So my plans use a system called “training pts”. This factors in how long you run for, but also the intensity you are working at. It also means cross training sessions contribute to your overall training. What I often see is runners who do almost nothing one week and then run 5 times the following week. Really inconsistent.

What my plans try to deliver and what brings the best results, is consistency, week in, week out. At the moment as I’m not coaching track the sessions may vary from one week to the next. But they are at least telling us what the sessions are in advance, which will allow me to tell you what lap times you want to be hitting and also adjust the other 2 runs if need be.

I’ve plugged in all the races you have mentioned. The Saturday run we will slowly build up and eventually hit 120 mins before the Great South. We’ll also do some additional tempo based sessions on Saturday, so we can combine parkrun. Any week you are RD we can either do the run separate or move it to Sunday some weeks.

All the plans get more challenging as the weeks move on. So in week 1 your aim is around 90pts, by the end of the plan it’s up to 110. And that’s how we get fitter, we just do more, earn more pts.

It’s really that simple. And if you hit the targets, you’ll almost certainly see an improvement.

You’ve got a really good plan here. You’ve got the speed work, 10k tempo work, progressively longer weekend run, your cross training on the peloton bike, the TRX strength work and the flexibility classes with yoga and pilates.

The only other things missing really is recovery, which incorporates sleep and nutrition. It would be silly to neglect either when doing so much fitness work. I don’t really get involved in nutrition other than to say be smart and make good choices.

Excited to have you on the team. The initial plan is just a guide and nearly always evolves depending on changes to your availability or how quickly you progress, so there’s no need to worry about it too much. Most of my runners just focus on the runs I set them each week.