Love the long term goals. And given the current self assessment of 46% we have loads of room to improve. A good plan isn’t just about getting faster at running. It’s about feeling stronger when you wake up each morning, running up the stairs rather than walking them, feeling more energetic, getting in a better head space, meeting new people, there’s loads to it. The quicker times are just the icing on the cake.

In terms of the plan I have created it looks a good one when the Pier to Pier being the end goal. But I’m confident we can bring that 5k time down too. The secret to improvement? Keep showing up, stay consistent. 3.78 runs per week on average. It’s not that high. But you will be amazed at the improvements you can make.

If you can find a nice routine it helps. Tuesday efforts, Wednesday easy run, Sunday long run etc etc. But as I get to know you better that may change so there’s no need to worry too much about what it says in weeks 8 and beyond. By then it might all of changed. Focus on one week at a time, one session at a time. Keep ticking them off, keep hitting your targets and like most of the runners I work with, you’ll start to see those times come down.

There’s potential to do more in the gym if you wanted? Such as your classes, swimming, etc, but I’d be saving that for the winter months now if I was you. The more you can run the better you will get conditioned and 1 S&C session at your age is enough to compliment the running.

I’ve added a couple of other races in there. The Handicap 5k and the 5 Miler, there’s scope to add more as we go if anything crops up you fancy.

Any questions at this point just ask. But excited to have you on the Team as you seem like a really nice guy and I think you’ll only add to the great atmosphere we already have with Team Orange.