So this week I’m starting my full training schedule. I’ve also decided, following my performance at the Paris Marathon, to use the non-linear periodisation system again. Hopefully I’ll be able to smash my marathon PB by running the Dublin Marathon in 4h30m00s – that’s my goal anyway.

Friday’s schedule called for 5 miles easy with 6 x 30 second fartlek intervals. The first time I saw what mileage I had to cover, I thought it sounded like a big ask. I’ve still got memories of how tiring this session used to be, especially with the fartlek intervals, which really knackered me out.

However, once I got out there I discovered I didn’t really need to put in any extra effort into running the five miles (except for running around the headland – the wind was quite strong and was a struggle to run against sometimes). What really pleasantly surprised me though was my peformance during the fartlek intervals.

The last time I regularly did this kind of session, I looked upon intervals with some trepidation because after each interval I was always exhausted. This time though I managed to breeze through them. I was even able to increase my pace in each progressive interval, which was something I definitely couldn’t have done last time. Previously I would start out running each interval really fast and then slow down through tiredness in each following interval.

So after the first week back to “normal” training, I’m generally quite impressed with my state of fitness. As usual, I seem to have underestimated my ability again, as I appear to be fitter than I give myself credit for. Using this training plan to train for Paris seems to have really boosted my general levels of fitness, aerobic endurance and stamina. Not bad!

So this week is about continuing to taper and about carbo-loading until the big day itself.

My training got off to a tiring start on Tuesday when I ran one mile easy, followed by two miles at my fastest pace, another two at moderate pace and then a final mile at easy pace.

The fast miles were tough and very tiring, as my legs felt remarkably stiff and heavy and took a long time to warm up. Then my MP3 player crashed in the middle of one of my favourite running songs, which was helping me push on through the pain. So I had to stop and fix that, which interrupted my rhythm and which really annoyed me.

By the end of that run I was really tired – I had probably over-exerted myself if I’m honest. So I was glad my next two runs are fairly easy runs at a steady pace.

On Wednesday, I did four miles, with five “strides” – which basically means running at a fast pace for thirty seconds at different points during the route. I felt a little bit more flexible, but still heavy and weighed down by all these carbohydrate stores I’m building up.

Even though I’m running fewer miles now than at any time during the last four months, it doesn’t deel easier at all – in fact it feels like a bit of a drag to get going and slip into a steady pace.

It felt just like that again on Thursday when I ran one mile easy followed by one and a half miles at moderate pace, followed by another mile easy. The moderate lap was really tough because, once again, my legs felt like lead.

Still I managed to finish the last training session for this marathon in a respectable time, slightly faster than I predicted.

So that is the end of training. No more sessions before the big day. I can only hope it all pays off on the day. Wish me luck!

Unfortunately, whatever helped me fly around last time wasn’t there this time. From the outset my legs felt really heavy and my muscles ached from the start. I had to stop about six minutes after starting to remove a stone from my shoe, so I took the opportunity to do some extra stretches as well. I warmed up after the first three miles, but my muscles never totally stopped aching.

The lap system worked well again. I split the run into two nine-mile laps followed by a third four mile lap to bring me up to 22, around the South and North Bays. Running this kind of distance reminded me of just how demanding distance running is. At the end I was racked with aches and pains, which continued all right through the rest of the day. It took me all Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to recover from the effort.

Finally I must comment on the weather. I’ve been rather lucky this year with the weather, with each long run falling on relatively mild Sundays. After completing my first lap, I took the decision to dump my running coat, hat and gloves at home and the bright, constant sunshine rewarded me. The chilly breeze reminded me it was still technically Winter, but it was what I needed on this long run.

The first session of the week was on Tuesday. This intensive phase of my training plan called for a 9-mile run – on a weekday! I wasn’t sure if I could fit a 9 mile run in before work, so I decided to get up at 4:30am instead of my usual 5:00am start just to make sure I had enough time.

This plan backfired as soon as I woke up. I literally dragged myself out of bed and went through my usual routine. However, I just couldn’t get going and I felt like I was in danger of drifting back to sleep whilst doing my warm-ups.

It didn’t get any better once I started running. I was still tired from getting up so early and my muscles were in open rebellion, aching and painful from the offset. I felt like I was running with a sack of potatoes tied to each leg. I managed to complete it, but I felt shocking afterwards. So now, through that hard lesson, i know that getting up earlier than 5:00am to go training is just not an option.

After over-extending myself on Tuesday, Wednesday was a rest day, followed by my next session on Thursday.

This was a simple easy run of five miles, followed by four ten-second hill repeats. I completed it with no problems – it was probably the highlight of an almost universally bad week.

That highlight was followed by Friday’s session, which turned into something of a disaster. My schedule called for 1 mile easy (no problems there), then 8×1k at 10k pace. However, I didn’t measure the distances beforehand, so I had to estimate how far a kilometre was, which I now know that I can’t really do whilst running. Additionally, I fell for the common mistake of miscalculating how long the repeats would take (because I forgot to take into account the rest kilometres in-between). So I didn’t run as far as I should and I didn’t do as many repeats as I should.

I decided just to cut my losses and cut the in-between rest time from eight minutes to two minutes, which I could just about handle. After I’d finished I still felt like the running I had done was good, even if the session as a whole had been a bit disastrous.

So after a shaky start to the final month of training, I wasn’t looking forward to the twenty-mile long run on Sunday. I split the run into three laps: The first two were eight miles each, then finishing with a four-mile lap of the North Bay. I also tried out my new running belt, for storing my energy gels. For the first eight miles, my legs felt rather light, so the going felt surprisingly easy. By the end of the last mile, I was shattered, but I managed to do it in 4h 25m, which impressed me quite a bit.

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.

Then the second mile was just as hard. Usually, it gets a little easier, the aches and pains wear off and I can concentrate on running the distance. Not today. It just got harder and harder. I was running my normal route of going round the headland, around the South Bay, back around the headland and along the North Bay and through the parks. When I reached the Sea Life Centre, I almost stopped as I turned around to head towards Peasholm Park, but I knew that if I stopped it would be twice as hard (and painful) to get going again.

So I struggled on, plodding away trying to ignore my aching leg muscles. By the time I was a short distance into the Peasholm Park leg, on the final mile of my route, I gave in and started walking instead. It wasn’t just my legs that were being tortured – my feet were on fire!

From there I walked the rest of the route. As I emerged from Peasholm Glen, I was started by a tremendous BANG! from the other side of the lake. It took me a few moments to realise that it was a television crew who were filming an episode of The Royal.

The exhaustion of this run has once again made my doubt my ability to run the marathon in my target time of 5h30m and rudely reminded me of just how hard and difficult running a marathon is.

Fortunately, my feet seem to have adjusted to my new socks and I didn’t get any new blisters from that. So  continued on Wednesday with a six-mile run, along the usual route, which was again, very tiring. I decided that in order to meet my target time of 5h:30m, that I would not train on Thursday or Friday, but instead give myself a chance to rest before the long runs of the weekend.

It was surprising just how much I missed running after just two days. When you get used to running five days a week, having a day or two off really becomes noticeable. On Saturday I did another six-mile run along the usual route which was again moderately tiring.

Sunday was a day I was looking forward to, but with a certain apprehension. Sunday’s run called for a ten-mile run – the longest yet in my training for Dublin. On each subsequent Sunday the distance will increase dramatically – next week is 12 miles, the week after 14 miles and so on. This means I’m finally moving out of the mild build-up section of the training into the hardcore fitness building section.

My route for this fairly epic nine-mile run took me from my usual starting point, around the headland and across South Bay to the Aquarium Top roundabout. From there I continued on towards the Spa and ran about as far as the old Victorian sea defences stretched, which is basically where the South Bay finishes. Then I ran up and down a gravelly hill and re-traced my steps all the way back to the roundabout, where I ran up Valley road, passing under Valley Bridge. A few meters after that I turned around and headed back towards the roundabout.

From there, I ran all the way back along the South Bay, around the headland and followed my usual route to the finish, where I started from. I had set out fairly late, having forgotten several things, including my energy gels, which I would use for the first time whilst training for the Dublin Marathon, which put me behind my desired start time, so by the time I was running back along the South Bay, the streets were getting fairly busy and I had to a lot of weaving and dodging, which I don’t like doing because it breaks my concentration.

I wasn’t feeling very tired at all at that point, but then I had only done about four miles. By the time I was running around Peasholm Park, with eight miles behind me, I was really feeling it. I’m talking serious exhaustion here, almost slowing down to walking pace. However, I didn’t let a little thing like fatigue stop me, knowing how i’ve suffered much greater exhaustion when running the Edinburgh Marathon, I could handle this. It wasn’t pleasant, but I stuck in there and made my home, an hour and forty-five minutes after I set off.

You’d think by missing out on something so tiring I would be happy, but the lack of training played heavy on my mind. Mainly my concern was how missing out on a week’s worth of training would affect my ability to compete in the marathon. It may be several weeks away, but I don’t do enough training now, there’ll be no point competing, because I know I won’t have the strength or resources to complete it.