ONE week after the wet and windy Great South Run, I'm still recovering. So much happened in one ten-mile race that I totally forgot to write about the nipple rash. How embarrassing, but another time!

Straight after the race I headed home from Portsmouth, packed my bags and caught a ferry to France for a week away in a remote Normandy cottage with my family. I took my running shoes with me, but seriously I had no intention of getting them out of the kit bag.

Twice a year I deliberately take a one-week break from running. It's usually towards the end of June, and then the first week of December. Both dates coincide with a busy period of racing.
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This year, however, I thought the trip to France afforded a good time to unwind, allow the body to recharge and to prepare for what promises to be a rigorous year ahead.

Training for the London Marathon next month is at the very forefront of my mind. If it wasn't for that 26.2-miler in April, I wouldn't be too concerned about race fitness because what I am planning to do from January 1 amounts to no more than what I would be doing every Sunday morning as part of a training run or a race. Except with most of the planned races in 2007, I will not be racing, but running well within myself.

No London is a worry. I know I need to build up my distance running. I ran 16 miles and 13 miles last month, now during November I need to be posting more of those distances so that my body is atuned to running that mileage and for me to be on my feet for up to two hours at a time.

That is why the break in France was so important and why I would recommend to anyone who trains for a sporting activity to plan in a couple of unwinding breaks once or twice a year. A time when you don't have crisis of conscience for not going out for a training run, when you can indulge a little with eating, and also you can have a lie-in. It is a perfect time for your body to rest, to heal a little, and to prepare itself for the assault which lies ahead.