So for your goals, both Beachy Head and long term with ultras and possible road marathons you need to achieve two main things. One, build your aerobic base. Our aerobic system is what we use for 99% of runs like marathons or slower. The beautiful thing about the aerobic system is it doesn’t really seem to decline until well into our 60s and why we see so many older runners achieve amazing things. Anyone can build a solid aerobic engine, we just need to train it.

Do lots of running in Zone 2 (easy, low heart rate). At first this is tricky because most runs will feel harder than that, don’t worry too much, as you get fitter they will get easier. But that’s really what it comes down to. If you put the time into training, you will build a better aerobic base, and primarily that is what you need to achieve your goals.

The second part is conditioning. We use our muscles differently when running compared to other types of exercise. I’m a good example here, I got injured at my last marathon (I picked up a norovirus the week before and was stubborn to push for my PB, and then came back too soon). When I couldn’t run I continued to work my aerobic system by cross training. Over the last 6-9 months I’ve only ran an average of 2 times per week and just upped it back to 3 recently, but I’m close to my best, because I’ve maintained that aerobic base.

What I am struggling with is discomfort when I run, because my muscles haven’t done enough miles, so slowly I am conditioning them again by increasing my volume, but very gradually and only running 3 times a week still.

So this is why we build up slowly. If we suddenly start smashing out two 10ks a week our unconditioned muscles will give up. So the main function of this plan is to lay down the foundations and start building that aerobic base and getting those muscles conditioned to run more.

The first weeks are a bit of a muddle because of Bewl but then things settle down.

Each session I set earns pts. The harder the session, the more pts it is worth. Each week there is a target and as the plan progress that increases. But in a steady way as to reduce the risk of injury.

What we’ll do come week 8, if all has gone well to that point is attempt to add a little bit of speed into the plan, this just works your other energy system, anaerobic and gets your fast twitch muscle fibres working.

It’s good to have that variety and it will make you a better all round runner.

If you have any questions at this point just ask. But I like this plan. It’s progressive, smart, achievable and has variety. Keep showing up, that’s the key to running, you don’t have to feel great every day or even run well, but if you keep showing up, that’s what will make the difference.

Those who I coach who average 95% of their target invariable succeed. Those who fall below 90% tend to plateau or only make small gains.