Congratulations on your Paddock Wood Half Marathon. What a time. I’d be lying if It didn’t say I had my doubts, not in you, but my plans and the fact you had been ill in the build up. But boy was that a great result.

This plan we simply focus on speed. Those target times on the dashboard we need to ignore a little and almost try and go as quick as you can. Also, and I will probably say this when the time comes, don’t be afraid to increase recovery times for the reps. So 60s to 90s, for 200s for example if it means you can get more speed.

I’ve tweaked the S&C, only slightly, just to include more leg stuff, but all the favourites are still there and hopefully it won’t take much longer to complete. I know you said only 3 runs on the form, but I’m wary of regression here in terms of pts, and obviously without the big half marathon sessions we were doing, to stay on the same level you were training at, we need some extra easy miles.

I saw a really interesting post from Andrew Green this week who is smashing out PBs (14:46 5k) and he now does his easy miles just under 9 min miling compared to 7 min miling to previously. So don’t be afraid to do those easy runs at 9:00+ and even get some gentle trails in.

Whilst speed is important, we don’t want to lose any of that endurance you’ve built up as that will still be needed to get both the 10k and 1 mile PB. I’ve stuck 4 fast parkruns in there. I have left out the Rye 10. It’s 5 days before the 1 mile night and it could hinder your chances. We can include it if you want and it might not make a difference, but if the focus was purely the sub 5, then leaving that out makes sense, and we can do a fast parkrun the day before instead.

Any questions or if the 4 runs bothers you, let me know and happy to discuss.