Welcome to the Team. Firstly congratulations on what you have achieved so far. To go from beginner to half marathon is a big step up, so you should be very proud of this. I know you put your mental score down as 2. But I think you’re being hard in yourself here. Getting started in running, joining a club and then even talking about your journey with others, is a really hard thing to do, so I have a lot of respect for that. So hopefully you are reading this and thinking “yeah, you know what, I have done bloody well”.

Next time you head out for a run, do so with a little bit more self confidence and belief, you’re now part of a Team of driven individuals, who all want to be better, working alongside someone who is passionate and determined to help you improve.

The most important thing with fitness is consistency over a sustained period of time. And any changes you make, need to be gradual.

Hence why at first, even on a training plan, it’s important we stick to 2 runs per week for the first few weeks, even more so given you have races in the calendar.

There will also be some cardio work in the gym as I using those 90 minutes whilst your son is at basketball makes a lot of sense.

But once we reach week 5, that’s when it gets a little more demanding with 3 runs and some interval work.

The most important run each week will be Sunday’s. With the Hastings Half marathon the main attribute we need to work on is your endurance. So over the course of the plan the long run will continue to get longer.

The fact you’ve already done a half marathon in just under 3 hours, proves to me and yourself that you can complete every run in this plan (the longest being 150 mins).

The main reason you’ll be fitter come October is the cumulative effect of running more often and on a more regular basis.

We should also find you get stronger with the gym work you do and hopefully we can improve your running efficiency over the course of the 13 weeks.

The plan is always flexible and if at any point you felt you were capable of doing more, just say, likewise if there is a time if feels too challenging we can pull back a little. That flexibility is one of the benefits of working with a coach like myself, so always be honest.

Let’s do this!!