Welcome to the Team. I really hope you find working with a coach to add to the enjoyment you get from running. I’ve tried to take on all your feedback and create a training plan which works best around your availability.

So the weekends will be key, and parkrun is an integral part of the training. Sunday will be saved for the slower longer runs which will gradually increase in distance.

Then on the Thursdays (best day in my opinion) fitting in what we call an interval session or speed work, will really help you improve.

This involves running for short amounts of time at a pace quicker than you run at parkrun followed by a period of rest to regain your breath. And then off we go again.

At some stage I really think it would be helpful for us to meet up and do one of your sessions together, especially if you are keen to learn more about warm ups and technique, as that would be the best option to show you.

I would normally suggest parkrun, but looking at my own schedule I might not be available until after my upcoming marathon. Wednesdays would be good though if you could squeeze in an hour at all. We can discuss that later if need be.

So a quick explanation about the plan and the numbers you might see. Each session has a training points score depending on it’s difficulty. The harder the session the more points. Then each week we want to hit the target points set. This is to ensure your training is both consistent and progressive.

For example in week 1 of this plan the target is 75 points, by the time we reach week 14, you’ll be earning 95 training points. That’s to ensure you continue to get fitter by working that little bit harder each week.

The term RPE on the dashboard reflects to your effort level out of 10. So if you were running along and chatting to a friend for example, your effort level would be around 3/10. If you were at the end of parkrun and struggling to breathe, that’s an 8 or 9/10 RPE.

You’ll also see target paces at the top of the dashboard which you can use as a guide when doing specific sessions that I set.

The best thing about working with me is the feedback I offer. Weekly feedback is very important, this allows me to react to any missed sessions or over training by adjusting the plan for the forthcoming weeks.

Session feedback is up to you, some of the team use it, others don’t. But it can help me keep track of how you are progressing, especially if you are not on Strava.

I think that’s it, any questions for me, just ask. But the best piece of knowledge I can share at this moment is that the best results in running come from consistency over a sustained period of time. So the better you can follow the plan, the more likely you are to see improvements. And those that have been able to do that have seen excellent gains, which I’m very proud of my runners for.