This left me quite exhausted, combining a five mile run with 6×30 seconds fartlek period at the end of it, but I certainly felt better for it. Unfortunately on Thursday my exhaustion caught up with me again and I slept my alarm clock. Instead of getting up at five o’clock, I woke up around six, so by the time I had breakfast, there wasn’t enough time to get dressed, do my warm-ups and then do my scheduled run. So I admitted defeat and went back to bed, failing quite disappointed with myself.

I made doubly sure that got up for Friday’s training session, which was quite exhausting. I planned to make up Thursday’s miles on Saturday morning, but once again my tiredness one me over and I decided it was better to give myself a day of rest rather than punishing my body even further the day before my Sunday long run.

After all the tiredness which had ruined a few of my training sessions over the past week, I decided to take things easy on Sunday. I deliberately got up later than usual and took things slowly. It was probably best that I did, because Sunday saw the worst frost and ice of the winter so far in Scarborough. Even the steps outside my front door were covered in black ice.

That pattern was repeated throughout my twelve-mile easy run. I ploughed on through the first six miles, valiantly following my normal route, however, it became clear that running along the unsalted paths of Northstead Manor Gardens and Peasholm Park was more trouble than it was worth, due to the coverage of black ice. So once I made it through Peasholm Gap I decided to run the remaining six miles back and forth along the beach and on the promenade.

I think this is a good point to update you with what my running-related plans are for this year. Training is well under way for the Paris Marathon, which I’ve been accepted into.

After that, there’s the Leeds 10k in June, which I’ve also applied for. I don’t know if I’ve got in yet, but since I ran last year I’m not worried about not getting a place.

Then there’s a gap over the rest of summer until September, when I hope to be running in the Great North Run. This is the world’s largest half-marathon, so places are assigned via a ballot system.

Finally, my last major run of 2009 will the Dublin Marathon (again). I really enjoyed running it last year, so I applied for this years’ run almost as soon as entries opened.

Unfortunately, I managed to pick up a cold between getting on the plane over there at the end of my holiday and getting off over here. I was seriously annoyed, but I’ve got over the worst of it now. Nevertheless, I didn’t want it to get in the way of my Paris Marathon training, so on Saturday I went out for my first run of 2009.

The usual advice is not to run whilst ill, however, it can actually be beneficial to do a short run if you have a cold, because it helps the clear the airways (Disclaimer: Don’t go running if you have a cold with a fever or chesty cough). There was a lot of sniffling going on, which was annoying, but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact I didn’t need to put too much effort in, nor did I feel really tired by the end of it. Probably the opposite in fact.

I was worried I might have lost a lot of fitness over Christmas, but it looks like I needn’t have bothered, as those three weeks of training before my Christmas holiday appeared to have paid off.

Then on Thursday there I started my run in a light rain, which I can handle. However, this soon turned into a horrendous freezing cold shower as I tried to run around the headland. The winds are always bad around there because it is so exposed, but this time they beat me and I turned around. I still intended to complete my planned mileage along a different route, but as I got to the Sea Life Centre, about two miles in, the rain was still pounding me and the wind was not giving up.

So, again, I decided to abandon that run as well. By the time I had walked home, I was thoroughly soaked (my jacket not being waterproof enough to survive the onslaught of the rain), my jogging bottoms clinging and chilling my legs and the rest of me absolutely frozen.

I don’t really like training in winter and this week has proved just how difficult (and disappointing) it can be.

When I turned around at the Sea Life Centre, I looked across to where the headland should be, but there was only a white fog. It was a total whiteout! This wasn’t any old snow either; the snowflakes were as big as a two-pence piece and stuck to me as soon as they blew into me. I regularly had to shake off the settled snow so my body heat wouldn’t melt it and soak through my outer layers.

I might as well not have bothered, however, because when I got back home, semi-caked in Scarborough’s finest snow, I was soaked through anyway, my inner layers from sweat and my outer layers from the snow.

Following my new plan, I ran a mile at easy pace, then switched up a gear into my half-marathon pace (about 12 minutes per mile) for two miles, then ran easy for the final mile. Unlike previous pacing sessions where I always ended them totally exhausted, I felt quite comfortable running the up-tempo section. Which means I haven’t lost as much fitness as I thought since the Dublin Marathon. Despite all that, I had a thoroughly fun time. The training session wasn’t bad either.