Race week cannot make you fitter. It can absolutely make you slower. A day-by-day plan, the checklist, and why feeling terrible on Wednesday is normal.

Nowhere to hide, and no distance that responds better to plain, consistent work. The ten to fourteen week shape of it, the session that matters most, and why the third quarter is the hard part.

Short enough that people underestimate it, long enough that speed alone will not get you there. An eight to twelve week block, the two sessions that matter, and how to race it without paying for the first kilometre.

Months of unremarkable running done properly, then a small number of very specific sessions.

The best-value race in running: a real test you can repeat every few months.