Running Plan Review Hal Higdon Base Training: Novice

Does it build you up smartly?

A base plan has a simpler job than a race plan, but it still needs a shape. Most of it is easy running, growing a little at a time. Then, every few weeks, the running drops back for a week, so the body can catch up with what you've asked of it. Easing off can feel like going backwards. But that's when recent training turns into fitness, and runners who do it every few weeks get hurt less often than those who add more every single week.

Higdon's whole approach rests on consistency: run often, run easy, and add a little at a time. His plan is one long, gentle ramp, and its best feature is clarity. Each day is a single number, a distance or a walk, and there's nothing to work out before you lace up. The short Sunday after every long one is his own way of easing off, and it gives the weeks a rhythm.

But the plan never has a lighter week. When the long run drops back to 3 miles, the weekday runs hold or grow, so the week as a whole dips only slightly before climbing again. There are no stages either. The week you run in week 12 has the same shape as the one you ran in week 1. It just asks for more distance, 15 miles instead of 9.

Does it protect you from injury?

Partly. The plan keeps the load small and steady, but it has no lighter weeks, no strength work, and no warning signs on the schedule.

The good part is real. Every run is easy, there are no hard workouts to pile up, two days a week are off, and Saturday is a walk instead of a run. Measured against the last few weeks, no week asks for much more than you've been doing. The wrinkle comes when the long run jumps back up: in weeks 8, 10 and 12, the week grows by about a quarter over the one before.

The risk for a new runner is timing. Metabolism and blood volume respond to training within days to weeks, but tendons and bone take weeks to months. Within the first couple of months, the same easy runs will start to feel easier. You'll feel ready for more before your shins are. A lighter week every few weeks gives them time to catch up, and this plan doesn't have one.

Strength work is missing too. The book offers general advice on strength and stretching but no program, and it lets first-time runners skip strength altogether. No session appears on this schedule, and what to do and when is left to you. That's a real gap, because strength training lowers the risk of injury in sport, and does it better than stretching alone.

The book does better on warning signs, with two whole chapters on injuries: what overdoing it looks like, and how to rest and build back gradually. But you won't find any of it on the schedule, on the day you need it. A new runner needs this most of all, because a low-grade ache that hangs around from one run to the next seems to raise the odds of an injury that stops you running. Easing off when one shows up is the habit to build in these 12 weeks.

What happens when you miss a day?

A new runner's first months rarely go exactly to plan. What helps most is knowing which runs to keep when time is short, and how easy easy should be. This plan offers little of either, beyond the room the week already has.

That room is a real advantage. With two days off a week, there's space to move a run. The book allows you to swap days, and asks you not to miss two days of running in a row.

But that's where the guidance stops. If you lose a whole week, the plan doesn't say how to pick back up. It never tells you which run matters most when you can only fit in one or two. You can work out from the schedule that the Sunday long run is the one to protect, but you have to work it out.

The bigger gap is effort. The schedule gives you distances and nothing else. How easy "easy" should feel is explained in the book, through a simple test of whether you can still talk while you run. But it's in another chapter, not next to the runs. On that Thursday of week 8, easy means slow enough to talk in full sentences, even when it feels too slow to count. Nothing on this page reminds you of that.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes, for what this plan is for. Its job is easy miles, and it sticks to that job.

There are two kinds of run, short weekday runs and a longer Sunday run, plus a weekly walk. Every step of it is easy, and that's the right choice for someone building a base, because easy running makes up most of a runner's miles and carries the harder training that comes later. The long run's back and forth also keeps Sundays from feeling like the same run every week.

But there are no strides, where you finish an easy run with a few short pickups at a quick, relaxed effort, walking or jogging back between them. The book mentions them as part of a warm-up, but they never appear on the schedule. That's a small miss. A few strides once or twice a week take a couple of minutes, leave your legs feeling lighter, not tired, and tend to make runners more efficient at the same pace. For a new runner, they're also a gentle first taste of running fast, well before any real speed work.