Now I don’t want to sound dramatic, but today’s run was definitely not fun and involved an element of suffering. It was grey and overcast when I set out and it didn’t improve at all. First, it started spitting, then it turned into a full-on rainstorm. Even though I had foreseen this and taken my coat, this soon became wet through with the rain, making every movement cold and uncomfortable.

So all of this combined to make what should have been an easy 3 mile/30 minute easy jog into a gruelling slog. Each step felt like I had already ran a marathon before it. Hopefully the weather will improve in time for my next run on Wednesday.

After Monday, when I had to stop without finishing my route, I was quite happy with my pace today. Running around the corner of the headland back towards the North Bay I didn’t feel totally knackered like last time and kept up the same moderately fast pace all the way up to the Sea Life Centre.

I’ve measured the distance between the junction of Albert road and Marine drive up to the Sea Life Centre as a mile and I use how long it takes me to run this distance as an indicator of my pace and how fast I’m running. During this run I managed to complete it in just over 10 minutes, which is actually quite fast for me – usually I aim for a speed of around 12 minutes per mile, which is equivalent to 5h30m marathon pace.

Running north towards the Sea Life Centre means you have the wind behind you and on a day like today with bright sunshine, that means there’s no oncoming breeze to cool you down. So I was getting quite warm and sweaty by this point. Running south, away from the Sea Life Centre usually means the wind is now blowing towards you, which would be a welcome relief on this run, but there was only a calm breeze. So the sweat was by now just pouring off me. Every part of my body was slick with sweat. So much was dripping off my face that it smeared my glasses! It really makes you feel like you’re training hard when the sweat is literally dripping off.

Despite all this, I still managed to complete my route, exhausted but not totally knackered. It definitely felt like one of the most intensive jogs I’ve done so far.

The main disadvantage of running round the headland is that it is exposed. On the way out, the wind is behind you and gives you a welcome push, but on the way back towards the North Bay, the wind is against you. This can really slow you down when you are already tired enough from running.

For the most part, I kept up a steady, sustainable pace. The going was moderately strenuous, yet I didn’t feel exhausted until reached the corner of the headland where the road turns back onto the North Bay. The wind was blowing and there was the occasional gust of sea spray blown in my face. None of this was particularly extraordinary however. What really got me down was when I checked my watch and found out I still had 15 minutes to go.

From that corner I could see my entire route around the North Bay – following the promenade around the bay up past the Sea Life Centre and then into Peasholm Park and it was crushing. That 15 minutes turned into a gruelling slog. I managed to make it to Peasholm Park when the uphill section around Peasholm Glen finally did me in. I decided it was better to finish the course early and preserve my energy rather than punish my legs any more.

The long tempo runs were also a challenge, having to run at a moderate pace, just below my aerobic threshold, in order to increase my stamina. Hard work. After that I had another week of easy mediu-length runs to recover, then it is on with the same schedule repeated but to a higher intensity. That means longer runs, longer interval periods and more jogging up hills. Great!

So my new intensive base training schedule sees me running between four to five times a week, which is a step up from the effort that I have come to expect at this stage in marathon training. However, I can confidently call myself an intermediate now rather than a beginner, so I’m not intimidated by the increase in training.

The most exciting part of this new schedule is the inclusion of different types of training, such as fartlek and hill work. Fartlek involves running at a fast pace for a set time, then doing a “recovery” jogs for an equal period and repeating the sequence several times. Hill work involves the same principle of a period of hard effort followed by an equal period of recovery, this time running up hills and then jogging down them, several times.

This base training schedule lasts about six weeks. The benefit of all this should be that I will have given myself a solid foundation on which to build my marathon training.