This blog should be one of pure positivity but the last few weeks have been a grind for me personally. My refusal to rest has led to a cold developing into a sinus infection and I’m approaching 2 weeks of feeling under the weather (I really should start listening to Jax 🙄)

Sunday was great. Pacing at the Hastings Half Marathon is a real honour for me but it felt an awful lot harder than it should have been and at times hitting my paces was a struggle. Perhaps that was partly down to the number of “thank yous” and “whoop whoops” I handed out during the 13.1 miles.

As for my pacing. 1:50:02!! So annoying. If only I had paid a bit more attention to my watch on that last stretch I could have nailed it dead on. That would have been impressive right? Although that said I had run 21.2km, 110 metres further come the finish line, so a harsh critic could argue I was too fast.

Still it was a wonderful experience and a large number of the team achieved their goal. We had 29 runners from Team Orange toe the start line. Despite the challenging route and slightly tricky conditions (no excuses), we had 8 half marathon PBs and 9 race PBs. That’s a decent return and even more impressive given 10 of the team taking part (including myself) were not actually pushing for a personal best on the day.

Nearly a 90% success rate when you put it like that. Such is my nature though I can’t help question what happened with the 10%. What did I do wrong as the coach? How can I improve the training to make sure those that missed out succeed next time? Perhaps I’m being a little hard on myself. I tend to do that.

I do feel there have been a few mistakes on my part. But as a new coach on the scene that’s to be expected and that’s how we learn. It gives me the opportunity to make some tweaks going forward to ensure the training is even more enjoyable and more effective.

In terms of the performances from the team, I’m super proud of how well you all did, and also the attitude was first class. I didn’t hear a single negative comment on or after the race day, even from those who didn’t quite achieve the time they hoped for. I feel like the mindset now among those in Team Orange is excellent, really positive and that’s contagious.

The last month been the most challenging from a coaching perspective with so many of you reaching the peak weeks in your training plan. With 40 runners on the team, there are always going to be a few injuries floating around as well.

I think the one mistake on my part was not accounting for how tiring big races can be, and perhaps not allowing a bit of extra rest afterwards. I’ve taken that on board and hope it will reduce the injury rate even lower.

What next? Well I’m delighted to hear that the vast majority of you want to continue. We are coming into a great part of the year now with the lighter evenings and warmer weather (hopefully). So lots to look forward to.

I’ve listened (for a change) to your opinions and made the switch from TIME/RPE to DISTANCE/PACE when it comes to setting your sessions. I’m hopeful that will help deliver better results going forward, whilst also making it simpler for the team to understand what is expected in certain sessions.

I’ve added a new assessment page which will be included for all training plans to allow us to discuss where you can make improvements going forward.

I’m also going to trial switching to a 14 day cycle. So you’ll get sessions posted every 2 weeks for a 14 days period. Why? Well the benefit is three fold, it gives you more flexibility to reschedule runs.

It allows me to provide more variety in your sessions and it also allows for more steady progression. For example jumping from 3 to 4 runs per week is a big step, but going from 6 to 7 across a 2 week period is more manageable. It just makes a lot of sense to me.

I’m excited for what the rest of the year holds. Many of you have laid down some excellent foundations to build upon and produce some eye catching results. Keep that consistency and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

For me, it’s time to rest up and get better, hopefully I’ll be back to running again in a few days time when this poxy infection buggers off. Oh and listen when Jax tells me not to do something 🙄