When my alarm went off at 6.15am today I felt a twang of guilt as I silenced it and pulled the duvet over my head. I wasn’t in the mood to get out of bed for a run that early. Two hours later as I slipped on a frozen puddle and found myself looking up at the sky from very cold pavement while on my way to work and I realised that I’d made the right decision. Not in my choice of footwear but in ignoring the alarm.

Sometimes not running is the right thing to do. At 6.30 it would still have been dark and very difficult to spot the ice that was waiting to put me on the floor.

So I did my 3 miles at lunchtime when it was still very cold but a little less icy and I could see where I was going.