Any training plan should have flexibility. But I think in your case even more so. I’ve created a solid schedule which should have you primed to get round London in a decent time.

But the schedule is in no way rigid. In fact you can change it up from one week to the next depending on how you feel and which sessions you want to run.

The most important thing for me is that you train at the right level. That’s where the points system is so useful.

Do too much too soon, injury will strike. Don’t do enough in the key part on the plan, we won’t hit our goals. So that’s my main role as your coach. Not to tell you where and when you have to run, you can vary that, but to make sure from one week to the next, the training load (pts) is right.

To achieve that the feedback will be key. For example if I gave you a 40 minute easy run on a Thursday and you decided you wanted to do H&S efforts, then I would need to know what that session was.

With that information I can then tweak the weekend schedule and ensure you don’t over train. That’s the simple gist of things.

My other main goal is to work on your confidence. I look at you as a person and in running terms, an athlete and question why is your confidence so low? I don’t want to pry but I want to help you improve it. As I believe you have every reason to have high self esteem and it upsets me a little that’s not the case.

Again this comes down to feedback. Not just my own feedback but how you portray your own achievements. And every day we do a session (or 3 on Monday’s) is a chance to celebrate our successes.

See every session on the plan as an opportunity to succeed. Even if it’s a 30 minute easy run. If you go out there and run for 30 minutes, you’re achieved something and you need to give yourself credit for that.

The more times you get out of the front door, and the more successes you have, hopefully the better you will feel about yourself. One day at a time, one session at a time, one feedback at a time.

I’m excited to have this opportunity to work with you again and London Marathon is a brilliant goal to work towards. You’re already a marathon runner, crikey and Ultra runner, so you should believe that this is possible, because I know you can smash it.

Sorry I’ve gone on a lot already. The plan. Basically 3 runs per week with Sunday’s long run being the key. But we’ll build up to that slowly. I think getting a few races in the calendar for March, perhaps a half marathon will be wise, just to have that race experience. But we can worry about that nearer the time and adjust the schedule if possible.

Any questions just ask. Let’s do this.