Apologies for my hiatus last week. I was feeling a little burnt out and sorry for myself. So decided to take a week off. As a coach, you don’t always keep the best track of your own training, and I should really have been more aware of the 24 consecutive weeks I’d compiled. No wonder I was knackered.

So nothing to report from me. From a running perspective at least. I’ll discuss my coaching thoughts later.

So what have the team been up to? Well Joe ran 94 miles on his own on Thursday. Sorry what? Yep, you read it correct the first time. I should add it wasn’t punishment from me, I was grateful Joe reached out to ask my opinion on the possibility of running said distance, I was dead against it, but he was keen.

152.37km in just shy of 24 hours, starting in Birmingham on Thursday, following the Grand Union Canal, all the way to Leighton Buzzard. Hard not to be impressed, although my advice to the rest of you, don’t try this at home.

Sam D wasn’t far off. He also broke the 100km barrier, at the Serpent Trail Race on Saturday. The heat was a big factor, but Sam finished strongly, producing one of his quickest kilometeres of the race, right at the very end, to sneak under 12 hours and bag himself 18th place. Impressive.

Friday evening we had two at the Brands Hatch 10k. Abbi completing her longest every run, in week 4 of her plan, strategically walking the hills (more on that tactic later) and passing the chequered flag in 1:17:26.

Shain, who’s had a bit of an injury scare recently off the back of a Tuesday track session a few weeks ago, seems to be edging closer to full health, clocking 41:25 around the popular racing circuit.

Brands Hatch wasn’t the only motor circuit utilised by the team this weekend. Allan (2:09:59) and Iain (1:54:07) both completed half marathons around the Goodwood circuit. Again the heat proving a factor and Iain used the race wisely to perfectly execute a training run.

Further afield, by quite some distance, the Great North 10K. Andy, from Newcastle, completed it in 59:53, sneaking under the hour mark to bank another shiny medal and strong time.

The best attended event was Bewl. Chrissie, Ellie and Mark all took on the 5 miler event. Whilst 9 of the team battled the firm underfoot conditions and soaring heat to complete the energy sapping 15 mile route. Some of them crossing the line, looking like they’d been in a scrap, after some nasty falls.

Conal ran a blinder to clock 2:06:17 and continue his strong form. Victoria was the first Hastings Runner female home, not for the first time in the 2026 Club Championship, running a new course PB in 2:20:17.

Ben (2:26:19), Lucy P (2:33:57), Karl (2:39:48), Louise W (2:44: 08 – Course PB), Martin (2:48:16), Amy (3:26:46) and Susan (3:33:43) all negotiated the terrain, elevation and burning sunlight to bag their bling and no doubt add to their mental resilience in the process.

Let’s not forget Phil. Tuesday seems an eternity ago, but he bagged himself a new 10K PB, almost 2 and a half minutes quicker at the Milton Keynes 10k, finishing in a superb time of 48:05.

Laura took part in her club 10k race, her Strava title of “The Great Handicap Disaster of 2026” suggests it wasn’t her best, but I was delighted with her refusal to quit and a time of 47:49 is still  impressive if you ask me.

So onto my coaching thoughts. Execution being the key word this week. Planning is my number one responsibility as a coach. Setting a schedule which will enable you, the runner, to improve your fitness, enjoy your running and maybe even the bonus of a PB.

Planning is one thing though, sessions need to be executed correctly for the improvements to follow. The addition of stats to the PB Runner dashboard I feel is a good one. Self reflection is important and often it’s not just a case of saying “I should have tried harder”. Sometimes it’s the opposite.

A Zone 2 (we use training zones now for those not on the team) session is meant to be just that. If you then do 250 metres of elevation in 60 mins, you’re almost certainly not executing the session as intended. Walking at times to keep that RPE and Heart Rate in check is actively encouraged now, when in the past I may have deemed it a failure.

I’ve put more focus now onto execution. It’s not something I have control over, that comes down to you as an individual, but the better understanding you have in terms of how the session should be executed, the more likely you are to get maximum benefit from your training plan.

It’s something I’m also doing with my own running. Switching from pace to heart rate as my main data point. At first it meant slowing down, but actually in recent weeks, I’ve noticed I can pick up the pace a little and still stay in Zone 2. So I feel like I’m getting more bang for my buck in my Zone 2 sessions.

Plus during this hot weather, it’s easy to get disheartened if you don’t hit your target paces. But the lesson is to switch the data metric you focus on. RPE (effort level) and Heart Rate (assuming you have a chest or arm strap) are far more reliable measurements of your performance.