Illness and training

Well I knew it, I knew I was getting ill. You can always tell and a couple of day before you get ill, because that's when training is the hardest - I personally blame the rain at the Manly Soft Sand Classic! A few days afterwards, I was really struggling on my hill sprints and intervals, and feeling very weak - now I know why. This Monday saw the damn thing start to flush out, coughing, chest infection, the lot. But does it stop me running? Does it heck. I've actually pulled in a pretty decent time over 8 miles last night. I've also changed my course again. I think I was getting horrendously bored with the route I'd been taking and not varying things up enough. I'd do the same old course week in week out and it was starting to do my nut in. So this week I've reverted back to my old route, which is back on the country lanes of Balmain where I really feel at home. Monday was a gentle 8 miler in 64 m ins, Tuesday was 5 miles in 40 mins, and last night was a speedier 62 mins for 8 miles. I've been taking it fairly easy this week, as on Saturday (illness depending), I want to head to the national park about an hour south of Sydney and do the coastal run, there and back, which is around 30-34 miles, depending on which route you take. I really want a crack at a longer distance than 26 miles. And with another marathon coming up in a month, it's time to crank out one of two 20+ milers before the real thing. I'm also going to really push myself in mid-August to mid-September with 2 trail marathons and a 100km race to cap it all off... God knows what state my body will be in. Despite being ill I feel like my pace and strength are pretty strong now. I'm running 8 min miles very comfortably, and now I'm wondering if I could break 3hrs 30mins at the Hunter Valley marathon in a month. Although I know that if I do try and push this, I'll be buggered for a few weeks afterwards - we'll see. I'm stupid, so I know I will try and push it!