One thing I’ve come to realise is how often members of the Team run their PBs or strongest races a week or two after their goal race.

And it makes sense. The fitness is there after a strong training plan, and the pressure isn’t so hyped as it will be for that goal race.

So I’ve tweaked my approach ever so slightly with the idea being to get the Team fit for that key race season window, which is March and April in the Spring. Those are the two months we want to be running our best.

And rather than put our all eggs in one basket and focus on one race, we want to give ourselves several chances to prove our fitness during that period. That’s the only thing I don’t currently like about this schedule, is we could do with another race or two, perhaps either side of HHM. But we don’t need to schedule that in just yet.

So how does this effect the plan, well we have a period of training (8-12 weeks) where we work harder to ensure our fitness peaks just in time for race season. Then when race season arrives, we ease back on the training intensity, race more often and get more recovery in between.

To be fair it’s a common practice used by most coaches, so it’s nothing new, and in a way I’ve been doing that to some degree with quite a few on the team who race a lot.

But I think that change in mindset, rather than focusing purely on a sub 2 at HHM, we simply aim to get in peak fitness to have a good crack at 2,3, maybe even 4 races in those 2 months. And then we ease off again with the Autumn season (September and October) as our next focus.

For you, not much changes in truth. I really do like this plan though as every session has it’s purpose. There’s none of this go out and run an extra 10k or two just to boost your mileage. I really don’t believe in that approach.

We’ve got your 2 S&C sessions per week to keep improving that strength. The swim stays in there as I really like that idea. And most weeks it’s complimented with an effort session, a 60 minute run and strides, and your weekend long run.

At no point are we pushing too hard, but just staying consistent over a long period of time and that will bring the best results. Combined with the fact we’ll be working that little bit harder in the build up to race season, just to ensure we peak at the right time.

121 training points per week is a decent amount and you will be working hard with those 6 sessions per week (average of 5.37 across the plan). If there is ever the option to combine 2 on the same day, perhaps an S&C and swim, or S&C and easy run, that will give you that extra time off.

But I like this and I’m excited to see what results it brings. I appreciate a lot will be determined by the glute again and we can always tweak the interval sessions that are scheduled. But if it goes well I can see you making some big gains on this plan.

Any questions just ask.