I dragged myself from an inflatable mattress surrounded by boxes to a local pharmacy in search of some stronger drugs.

“Have you taken ibuprofen?”
“Yes.”
“And paracetamol?”
“Yes. They’re not doing anything. I need something stronger.”
“You’re going to have to see your GP.”

I’d moved flat, not yet had my bed delivered and had become ill. The only training that I’d done in the past week was carrying my belongings one box at a time up two flights of stairs. And now with a case of tonsillitis that made even my doctor wince on looking at my throat, I had no energy to unpack.

Moving flat, ITBS in my right leg, Christmas and now tonsillitis had all halted my plans to build my mileage back up ready for marathon training to start. As the reminder on my calendar that ‘Training starts today’ blinked at me on Monday morning it was frustrating to have to click ‘ignore’.

But stuff happens right? We’re at week one, 16 weeks away from the marathon and better to miss a week of training now than in 12 weeks’ time. Right? It doesn’t make it feel any better to watch from the sidelines as everyone I know doing the same race is out there clocking up the miles.

Nearly ten days through 2013 and I’ve managed the grand total of one run totaling 3 miles. No swimming and no time out on my bike. We’re not off to the most promising of starts. If I’d made myself a promise to run every day this year or swim twice a week I might be considering my effort in tatters already and think about giving up.

But that’s the difference between ‘resolutions’ and ‘goals’. Resolutions are like a glass vase. Once you break it it’s pretty pointless. Goals are a thing out there on the horizons that some weeks you move closer towards and some weeks you take a few steps back from. They’re still there no matter what – waiting for you. You can’t give up on them because they’ll always be there.

So next week, rattling from all the pills I’ve had to take, I’ll be back out there running towards my good for age time and becoming a triathlete. Take that life!