I was so excited when I got
the news that I’ve won a spot in the Adidas 24 hours Thunder Run 2014. I
entered the competition through running Saturdays in my local parkrun 5k
competition and then tweeted to Adidas to be in to win it!
The good news reached me
about 12 days ago and that was the week I got ill.
Can you imagine, I was going
to the gym 4x a week plus the Saturday parkrun, won the spot in the race and
then got a stupid throat and ear infection. I thought, “No not now, no time for
this!”
I was about to plan my
running training schedule when my body said, “No Sabine, you can’t”!
All these thoughts about “I
have to train, I want to be prepared, I have only two weeks to get ready and, and, and… But I’m ill, my body is weak, I feel not well and have to take
tablets. In that moment I realised
how strong my mind is as I already know the answer to my question, “Training
when you’re ill? Yes or No?”
Honestly, the answer is a
no-brainer! What do you think? Yes or No?
Tempted to go for a run: love my Adidas Boost trainers, soft foam roller for afterwards.
When I was a teenager I was
dancing with a group Jazz performance and did lots of fitness beside my school
education. I always was a very active person. Through out the years when I was a
teenager, young and full of energy, I remember a day I was training so hard for
a sport exam at school. I had to create dance choreography and as my sport
teacher knew that I went to Jazz dance lessons, I was even more motivated to
impress her.
To keep the long story short,
I trained so hard and especially the day before the exam, that I was so
exhausted and did perform the choreography while I was feeling ill.
I smashed it and she even
asked me to perform 2x as it looked so amazing to her. I was so happy getting
the best score, relaxed and all of a sudden I realised how sick I was. I went
straight to the doctor. He told me off. I had high temperature and I was so
weak that he had to give me drip-feeding.
“Don’t do any exercise when
you are ill! It will affect your heart, your heart muscle!”
I will never forget
that day and his words, although I heard it already from others, not to train
when you are ill.
Was your answer Yes or No?
If you are honest to
yourself and just listen to your body it always tells you what to do. It’s the
same like if you are hungry or thirsty. You feel like sweet or salty and in
this case the body was just telling me: energy levels are low + pain in the
throat = I need to rest.
The answer is “No!” Please
don’t train when you’re ill. You don’t have the energy, you push yourself to
hard and you will feel worse. On top of that the time of getting back to 100%
health will take much longer and it could happen that the infection moves from
just a throat infection to a chest infection.
It was so difficult just to
lie in bed; I even cancelled my Football World Cup Finals Event and stayed home
alone in bed. (And Germany won!)
I set my priorities right. I was ill, I rest as much as I could with no training. My mind always played with me to squeeze a run in, but I didn’t. That’s how I realised how strong my mind is and that I can do it anyway. I just need to rest that my body is strong as well. I want to be part in the Adidas 24h Thunder Run, I need to be at 100%! Strong
legs and strong mind! My mind is already set and I will do at least 2 runs
before the race to wake up my legs and I will be just fine. It’s more of a
challenge but I can do it.
Excited and one more week to
go!
