As mentioned in your message, if you HR data on Strava is accurate you’ve been working too hard in your sessions. Should I have picked up on this before? Perhaps, but it’s only recently a method I’ve adopted with my own training and previously I trusted the runner to work at the right RPE. It could be your watch isn’t great at measuring HR and you have been working at the correct level.

The pace of your easy runs would suggest you have been working a little too hard though. I would put myself down as a 22:30 5K runner right now after my recent break and my easy runs, to keep my HR below threshold are at 9:45 per mile pace.

The benefit of training at a lower heart rate for you will be quicker recovery times and it should mean you are then fresher to hit the key sessions that bit harder.

So if this theory is correct then reducing the HR for most sessions will allow you to reduce the risk of injury and perhaps do even more.

I know I suggested 4 runs, and we could add that some weeks in place of a cross training session, but I just didn’t see the benefit of it, with 2 pretty good easy runs already in the schedule.

If a marathon is the main long term goal we don’t really need to be doing more than 1 quicker session as a marathon is mainly aerobic and we build that up with the easier workouts.

Addressing the hypermobility is something we discussed so I have replaced a body combat with an S&C session. I know this is a big change in routine but I think it’s important for you to do this if you are going to make the improvements you want.

At first keep the weights light to see how the body responds and then in time you can easily track your progress by adding heavier weights. I feel amazing when I come off the stair stepper having done 20-30 mins on there after a similar leg workout.

Any questions just ask. I really hope we can keep those injuries at bay. If you do want to go down the HR training route and don’t have accurate data, then investing in a better watch or a HR monitor would be a good move.