Sessions.
12 workouts, drawn to scale from warm-up to cool-down. Tall bars are hard efforts, short bars are easy running. Read the shape of a session before you read a word of it.
How to read one.
Width is time. A wide tall bar is a long hard rep; a thin one is a sprint. The short grey bars are easy running: warm-up, recovery jogs and cool-down.
Start at the slow end. The range assumes a 5K around 21 minutes; the plan builder rewrites every number for your own times.
Adding a second almost always backfires. If you want more, add an easy run. That is the eighty per cent doing its work.
All 12 sessions
4 × 4
Four controlled four-minute efforts, with an easy jog between. A benchmark interval session.
6 × 3
Eighteen minutes of hard work in shorter reps. Keep the first and last effort consistent.
1–2–3–2–1
IntroductoryA pyramid of one, two, three, two and one minutes, with equal recovery after each completed rep.
5 × 1000
Five kilometre repetitions with a 400-metre easy jog. Timeline uses the midpoint of the reference pace.
2 × 10
Two ten-minute blocks at a controlled, sustained effort with three minutes of easy running between.
3 × 8
Three eight-minute threshold reps. Keep the effort steady through the short recoveries.
Tempo 20′
Twenty continuous minutes at a sustainable effort, with an easy start and finish.
10 × 400
Ten four-hundred-metre reps with ninety seconds of easy jogging. Timeline uses a 3:30/km reference pace.
8 × 200
Short, fast repetitions with a relaxed walk or jog between. Timeline estimates the 200-metre recovery at two minutes.
20 × 30 / 30
Twenty thirty-second efforts, each followed by thirty seconds easy. The final recovery leads into the cool-down.
8 × 60 s hills
Eight controlled one-minute climbs with an easy descent. Use effort instead of pace on the hill.
Long run 90′
Ninety minutes of conversational running. Build up to this duration from your current base.
Which one,
and when?
The plan builder picks the session, the week and the route, and rewrites every pace for your current 5K.
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