Today is St. David’s Day and also marks the end of my first training block for the South Downs Way 100 in June.

Actually that’s not entirely true as it was last week but I have been throwing myself down a mountain in Whistler attached to a plank of wood and enjoying apres, before madly dashing across London on Sunday to watch the League Cup final (although we won’t go into the result).

Needless to say, neither of these activities were particularly conducive to the 58 mile week climax to phase one that I was supposed to do. I actually thought about running in the snow at one point in Canada but that would’ve detracted far too much from the yam fries and burgers that I seemed on a mission to consume. Plus, I’m sure there is nothing a rudely-awoken bear would like more than a recently fed vegetarian.

But for the most part of the last eight weeks, I have been putting in the miles and getting on to the hilly North Coast of Jersey to try and recreate the elevation I will see on the 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne in June.

My knee niggle of December seems to be behind me although I am still not doing enough stretching, strengthening or conditioning so I am being my own worst enemy.

Annoyingly, I have also had to do a lot of real work for the people that employ me which means long weekday runs have been fitted around studying and dinner on the cold, dark nights of January and February.

With 16 weeks to go until race day, the mileage is beginning to get serious and so is my diary so I might have to actually do my runs in that bit before you go work. You know, the bit that is usually half an hour after you get out of bed? I think somebody once called it “morning” but it’s not something I come across frequently.

In four weeks, I have a 50k training day to look forward to, followed by the Southampton Marathon a couple of weeks later. On that weekend, my training plan calls for a combined 42 miles so I will be doing 16 miles before running a marathon the next day.

Honestly, this is crazy. But I want to break that 24 hour barrier so the work needs to be put in now. It’s all about building the base and miles in the tank at this stage. The evenings are also getting lighter so I had a lovely run across the Noirmont headland last night before getting soaked running along the seaside at high tide.

Whatever the next couple of months bring, it’s all about keeping my eyes on the prize – not being in agony Sunday 11 June and crossing the line in 23.59.59.