Day 89 – A Week Lost, but Not the Battle

The Reluctant Runner

This morning, my back still wasn’t playing nicely and getting out of bed felt like wrestling an octopus made of lead. Every movement was accompanied by an internal monologue of protests, the occasional sigh and a fleeting temptation to just stay under the covers where nothing hurt. But that’s not how marathons get run, and so, eventually, I shuffled myself upright and into my running gear.

Getting out onto the pavement wasn’t much easier. My legs felt stiff, my back ached and my form was less ‘graceful long-distance runner’ and more ‘wobbly foal on ice.’ Every footfall carried the weight of frustration. The run was short—more of a token gesture than a proper session—but at least I was moving. The real battle, at this point, isn’t the running itself; it’s the gnawing irritation of feeling like my training is slipping through my fingers.

A Week of Woes
Between last week’s miserable cold, the foot injury that followed and now this persistent back niggle, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve been knocked down repeatedly by an overenthusiastic cosmic referee. Training plans are meant to be a steady, structured progression, but mine currently resembles an elaborate game of Snakes and Ladders, and lately, it’s been an awful lot of snakes.

It’s not just the physical toll that’s frustrating—it’s the mental side of things too. When you’ve spent months building endurance and hitting your stride, a sudden halt in momentum feels like watching a sandcastle being washed away by the tide. The real concern is that I feel like I’m tapering too soon, which would be fine if I were tapering intentionally. Instead, I’ve been forced into a premature slow-down by an unfortunate series of events. Tapering is supposed to be a controlled easing off before the race, not an involuntary pause enforced by minor afflictions stacking up like a badly planned game of Jenga.

Patience and Perspective
That said, I know pushing through back pain is a fool’s errand. The pavement is an unforgiving place, and it won’t hesitate to introduce a lesson in gravity if I let my impatience get the better of me. I could push through, grit my teeth, and stubbornly try to power ahead, but that’s the kind of thinking that leads to marathon dreams being scuppered entirely. If I’ve learned anything in this process, it’s that training for a marathon isn’t just about running—it’s about managing setbacks, listening to your body, and resisting the urge to make a bad situation worse.

So, as frustrating as this is, I have to take each day as it comes. The goal is still clear: 27th April, finishing that marathon. Missing a few workouts now is infinitely better than missing the race altogether. There’s no glory in stubbornly running myself into a more serious injury. This journey was never going to be a smooth, effortless sprint to the start line, but then again, anything truly worth doing usually comes with a few unexpected detours.

If running has taught me anything, it’s that persistence isn’t about never faltering—it’s about getting back up, even when your body protests in increasingly creative ways. So tomorrow is another day, and hopefully, one with a slightly more cooperative spine. If not, well… at least I’ve got plenty of practice in being stubbornly optimistic.