I like this plan. A lot. This is an opportunity. An opportunity to make real progress with your running and your overall fitness. I wish I had that opportunity to rewind nearly 30 years. If you complete the majority of these sessions then I think you’ll be getting much closer to your brother and his 5k times, how sweet would that be?

I appreciate work makes things tricky but if you can’t get out in the daylight to run, let me know and I can always tweak a session so it can be done in the gym on the treadmill.

There’s no boring long run here, there is only ever 3 runs per week and rarely am I asking you to get up on a Sunday morning.

So in the week we’ve got the gym work, an interval workout and your 60 mins easy with strides. A pretty nice schedule in truth and definitely achievable.

Then at the weekend we focus on parkrun. Not a quick one every week but using parkrun and the people there to motivate you and do a variety of different sessions.

Challenge yourself, set yourself targets and be inspired to beat them. Yes it’s hard at times, but it feels bloody amazing once you are done, a real sense of self pride and that’s priceless.

Keep the feedback coming if you can, it really helps. It only takes a few minutes. Even if you just say something like “done”, or “that was shit”, it does help me keep track of how it’s going.

Plus if I know of any missed sessions I can adjust the plan accordingly. There are certain things in life that none of us will be able to achieve, simply because we lack the skills, but running is simple, you get out what you put in. And that’s the beauty of it.

You have the potential to be so good and that excites me as a coach. Hopefully it excites you a little and if you stick to the plan then you can smash your current times and perhaps even surprise yourself.

Let’s do this!!!