If you run for your health, the usual plan shape doesn't quite fit. Race plans climb for months toward one big week, then ease off before race day. Most of these plans hold steady instead. The first week asks nearly as much as the biggest one, and the weeks after it settle into a rhythm you could keep for years.
That makes choosing simple. Look at week 1. If it looks like a normal week for you now, that's your plan. If you aren't running yet, the Start Running plans begin with short jogs between walks and finish with 30 minutes of nonstop running. The 12-week versions open with 1-minute jogs and need no running behind you. The beginner plans start around 8 to 15 miles a week, the intermediate ones around 18 to 25, and the advanced ones around 40.
Where the fitness comes from. When the miles don't climb, it's fair to wonder what you're getting. Quite a lot. Within about 2 months, the same easy pace usually starts to feel easier, most of all if you're newer to running. Regular running tends to lift mood, sometimes after a single run. And steady weeks suit your tendons, which adapt more slowly than muscle and need time to catch up.
What's in a week. Every plan puts strength on the calendar, once or twice a week. Most runs are easy, at a pace you can talk at, whatever that pace is for you. For variety, most add strides (short, relaxed pickups) at the end of some easy runs, and many add an occasional fartlek (bursts of faster running inside an easy run), progression run or tempo run. Every few weeks a lighter week gives your legs a breather.
8 weeks or 12. Both lengths follow the same kind of week. When one ends, you can start it again, move up a level, or turn toward a race plan if one has caught your eye.
If you're injured. One reviewed plan sits here too: Hal Higdon's pool-running plan, 8 weeks of deep-water running that keeps the running motion going without the pounding, with running on land from week 5. The idea is sound, and the book's advice to stay in the pool until you've recovered is the right call. But its review finds that once you're back on land, the running grows every week, with the biggest jump saved for the last. After an injury, talk to your doctor or physical therapist before you use it or any plan.
If none of these fits your week, Buena Vida can get you a personal fitness running plan set to your schedule and pace. Try it free for 7 days.
No plans match. Try another level or a different number of run days.
Buena Vida general fitness running plans
General fitness running plans from coaches you know
General fitness running plans by coach
Want a plan made for you?
Buena Vida is a running app that puts training plans, workout tracking and daily nutrition in one place. Tell it your race, your fitness and the days you can run, and you'll get a personal plan set to your schedule and pace, with coaching on every run and food targets that keep up with your training.
Try it free for 7 days. After that, it's $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month, and you can cancel anytime.