Welcome back. Great to have you back on the team. Well done on your recent training. That’s a good starting point. To be honest it’s a case of just taking that forward and progressing, especially with the long runs.

The challenge for me was the amount of races in there. Races do demand more on the body especially if we push hard. If at any point you opt to run a race at an easy pace, let me know as we can then adjust the plan slightly and do more mileage that week.

In terms of the long runs. We only go up to 3 hours at the moment prior to Lydd 20. I would say see how you get on. If you want to add more time to those long runs we can. But it’s always such a fine line between pushing too hard in training and being prepared for the races.

The ultra runners I have worked with never get close to the distance in training, if they did they would get injured long before the event and I think it’s a similar approach to a marathon.

There will be efforts each week which will get progressively more challenging. Then the last 4-5 weeks prior to London we will ditch the speed work and focus purely on marathon pace. This is in an attempt to get you used to running quicker than “easy pace” and hopefully see you achieve the time you are aiming for.

I tried to take on all the S&C information you gave me. I would look to separate out strength work and stretching. So twice a week for the Strength work, but by all means stretch every day. We can discuss a stretching routine if you want and what exercises fit into what category.

But the likes of clam shells, hip extensions, cat cow, child pose, all those kind of exercises I do daily.

I think that’s it really. Thank you for filling out the ratings, I agree with the scores and hopefully I can add a bit more confidence to your running over the next few months. But I appreciate it’s always tough to overcome what was said in the past.

All I would say about sleeping is try your best to find a routine which works for you. Again, consistency is all important in timing, in terms of what time we go to bed and wake up, but also our pre bed routine. I sleep so much better when I read for 20-30 mins beforehand and leave my phone outside the bedroom.

See how you get on with the target paces in training as well. If they need adjusting (you might find they are too generous) I can easily do that. See them more as a guide but they are usual especially for the interval sessions on the track.