I like this plan. A lot. It has a clear goal and a real sense of consistency from one week to the next. I also think it’s achievable in the sense, hopefully you won’t feel like you’re working super hard, but equally you’ll see those gains in your running.

If anything there is a little scope to push that bit harder if you wanted.

The plan will consist of either 3 or 4 runs per week, with Monday circuits, Tuesday intervals and Thursday bimble making up the midweek sessions.

In terms of the plan on google sheets, you don’t need to pay much attention to that. The Tuesday sessions I put on will vary and can be weather dependant so I don’t decide which one we’ll do until the week before, hence why the plan just says Speed, Intervals or Hills.

The tempo runs (in purple) will be done at the goal pace you hope to run the Pier to Pier (8:20-30 per mile would be my recommendation).

If you want to add in any extra races that’s fine and we can always work around that. I’ve found in the past some plans need to be completely altered after 6-8 weeks depending on progress or niggles, but hopefully that won’t be the case here.

I recall you saying you had time off work Wednesdays which might allow to do a 2nd S&C at home, but I’ll wait until week 8 to introduce that to ensure we don’t suddenly jump up from 4 sessions per week to 6.

I took at look at your parkrun attendance and tried to match that going forward, so anywhere between 2-3 parkruns per month. The Sunday long run will be a staple of the plan although there are 4 weeks off.

Flexibility is one of the real benefits of working with a coach so for example you might find you have a Saturday event planned and can’t run Sunday morning. Then we look to do the long run earlier in the week, the Wednesday off, or perhaps combine it with the bimble.

Arguably the biggest challenge here is the time of year we are approaching. It’s going to be dark in the evenings and cold. But if we prepare well and wear the right clothing, there really isn’t any excuses. For the first time I’ve just invested in a proper waterproof jacket. It cost me £90 (it was actually my birthday present), but now I can’t wait to get out in the rain.

In terms of your self assessment, I think what was interesting is that the lowest scores were the areas I cannot necessarily help you a great deal with. That just comes down to good choices on your part. So making sure your diet is ok (ideally good), and getting enough sleep. If you fail to do these then your body isn’t going to recover and ultimately that’s when the adaptation happens. So you won’t get the full benefit of your training.

Flexibility, that just comes down to trying to find a good routine, ideally daily where you just spend 10 minutes stretching. If you’re spending 8 hours at your office desk some days, 10 minutes of stretching is even more important. So if you can give that routine a go (listed near the bottom of the dashboard) and perhaps to it 4-5 days a week, it’s going to really help both your running but also your overall well being.

Any questions just ask. Welcome to the team. From what I’ve seen so far there is real scope for potential. It’s all about being consistent over a sustained period of time. The plan itself, right up to the Pier to Pier is 21 weeks (race date has yet to be confirmed), the likelihood in that spell is you might pick up an illness at some stage, but if you complete 85-95% of the sessions, you’re going to become a quicker more confident runner.