Running Plan Review Pete Magill Fast 5K: 12-Week

Does it build you up smartly?

Partly. The workouts come in a sensible order, but the schedule doesn't say what they're for, and it rarely lets you ease off.

Know what a session is for and you run it better: hard enough to do its job, easy enough to recover from. Plans that move through stages, each with its own job, do better than plans that hold one steady load from start to finish.

Magill's order holds up. The first 2 weeks start with speed, and from there the hard work builds in steps. The hill repeats, for example, grow from 30 seconds in week 3 to 90 seconds by week 7.

But the schedule keeps that order to itself. It names each session and almost never says what it's for: of 25 hard sessions, only the tune-up race does. Nothing marks where one stage ends and the next begins. The reasons are in the book, several chapters away from Monday's workout.

Magill keeps weekly mileage nearly level, so there's less tiredness to clear than in a plan that climbs. But the hard sessions keep coming, and until the last 2 weeks only one week eases off: week 10, when the long run becomes an easy run. Lighter weeks every 3 or 4 are when hard work settles into fitness. Here, you go 9 weeks without one.

Does it protect you from injury?

Mostly, yes. The plan builds gently and spaces its hard days well. What it leaves out is strength and warm-ups.

Injuries tend to follow sharp jumps in training, and this plan doesn't have any. No week's running is more than about 12 percent above the week before, and there's always at least a day between hard sessions. The book also sets recovery days by age, so older runners aren't held to a younger runner's schedule.

It helps you spot trouble, too, with a full chapter on warning signs and what to do about each one, and another on recovery. A niggle, the small ache that hangs around between runs, appears to raise the risk of an injury that stops you running, so knowing what to watch for counts.

But strength isn't on the schedule. The book gives detailed strength routines in 2 of its lessons, and fitting them around the hard days is up to you. Strength training substantially lowers injury risk in sport, more than stretching or balance work, so it's a real loss if it slips. Warm-ups are missing too. The book asks for one before every hard session, but the schedule doesn't list them.

But 2 new kinds of hard work arrive in weeks when the running also goes up: hill repeats in week 3, and the tune-up race in week 11. Take the first hill session at a controlled effort, and keep the optional days in week 11 easy or off.

What happens when you miss a day?

Well, because so little of it is fixed. Most weeks hold just 3 set runs: 2 hard days and the long run. Every other day is an easy run or rest, so a crowded week loses those first and keeps the sessions that matter. The book also lets you move a hard day, as long as 2 hard days never land back to back, and it lets you repeat a week.

You choose your weekly mileage and the book's tables size the runs from it, so you can start from the mileage you already run rather than one you're reaching for. The book treats effort as the guide and asks you to check how you actually feel each day, so a flat morning can become an easier run.

But the harder calls are left to you. When only one of the fixed runs fits in a week, the book suggests the long run and key sessions come first, but it doesn't rank them. And after a missed week, it lets you repeat one without saying when repeating beats moving on, or how much time off means stepping further back.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Mostly. It builds the right fitness for a 5K, but it doesn't ease off enough before the race.

The taper is the first gap. A taper of 1 to 3 weeks makes for faster racing than training straight through. Here, week 11 carries the most hard running in the plan: track repeats on Monday, hills on Wednesday and the tune-up race on Saturday. Week 12 drops to one steady session and no long run. Then race week brings back 2 hard days, and its running is only about 30 percent lighter than the biggest week. Some fast running in race week makes sense for a race as short as a 5K, since it keeps your legs used to speed. But the hard days barely thin out. Most easy days in the last 2 weeks are optional, so you can fix much of this yourself by taking more of them as rest.

The second gap is steady, comfortably hard running, the kind you could keep up for an hour or more. It's what lets you hold a hard effort longer, and that ability grows from practicing at that effort. The plan runs it only 4 times, and it never grows.

The race-specific work is where the plan pulls its weight. Repeats at 5K effort come back in 7 weeks and build toward up to 20 repeats of 400 meters in week 11, with only a 100-meter jog between them. That one session holds more running at 5K effort than the race does. The tune-up race 2 weeks out lets you try race effort, nerves and all, before the day that counts. And the long run comfortably covers what a 5K needs.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes, and this is where the plan is at its best.

Runners improve most when easy days stay easy and hard days are properly hard. Within that, mixing in intervals and speed play builds endurance better than long stretches at a steady, medium-hard effort.

Magill's plan keeps that split. About 9 of every 10 miles are easy. The hard days hardly repeat: across 13 weeks there are about 20 different sessions, from 20-second bursts to 10-minute steady efforts, and from 200 meters on a track to 90 seconds up a hill. Each is aimed at a different part of what a 5K asks of you.

Between the hill repeats and the short, fast bursts, something quick turns up in nearly every week. Short, fast running like this improves running economy, meaning the same pace costs you less energy. For runners who already train, economy is more trainable than VO2 max, the ceiling on how much oxygen you can use. Even the easy runs the day before each race carry a few strides, though the book saves those for younger runners.