Worried about fitting five days running a week into your schedule, take a look at our 10K fitness rocket over a preparation period of eight weeks. As with the four-week schedules, it’s important that you’re flexible in your approach. If the 10K is your single focus for the season and you’re willing to do everything you can for a best-possible time, you can add a two-to-four-month build-up period to the schedules, in which you focus on establishing a steady, solid mileage background.
Before starting this training plan, try and build up to running around 35-40 miles per week. Vary your pace slightly to maintain interest over those build up weeks and save the real speed work for the final eight weeks covered in the plan below. Following this training plan should get you across the line in approximately 40-50 minutes. You'll do a number of different sessions to help improve your fitness, including speed, tempo and fartlek runs.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Rest | 2Warm up, then 15-20 mins at 70%, then 15-20 mins at 85%-90%, then cool down | 4-7M slow | 30-35 Health & Injuries | Rest | 2M easy, then 3 x 1M or 6 mins at 80-85%, with 800m or 3-4 min recoveries, then 2M easy | 5M easy |
| Week 2 | Rest | 2How to run a sub-2 hour half marathon | 4-7M slow | 30-40 M warm-up, then 6 x 600m or 2mins, with 400m or 2-min recoveries, then 2M cool-down | Rest | 2M easy, then 3 x 2000m or 7-8 mins at 80-85%, with 1000m or 4-min recoveries, then 2M easy | 6M easy |
| Week 3 | Rest | 2M warm-up, then 5 x 800m or 3 mins, with 1000m or 5-min recoveries, then 2M cool-down | 4-8M slow | 30-40 mins fartlek | Rest | Warm up, then 15-20 mins at 70%, then 15-20 mins at 85%-90%, then cool down | 7M easy |
| Week 4 | Rest | 2M easy, then 3 sets of 3 x 500m or 90-100 secs, with 300m or 2-min recoveries and 800m or 6 mins between sets, then 2M cool-down | 4-7M slow | 20 mins tempo run | Rest | Warm up, then 4 x 1M or 6-8 mins, with 1200m or 4-min recoveries, then cool down | 8M easy |
| Week 5 | Rest | 2-2.5M warm-up, then 10-12 x 400m or 80-90 secs, with 400m or 2-3 min recoveries, then 2.5M cool-down | mins steady, inc hills | 40-45 M easy, then 3 x 2000m or 7-8 mins at 80-85%, with 1000m or 4-min recoveries, then 2M easy | Rest | Pyramid session: 1K, 2K, 3K at slower than 10K pace, with half-length recoveries. Feel in control of the session and use good terrain | 9M easy |
| Week 6 | Rest | 2-3M warm-up, then 3 sets of 3 x 600m or 3 mins, with 400m or 2-3 min recoveries and 1000m or 7 mins between sets, then 2-3M cool-down | 5-8M slow | 40-45 Health & Injuries | Rest | Warm up, then 5 x 1M or 6-8 mins, with 1000m or 4-min recoveries, then long, slow cool-down | 9-10M easy |
| Week 7 | Rest | 2-3Runners Worlds training pace calculator | 4-5mins tempo run | 20 mins tempo run | Rest | 6-9Resting heart rate | 10+M easy |
| Week 8 | Rest | 2mins tempo run | 4-7M slow | 30-40 mins easy | Rest | 3-5M warm-up, then 12-15 x 400m or 80 secs, with 400m or 2-3 min jog recoveries, then 2-3M cool-down | RACE |
Warm up, then 4 x 1M or 6-8 mins, with 1200m or 4-min recoveries, then cool down 8 week 10K training plan, running three times a week.
