Firstly congratulations on everything you have already achieved with your running this year. You’ve done amazing and should be so proud of yourself.

There really isn’t a magic sauce when it comes to running and training. Consistency week in week out is the key. Doing the Tuesday efforts, keeping your easy runs easy and then towards the back end of the plan introducing some specific 10k sessions that will help you smash the Vitality 10K in September.

Looking at your running stats your cadence is excellent and I think there is some scope to increase your stride length. We don’t want to force this though and it can be done by becoming more flexible. It’s something I’ve been able to achieve by stretching for 10-15 minutes per day. I’ve put some basic stretches on the plan, the more often you can do them, the more flexible you will become.

Also if you click the “Warm Up” tab at the bottom I’ve highlighted the drills which are best suited for you to improve your stride length. So if you get 10-15 minutes free before a run this is what you should be working on. Over the course of the plan, doing these often will improve your stride length.

When you do strides as well, that’s the time to focus on getting higher knee lift and covering the ground better. When out running though don’t force it as that will only lead to injury. It’s important to see this as a long term project where slowly but surely your stride will improve and with it your times will come down.

The plan starts off quite gentle with the majority of the running at an easy level. Don’t be afraid to keep this nice and slow. Then when we hit week 6 I’ve included some fast parkruns, then later in the plan the tempo sessions are introduced.

The plan is always flexible and I’ve found in the past I’ve changed them during when I feel the runner isn’t getting the best out of their available time. So I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the plan, but just focus on the sessions set for the following week.