My first comment, based on your own ratings and your goal, is I believe you’re a much better runner than you are giving yourself credit for. In fact I was a little surprised sub 2 was the goal, and not more ambitious.

But I appreciate your availability is limited, not to mention Hastings is a tough half marathon, so I don’t think we necessarily need to change that.

Please have that awareness though that you are a very good runner. The training you have been doing in the build up to Cambridge was excellent. There might have been a few things you were guilty of, such as running the easy runs too quickly and not maintaining your S&C work. But that’s why you sign up with a coach right?

I’m exciting to be honest. I feel a real sense of determination and enthusiasm from you. Granted I don’t know you well, but just from going through your Strava and the track sessions we’ve done together, I get that impression you can achieve a lot.

My philosophy is definitely quality over quantity. I’m not a coach that’s going to say run 5 times a week and get out early before a 12 hour shift. You’d spend your whole life exhausted.

I think 3 runs is plenty. I also believe combining your S&C with an easy run day will make sure you always have one day off (from both exercise and work). That’s very important.

Also if you can run early on a Sunday morning, then those weekends your not working you are going to have a lot of free family time, if taking Saturday off as well, which I think is important.

Intervals are always key. If you can make Tuesday’s, then brilliant, but it’s not essential. You can always do the session closer to home on your own. I find it’s harder to push our limits when running alone, but especially if time is limited, I don’t see that being an issue. Just decide on a week to week basis and I can always change the session if need be.

I know you mentioned you were not a massive fan of the long run, so whilst they are super important I’ve added loads of variety in there. Only 7 of the 24 weeks do you have a bog standard long run.

Plus this means you can do the session closer to home (saves 45 – 60 mins travelling) and get that opportunity to run solo for your own headspace. Obviously the Sunday long run is always an option if you do ever want to join us.

Consistency is what will deliver you the best results. You don’t always have to work super hard. Missed sessions happen as well. So don’t beat yourself up if you miss one or two. Illness and niggles are normal for us runners, it won’t effect your goal.

I’ve included a week off in the middle of the plan which will fall in the summer holidays. So it’s not 24 weeks on the spin. We can move that week off if need be.

Any questions just ask. For more information on TRAINING LOAD CLICK HERE. Since I started using that as than main metric for creating my plans, the results have been excellent.