Training hampered by illness

Only two team members were available for training on Sunday and Mum and I were celebrating a family member's birthday in the evening so we opted for a relatively easy 6 hour walk along the North Cliff coast path. As it turned out however Mum had fallen victim to a particularly nasty cough doing the rounds at work and wasn't feeling her best. We started at Tehidy Woods again and walked to Godrevy Point (not getting lost in between this time) and as soon as we left the shelter of the woods it became apparent that the wind was very strong. Once we hit the coast path we were buffeted around by increasingly strong gusts and before long we began to find the going incredibly tough. At times the wind was so strong we had no option but to stick our poles into the gorse and brace ourselves to prevent the wind from knocking us over! As we neared Portreath I made the decision to divert to the main road because there was a slightly tricky section of path coming up which I felt would be dangerous in the strong winds (one misplaced foot and we would end up in the sea!). We walked into Portreath on the road (passing a lot of exhausted charity runners on the way) and from there we made our way back to Tehidy woods and then home to Camborne.

My back started to ache surprisingly early on in the walk and my legs soon felt weak. As I found the previous week's 7 hour training walk relatively easy I assumed that I was struggling because of the strength of the wind and that maybe I'd overdone it on the treadmill. By the time we reached Camborne my legs were aching and heavy and I felt as if I'd completed the 100km challenge already. I woke yesterday morning feeling ill and it would appear that I have caught the dreaded bug affecting so many in the office. Training was on a standstill yesterday but I managed 20 minutes on the treadmill this morning and Mum and I are hoping to feel well enough to walk home from the office tonight. We know who is responsible for making us unwell and who to blame if we have to call our support crew leader to rescue us!