Sometimes it is necessary to step beyond what you are currently doing and hope you can do better in the future. I have run the Great North Run a couple of times before (2015 in 2 hours 20 minutes, and 2017 in 2 hours 12 minutes). I would to run it in under two hours, which is going to take a bit of work…and so that is what is now beginning.

360 days until the Great North Run…so let’s get this done! And not just running - I know I need to work on my flexibility and strength too, so expect to hear more about that in the coming months.

How would you break this sort of time to the target race down? 360 days could be 6 groups of 60 days (~8 week blocks), or would 4 blocks of 12 weeks be a better way of thinking about it? I also plan on improving my post-foot-operation parkrun time significantly (27 mins 30 seconds, with overall best of 23:55 at Durham parkrun in 2018, and 23:12 as a “not-parkrun” in July 2020), and possibly running some other races inbetween, so hopefully a few posts on this progress too.