Running when ill is not something I recommend. Today I did it anyway, so I want to be honest about how I approach it and what I think you should do instead.

This is day 2095 of my daily running streak. I woke up with the worst head cold I have ever had. I am so congested that I did not think my body could produce this much. My head aches, I feel a little feverish, and I am irritable. You know the feeling when you try to blow out hard to get a better breathing pattern and it never works. That was my morning.

I have been ill on runs before, but not often. I have been sick during a run two or three times. One of those was alcohol related and the other two were stomach bugs. As horrible as it sounds, being sick brought instant relief each time. Today I do not get that. I do not feel sick at all. I just feel heavy, blocked and depleted.

My first piece of advice is simple. If you do not have to run, do not run. Rest, recover and let your body do its job. Running will not make me feel better today. It will use the little energy I have, and I will probably feel worse afterwards. That is the honest assessment, and I would give it to any runner who asked me.

So why did I run? Because I am on a daily streak tied to a fundraising mission. Rest days are not part of the design, and that choice was made long before today. I accept the cost of that choice. I do not present it as something to copy. It is a trade-off I made with open eyes, and on days like this I feel it.

If you are going to run regardless, here is how I treat it.

First, I slow right down. My pace today is 30 to 45 seconds per kilometre slower than normal. I treat the run as recovery. I coast where I can and I do not chase a number. Even at that pace it felt like a battle, which tells you how depleted I am.

Second, I look after hydration and fuel. Hydration matters more to me on a day like this. I planned a stop at a newsagent on the way back so I could drink properly. There is no way to make a run like this sound better than it is. It is grim, and planning the stop in advance made it easier.

Third, I let myself stop. If you need a breather, take one. Your body is telling you something for a reason, and the aim is to avoid making things worse. Walking for a minute does not cost you the day.

Fourth, I keep my vlogging manners. I know I am breathing harder than usual and you can hear it in my voice. I tried not to blow my nose every few strides, as I was doing a few minutes before I started recording. A vlog should be useful to listen to, even on a bad day.

The lesson for me is about the size of the commitment, not the size of the effort. A streak does not need a hard run every day. It needs a run every day. On a good day that means my normal effort. On a poor day it means a slow, short, careful version of the same thing. Keeping the habit alive matters more than the quality of any single run. That is how I think about consistency over intensity.

This matters because of how long I want this to last. I have run 16,134.83 km so far. The goal is 40,075 km, one lap of the world, which leaves 23,940.17 km. I am planning for a streak measured in years, not weeks. Over that many years I will be ill many more times. If I only run when I feel well, the streak ends the first time a cold arrives. If I have a plan for ill days, I can keep going without punishing my body. The plan is slow pace, hydration, fuel and permission to stop.

There is also a reason bigger than me. This vlog is part of a fundraiser to save the lives of children, with a target of raising £1M for children's causes. I run barefoot style every day, and I film it so more people see the mission. The more people who watch, the more money we raise. I would not trade a poor running day for that. A head cold is small next to what the children these causes support are dealing with. Keeping that in perspective makes a miserable run easier to finish.

So here is where I land. If you are ill, rest. That is the best advice I have. If rest is not an option because of a streak, an event or a commitment you made, go slow, drink water, eat something and stop when your body asks. Do not try to prove anything.

If you found this useful, watch the full episode, follow along, and share it with a runner who needs the reminder. If you are working on your own streak, think about your ill-day plan now, while you feel well. Tomorrow is day 2096, and I will be back out there.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/PoUMsRQTdkw