagers who emit both energy and chaos in equal measure.

That said, this is hardly catastrophic. With five and a half weeks to go until the London Marathon, I’m grateful that this bug has chosen now to make its grand entrance rather than waiting for marathon week. In the grand scheme of 16 weeks of training, a cold was always a likely visitor. Like an unexpected relative at Christmas, it’s not if they turn up, but when.

Rest: Doing Nothing Properly

I’ll be taking the tried-and-tested approach of plenty of fluids, multivitamins, and Lemsip (the triad of modern alchemy) and if necessary, I may even consider the time-honoured ‘medicinal whisky’—strictly for therapeutic purposes, of course. After all, it’s important to stay hydrated and comforted.

Rest days, especially the enforced kind, are actually an essential part of marathon training. As I noted on Day 73, there’s a deep satisfaction in earning a proper break. Rest isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s a sign that you’ve pushed yourself far enough to require it. Overtraining, after all, is the overenthusiastic cousin of exhaustion, and he tends to overstay his welcome.

The Bigger Picture

With the London Marathon set for Sunday 27 April, this pause in training isn’t the end of the world—more of a brief intermission, like those helpful pauses in Shakespeare where everyone’s plotting something. I’m aiming to recover fully and return to training with renewed energy. This is my third London Marathon, having previously run in 2019 and 2023, but every time brings new challenges, new lessons and usually, a renewed respect for knees.

For the moment, the priority is rest and recovery. Hopefully, this cold will shuffle off quickly, and I’ll be lacing up my trainers again soon. Until then, it’s me, the Lemsip, and the noble art of doing absolutely nothing—properly.



Location: Sittingbourne, UK

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