February

[marathondan]

Not good news, SW. I sympathise with the dilemma of abstaining to return to health, while watching that fitness slowly ebb away. Maybe some more experienced bods around here can offer some magic advice. It certainly sounds like you could do with spending most of March indoors. March being the most critical month to your training, of course. All I can suggest is that this is a make or break moment, when you might have to embrace the tready and somehow crank out those long runs indoors. Maybe watch a film or something? EG had to make some tough decisions last winter when things didn't go according to plan. The end result wasn't the fairytale finish, but neither was it a disaster. You don't need a young whippersnapper like me to tell you that it's how we react to setbacks that show our true character. EG's campaign last year shows that setbacks can be overcome. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the race is in mid-April, and if you can make it to the start line you shouldn't suffer too much on the day.

I'm not going to start whooping or anything, this stuff is patronising enough as it is. But I hope you can dig deep and find a way to get round this.