Not such a jolly wheeze.

[Rignold]

So, after a rather unpleasant W5R2 last Friday when I was coming down with a cold, I took the advice of various people here and had a break over the weekend. Certainly wasn't going to tackle W5R3 feeling grim. Today though I felt much better - energy levels back to normal, and cold no longer on my chest. Still sneezing and voice is still little more than a hoarse croak but thought I'd have a go and see what happened.

I decided to repeat R2, because whilst I finished it on Friday, it was only just, and I felt I could legitimately put off R3 for a couple more days.

And on the whole it was okay. Admittedly the last minute or so of the first run I was begging for the voice telling me to start walking, but during the second run I was consciously practicising the mental mantras telling myself I CAN do this, I WILL do this etc, and somewhere around the halfway mark it suddenly worked and I found myself bowling along again without worry.

Until I stopped. And tried to get my breath back.

And realised the reason I have lost my voice is that the inside of my throat is swollen, which means I could not suck the air into my lungs in big gulps, only tiny sips. While running my breathing was in sync with my running but now it was an awful wheezing like a geriatric Volkswagen. I am guessing that must be something like how it is to have asthma. Not good at all.

After moment or two I I told myself not to panic and calm down and got my breathing under control, but it was not very fun at all. There were some passersby who looked at me with great alarm (and moved hurriedly away, so good job I wasn't really in medical trouble.)

Anyway was soon back to normal and even did an extra 5 min run on the way back.

On another totally unconnected note, does anyone use a pedometer? I got one from Sports Direct so I could see what distances I was doing in the run sections and overall. it is a Karrimor one that cost about a tenner, but I have serious doubts about its accuracy. Today I went in one direction til the end of the second run and then walked back. According to the pedometer I covered in total 3.7miles, but according to Map My Run it was 5.2 miles. That's a fairly major discrepancy. Anyone have any experience with this?

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It might be worth getting checked out by your doctor if you have a swollen throat on top of all the other symptoms. It sounds like time to be kind to yourself and rest up until you are properly well again. A few days shouldn't affect your fitness and you can go straight on to R3. Hope you are feeling a lot better soon. Good luck and best wishes.

[frannyfran Graduate]

I think both pedometers are accurate, the sports direct pedometer gives you the distance in miles and Map my run in kilometers!

Hope you get better soon.