I’m so pleased you’ve reached out to me. For a number of reasons. Firstly because I think I can really help you get back to your best. It might take time, but with a smart training plan, accountability and that motivation, I think your best times can still be ahead of you.

I have the upmost respect for you as a runner, for what you’ve already achieved and for your determination to look after your own fitness. It’s clear you are really passionate about this and that excites me as a coach.

I think it’s also important to realise just how good you are and can be. If we get you back to that 3:45 time, then you’re hitting GFA for London. An event 1.1 million people have applied for next year. And you could potentially guarantee yourself a place. I’m 30 mins off GFA and unless I maintain my level for the next 15 years when I hit 60, I’ve accepted I’ll never reach that level. So you’re a much better runner than me, and please believe me when I say that.

So the plan. I’ve taken on board your desire exercise most days, but also we need to reduce the running to allow us to add in more quality whilst keep the training load in check. So don’t panic when you only see 3.75 runs per week, most weeks are 4 and we will also be making full use of your Bannatynes membership by including Cross Training. Your longevity in running could extend 5-10 years by going from 5.5 runs to 3.75 runs in a week and hopefully you’ll notice the difference when out running and also in your times coming down.

What is training load? It combines the volume and intensity of your running, so not just distance (miles). The ultimate goal for me as a coach is find out the peak training load for all of my runners, that will ensure you stay injury free and run at your best.

If you go over that training load, the risk of injury increases significantly. So you training load for this first plan is an average of 1000 per week, which is great starting block and based on the training you’ve been doing in the past few months.

But early March you did a week where I calculated your training load hit 1580. A week later you commented on Strava “It’s runs like this that make you want to quit!”. That was no surprise looking back as your body would have been a state of fatigue.

So whilst over the next 12 months your mileage will be lower, the actually training load will be the same as what you have been doing, only much smarter and with far more quality.

Then once we complete this 12 week block, we can push on and look to increase the training load further and see how you react.

The reason I’ve gone for a short 12 week block, is it then gives you plenty of options to pick a goal race in the Autumn if you wanted. The idea of this plan is to build both speed and endurance. Come the end of the 12 weeks we will have laid done some foundations to then think about a goal race in October. That could be a marathon, half marathon or even 5-10k. Whatever you choose, this training block is preparing you and giving you the option of doing any distance you want.

Hopefully over these 12 weeks we can build your confidence as well so you’re ready to consider racing again.

The plan is completely flexible. So the efforts session on there can change every week, depending if you want to run with HY, my group or even solo. There’s no pressure from me to do my group, all I want is for you to train smart, enjoy your running and make those gains. If that means running with HY instead of my lot, then that’s fine by me.

Any questions at this point just ask.