Arthur Lydiard tested his training on himself first, at times running up to 402 km a week. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, three of his runners won medals: Peter Snell in the 800 m, Murray Halberg in the 5,000 m, and Barry Magee, bronze in the marathon. His book Running to the Top, written with Garth Gilmour, descends from their 1962 book Run to the Top. All 4 plans we review from it are on this page: a 5K, a 10K, a marathon and a marathon for beginners.
Each plan is graded on the same 31 measures we use for every plan, Buena Vida's own included, with the research behind each measure linked. The ladder is strict. A C is a decent plan with gaps worth knowing about, and a D is either bare bones or has issues that you might want to avoid. Open any plan to see what it does well, where it falls short, and who it suits.
- Plans reviewed
- 4
- Goals
- 5K, 10K, Marathon
- Length
- 24–28 weeks
- Run days
- 7 a week
- Peak mileage
- 40–66 miles a week
5K plans
10K plans
Marathon plans
Training with Arthur Lydiard
Lydiard's big idea was order. Every plan here follows the same sequence: months of aerobic running, then hills, then hard repetitions, then sharpening, then race week. His 5K runner and his marathoner build the same base, because the aerobic base comes before everything else. Research backs the shape: plans built in phases race better than plans that hold one load the whole way.
There are no paces. Everything runs on feel. Aerobic runs sit somewhere between a jog and a race, and time trials go at an even effort with no sprint at the end. The book treats its schedules as a guide. It lets you pick within each range of time, stop repetitions when your body says enough, and ease off when your legs are tired. How long you run the base is up to you, though the book asks for at least three months, and it asks for a medical check before you start. The 5K and 10K plans run 28 weeks, the marathon 26, and the marathon for beginners 24, opening with 4 weeks of jogging only.
Three plans earn a C, and the marathon for beginners earns a D. Race readiness and variety score best. The sharpening weeks time the peak for the race, and the 10K plan has you run the full 10 km against the clock twice before the race. The gaps sit in how the weeks are spaced, and injury prevention scores lowest. The plans open at or near their biggest week and keep a run on every day until race week. The long base has no lighter week, and late in the plans hard days often come in pairs. Strength never appears on the schedule, and many sessions are just a name and a length of time, so you'll want the book open beside the calendar.
These plans suit a runner who already trains most days, reads effort well, and has half a year to give. If you're newer, or you've been hurt in the past year, read the reviews closely first. Even the beginners' plan asks for about 5 hours of jogging in its first week.
Get more out of your running with Buena Vida
Buena Vida was built by a runner to bring the whole job of training into one place: a plan that fits your schedule and your fitness, coaching on every run, and food targets that keep up with the work you do. Members get personal training & nutrition plans, plus full access to the catalog of pre-written plans for every running goal.
In research studies, runners on plans fit to them improved as much as or more than runners on fixed plans, and fewer of them stalled.
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