Running when you're feeling rubbish is part of any running streak. Sooner or later you wake up ill, injured or flat, and the run still sits in the diary. Today is Day 2092, and this is a reflection on that moment.

I will start with a moan, because I feel I have earned one. I did not want to run today. I felt rough. I had one small win: it was 13 degrees, so I could wear shorts and a t-shirt. Then I stepped outside and it started to rain, with heavier rain looking likely. That is how it goes sometimes. If you run a streak, or you exercise regularly and want to keep your routine, you will get ill or injured at some point. The hardest time to train is exactly when your body is struggling.

My first piece of advice is to have the moan. If you are in a streak and you are working through illness or injury, say it out loud and get it out of your system. I do not think you need to pretend it feels good. Complaining for a minute and then going out the door is honest, and it works for me.

I also want to be clear about the advice I would give anyone else. If you are ill or injured, do not exercise. Your body needs rest for a reason. If you do not have to run, rest, recover and come back when you are physically stronger. That is the sensible answer, and I would rather say it plainly than dress up stubbornness as strength.

My situation is different, and I want to be accurate about why. This vlog is part of a fundraiser for children's causes, and I made a commitment to run every day. My rule has always been that I stop when my body stops me. If my body is not physically stopping me, I get out and do something. I slow the pace. I reduce the distance if I need to. I still get the job done. That rule is contrary to the standard advice, and I know it. It is my choice for this mission, not a recommendation.

Looking back over almost six years of consecutive days, the list of what I have run through is long when I write it down:

- Torn calf muscles - Plantar fasciitis - A pulled hamstring - A broken foot - Colds and flu-like symptoms, including days with a temperature - COVID, three times

None of that was comfortable, and I would not call any of it a good idea in isolation. What got me through each one was a short set of habits, and I think they apply to anyone who ends up running while feeling rough.

First, treat the session as a recovery run. Slow right down. The purpose is to loosen your body and get blood moving around it, not to chase pace or distance. Today was not a day to measure myself against anything.

Second, hydrate before you start. Feeling rubbish and being dehydrated is possibly the worst combination, so sort the water out before you think about any exercise.

Third, fuel properly. Your body is already depleted when you are ill or injured. Setting off under-fuelled adds a second problem to the first.

Fourth, stop if you need to. If you are struggling, take a breather. If that means stopping halfway, that is fine. Getting out there at all deserves respect, although I am not saying you should do it. Pushing hard and making an injury or illness worse makes no sense. The aim is to protect the long run, not to prove something on one bad day.

The insight for me is about what consistency actually looks like. It is not a run of strong days. It is mostly the ordinary, flat, grey days where the only job is to show up at a sensible effort and finish. A good streak is built on those days. The strong days look after themselves.

That matters more to me with the length of this project in mind. I am at 16,115.89km after 2092 consecutive days, with 23,959.11km left of the 40,075km lap of the world. I am planning for a streak of around 16.5 years. Over that length of time I will feel rubbish many more times. If every one of those days needed a perfect run, the plan would fall apart. Slowing down, easing off and finishing is what keeps it going.

The reason I keep doing this every day is the mission. The aim is to raise £1M for children's causes, including Great Ormond Street and BBC Children in Need. The more people who see this vlog, the more money we have a chance of raising, and the more children's lives we are able to help save. That is a bigger reason than a damp, grey run on a day I would rather have skipped.

So here is where I land. If you can rest, rest. If you cannot, go slowly, drink water, eat properly and stop when you need to. Do not feel guilty about the moan either.

If this was useful, watch the full episode, subscribe to follow the daily streak, and share it with a fellow runner who is being stubborn today. Tell me in the comments how you handle a run when you feel rubbish. I will see you tomorrow for Day 2093.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/M8sJenKwHRw