A peculiar thing happens to runners when injured: the urge to run becomes stronger than ever. Runners who put off their long run until the last minute on a Sunday, procrastinating like a teenager avoiding their weekend homework, in the face of the word ‘rest’ suddenly have an itch that needs scratching and that itch is running.

I’m not immune to this impulse. Last summer when faced with shin splints during marathon training and all traditional sports medicine telling me to rest, I decided the best thing for me to do was keep on running regardless. The shin splints didn’t get better until a prolonged rest period otherwise known as the four months I went on holiday for.

This marathon training cycle, injury has raised its ugly head once again. Jubilant that I’d nailed my last long run by doing 18 miles at 8:45 min per mile and therefore looked set to take a sub-4 marathon in Edinburgh, I was flying through my last mile when my Achilles started to hurt. Not a sudden pain but pain. The next day a bit of hobbling and a lot of Googling led to a self-diagnosis of Achilles tendonitis. The prescription: a week of rest and some ibuprofen.

Instead of carrying on regardless or trying to run as soon as my leg felt OK again I’ve taken a full week of rest seriously. I’ve swapped running for cycling and swapped the stairs for the lift. The only thing happy witht his situation is my bike that got a nice ride in the sunshine on Sunday. I’ve also come out all guns blazing to attack this injury and make it go away: ibuprofen, compression and a sports massage. Fingers crossed that all will be healed and that I’ll be ready to take on Edinburgh!