Running guides

Whether it is your first 5K or you are chasing a personal best, RunReady builds a week-by-week 5K plan from where you are today.

What you get

• A goal check. From one recent hard effort, RunReady predicts your current 5K time and rates your goal as realistic, challenging, very difficult or currently unrealistic for the time you have.
• A schedule that fits your week. You mark how much time you have each day; the plan uses only those days and spaces the harder runs apart.
• Paces for every run. Easy, recovery, long, tempo and speed paces are set from your current fitness, not your goal.
• An Excel download so you can track the plan, print it or adjust it.

How RunReady sets up a 5K plan

RunReady uses about 8 weeks as its reference length for a 5K and adjusts to the actual number of days until your race. Weekly distance builds by about 5% per week, with an easier cutback week every fourth week. The long run can grow to roughly two and a half times the race distance (about 7–8 miles), which builds endurance so the last kilometer feels stronger. Race week is short and easy, so you start fresh.

Beginners get three running days a week, all easy. Intermediate runners add a weekly tempo run, and advanced runners with five days also get a speed session around 5K pace.

Tips for a better 5K

• Keep easy runs easy. Most of your 5K fitness comes from consistent, relaxed running, not from going hard every day. Our guide to easy pace vs. tempo pace explains why.
• Use a real effort as your input. A recent parkrun, time trial or race gives a far better prediction than a casual jog.
• Start the race controlled. The most common 5K mistake is sprinting the first few minutes. Aim for even effort, then push in the final kilometer.

Curious how the numbers are calculated? See how RunReady works.

Tell RunReady your last hard effort, your goal time and how long until race day. It builds a half-marathon plan around the days you can actually run.

What you get

• A realistic finish-time check. RunReady predicts your current half-marathon time from a recent effort and compares it to your goal.
• A plan that starts where you are. Week 1 is based on your current weekly distance and longest recent run, not your target.
• Long runs that build safely, growing no more than 10% from one long run to the next, up to the full 13.1 miles if your time allows.
• Training paces for easy, recovery, long, tempo and speed runs, plus an Excel download.

How RunReady sets up a half-marathon plan

The reference length is about 12 weeks, though the plan adapts to however many days you have. Weekly distance increases about 5% per week, every fourth week is a cutback week at about 80% volume, and the long run makes up 30–40% of each week depending on how many days you run. The last two weeks are a taper: about 70% of peak volume, then a short, easy race week.

Not sure whether you have enough time? Read how long it takes to train for a half marathon.

Tips for half-marathon training

• The long run is the key session. Keep it at an easy, conversational pace; its job is endurance, not speed.
• Practice race-day fueling on longer runs so nothing on race morning is new.
• Add one tempo run a week once you are running four or more days. It is the workout most closely tied to half-marathon pace. See easy pace vs. tempo pace.
• Re-check your goal with a fresh effort every few weeks. If training is going well, the prediction will move.

A marathon rewards patience. RunReady builds a gradual, week-by-week marathon plan from your current fitness and tells you honestly whether your goal time fits the time you have.

What you get

• An honest goal rating based on a recent hard effort and how much improvement is plausible before race day.
• A gradual build from your current weekly distance, with cutback weeks to absorb the training.
• Long runs capped sensibly: about 20 miles at the longest, and no more than three hours of running in one session.
• Training paces and an Excel download for the whole plan.

How RunReady sets up a marathon plan

The reference length is about 20 weeks. Weekly distance builds roughly 5% per week up to your target peak (or what your available hours can support), every fourth week is a cutback, and the long run grows by no more than 10% at a time. The final two weeks taper volume to about 70% of peak and then a light race week.

Tips for marathon training

• Build your base before the plan. If you are not yet running consistently, give yourself extra weeks of easy running first.
• Run most miles easy. Marathon fitness is built on volume you can recover from. See easy pace vs. tempo pace.
• Rehearse race day on long runs: shoes, clothing, breakfast and fueling.
• Start the race slower than you think. The second half of a marathon is much harder than the first.

Most published plans fall somewhere between 10 and 16 weeks. Where you land in that range depends far more on your starting point than on your goal.

The short answer

These ranges reflect common practice in published beginner and intermediate plans, not hard rules. RunReady uses 12 weeks as its reference length for a half marathon and adjusts everything else to the actual number of days you have.

Why your starting point matters most

The half marathon is 13.1 miles (21.1 km). The hard part is not one run; it is safely building the weekly volume and long-run distance that make 13.1 miles feel manageable. Your muscles and cardiovascular fitness adapt fairly quickly, but tendons, bones and connective tissue adapt more slowly. Building mileage too fast is a classic recipe for overuse injuries.

That is why two questions decide your timeline:

1. How much are you running per week right now? A plan should start near your current volume and build gradually. RunReady increases weekly distance by about 5% per week, with an easier week every fourth week.
2. What is your longest recent run? Most half-marathon plans build the long run to somewhere around 10–13 miles. RunReady caps the long-run increase at 10% from one long run to the next, so a runner whose longest run is 3 miles needs many more weeks to get there than someone already running 8.

What the weeks are for

Base and build (most of the plan)

Mostly easy running, with the long run growing week by week. If you are an intermediate or advanced runner, one weekly tempo run is added to raise the pace you can hold comfortably for a long time.

Cutback weeks

Every few weeks, volume drops for a week. It can feel like lost time, but recovery is when the adaptation actually happens, and cutback weeks make it easier to arrive at the start line healthy.

Taper (final one to two weeks)

Volume comes down so you start the race fresh. RunReady uses a two-week taper for the half marathon: about 70% of peak volume the week before, then only short, easy runs in race week.

What if you have less time?

If the race is 6–8 weeks away, you can still get to the finish line, but the goal should shift toward finishing comfortably rather than racing a time. A few practical adjustments:

• Do not try to make up for lost weeks by jumping your mileage. Build from where you are.
• Prioritize the long run, keeping it easy and conversational.
• Plan run–walk intervals on race day if your longest run is well short of 13.1 miles. Many runners finish strong this way.
• Consider a later race if you are not yet running regularly. There will be another one.

RunReady's goal rating is built for exactly this question: enter your recent effort, goal time and days remaining, and it tells you whether the goal looks realistic, challenging, very difficult or currently unrealistic for the time you have.

What if you have more time?

More time is an advantage, not a problem. Spend the extra weeks building consistent easy mileage before the plan proper starts. Arriving at week one already running comfortably 3–4 days a week makes the whole plan easier and lowers injury risk.

A quick self-check before you start

• Can you run 30 minutes without stopping, or close to it?
• Have you been running at least two or three times a week for the past month?
• Can you set aside time for one longer run each week, eventually around two hours?

If you answered yes to all three, a 12-week plan is a sensible default. If not, give yourself a few extra weeks of base building first.

Easy runs and tempo runs do different jobs. Getting the difference right is one of the simplest ways to train better, and most people get it wrong by running their easy days too fast.

Easy pace: the foundation

Easy running is the bulk of almost every training plan. It builds aerobic fitness, strengthens muscles and connective tissue, and adds mileage without leaving you too tired for your next session.

How it should feel: conversational. You should be able to speak in full sentences. If you are breathing hard enough that talking is a struggle, slow down. For many runners, a genuinely easy pace feels almost too slow at first, often a minute or more per mile slower than their race pace.

Tempo pace: comfortably hard

A tempo run is a sustained effort at a pace that is challenging but controlled. It trains your body to hold a faster pace for longer before fatigue builds up. That is what lets you race the middle of a 10K, half marathon or marathon without falling apart.

How it should feel: comfortably hard. You can speak a few words at a time, but not hold a conversation. You should finish feeling like you could have kept going a bit longer, not like you raced. A common description is roughly the effort you could hold for about an hour in a race.

A typical tempo session is a warm-up, 15–30 minutes at tempo effort (sometimes split into blocks with short breaks), and a cool-down.

Side by side

How to estimate your paces

The best starting point is a recent race or hard, steady effort. From that, you can estimate your current race paces at other distances and set training paces around them. Here is what that looks like for a runner with a recent 25:00 5K, using RunReady's rules:

Notice how wide the gap is between easy and tempo. That gap is the point: the easy days are slow enough that you can recover and still bring real effort to the tempo day.

Why most of your running should be easy

A widely used guideline among coaches is that roughly 80% of your running should be easy and about 20% harder. The exact split varies by runner and plan, but the principle holds: hard sessions only pay off if you are recovered enough to do them well, and you cannot be if every run is moderately hard.

The most common trap is the "gray zone": every run at a pace that is too fast to be easy and too slow to be a real workout. It feels productive, but it leaves you tired without delivering the benefits of either type of run.

Who should add tempo runs?

If you are new to running, easy running alone will make you fitter for months. Focus on consistency first. Once you are running four or more days a week comfortably, one weekly tempo run is a good next step. That is how RunReady works too: tempo runs are added only for intermediate and advanced runners who run at least four days a week, and they are kept away from the long run so hard days are not back to back.