I like to consider myself a very modest person. But you know what, I’m going to blow my own trumpet here, because I think this training plan is fantastic.

I have great faith in my model, it’s delivering brilliant results and creates schedules that are really precise, almost down to the exact minute and effort level we need to put in. And that’s what I think makes my approach & my plans so good.

Sorry about that. I won’t speak like that publicly of course, but I thought sharing my current mindset might actually give you more confidence in the plan.

So let’s talk about it. I plugged in the dates right up until the North Downs 30k although I’ve currently left the 13 weeks blank because so much can happen between now and then.

What that leaves us in an 8 week build up to the Sussex Downs Half and then a 14 week build up to the Hastings Half, but also with key races within that second training block, including the Cross Country races.

I know I said 16 weeks would be the maximum for any plan but obviously it’s near on impossible for every goal race to fall on the right dates, so doing it this way, where we have a recovery week in between, works well in my opinion.

I’ve put a lot of my Tuesday sessions in as we were doing quite a lot of hills anyway, but this can always be tweaked. In the build up to Sussex Downs you’ve got 4 hill sessions, along with Beckley 10k and even the cheeky parkruns I’ve put in there, you could make them hilly too. So loads of good elevation.

There are some half marathon sessions but I know you’ve done a lot of these so I didn’t want an overkill. There are some more in the weeks before HHM, but I hope by then I will have some original sessions by then to keep things fresh. I’m creating my own training sessions now which I think is a big step for me as a coach (there I go boasting again, sorry).

I’ve left 2 S&C in for now, but once the key races come along, I’ve taken out that 2nd S&C session and replaced it with the elliptical. So it’s only the next 8 weeks we do 2 x S&C and then a bit more focus on the endurance in the 2nd block.

Speaking of the 2nd block, once we come back after Sussex Downs we start smashing out some big 10k sessions, as this is more in line with the XC races you hope to take part in. I have put Sussex Downs in there but we can always switch that out for a session if you prefer.

I think that’s it really. This plan follows the same model all my training plans do. 2 hard sessions per week which are tailored towards the goal, supported by a few easy runs and the strength work.

Consistency is key and there’s no-one better than you in that department. I’m hoping those weeks off (which to be fair you can still run if you want) will help the legs.

In terms of the numbers we’ve gone from 3.64 runs per week to 3.86, and the training points we are pushing from around 133 to 140 and then up to 145 for the 2nd section of the plan.

Any questions just ask. Thank you for your continued support and I’m excited to see if you can continue to improve.