Running Plan Review Greg McMillan 10K: Intermediate-Advanced (Combo)

Does it build you up smartly?

McMillan starts with hills. For the first 3 weeks, the hard days are hill repeats and a steady run, work that builds strength and aerobic fitness before anything fast arrives. Tempo runs and short threshold repeats take over next, and race-pace sets arrive from week 5. Shifting the focus from one block of weeks to the next like this tends to produce better races than a single steady load from start to finish.

Weeks 4, 8 and 11 are lighter, so you never go more than 3 weeks without a break, and the last lighter week leads straight into race week. Those easier weeks are when built-up fatigue clears and your body absorbs the training that came before.

The book is built to teach, and the schedule is a compact grid that leaves the explaining to the chapters. But on the grid itself, a session is only its prescription. The week 1 hill session lists the number of hills, how long each one lasts and the jog back down, nothing more. Why hills come first, what the steady run builds and how hard each effort should feel are all in the book, chapters away from the schedule. The phases aren't named on the grid either, so it pays to read the book before week 1, and to keep it close after.

Does it protect you from injury?

Mostly, but there are 2 gaps worth knowing about before you start.

The first is week 5. Week 4 is the first lighter week, and week 5 comes straight after it as the biggest week of the plan. It also brings the plan's first week with 2 hard days, the first race-pace session (6 single miles at goal pace) and the first long run with a fast finish. If you run every listed day, that's about half again as much running as the week before. Sharp jumps in weekly running raise injury risk, and many injuries start suddenly, often set off by a training error in the week before. For a runner who's been hurt, this is the week to watch. Making that week's optional days rest or cross-training shrinks the jump a lot.

The second gap is strength. The book includes a sample strength routine and points to a full program online, but none of it is on the schedule, so fitting it around Thursdays and Sundays is left to you. Strength training lowers the risk of sport injuries, by more than stretching or balance work alone, which makes it a costly thing to leave off the calendar.

Outside week 5, the plan protects you well. The running builds a little at a time, and no hard day ever follows another. The book also teaches you to watch for early warning signs and to back off when they appear. That habit pays, because a nagging ache that lingers between runs seems to raise the odds of a full injury that stops you running.

What happens when you miss a day?

When a whole week goes sideways, this plan leaves you to sort it out. If you miss one, nothing tells you how to pick the plan back up. The book suggests the main workout and the long run matter most. But it doesn't rank the rest of the week's runs, so a short week leaves you guessing about what to drop.

Day to day, it's a different story. McMillan coaches mostly everyday runners with jobs and families, and it shows in how the plan is written. The easy days are ranges of minutes, and 3 days a week are the open choice from the sample week's Friday. The book tells you to take the low end of a range when you're tired, and to skip or move a key workout on a bad day. A 40-minute run on a day listed for 40 to 60 is the plan working as written, not you falling short.

Because the workouts are set by effort, the book also teaches you to judge each day by how you actually feel rather than by the numbers on paper. That's a skill that lasts beyond this plan.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes. The plan builds the fitness a 10K asks for, with one gap near the end.

A 10K sits close to your limit. For most of the race you're breathing hard, a little past the effort you could hold for an hour, and two things carry you through it: a high threshold, and a feel for race pace itself. Threshold gains are specific to the pace you train them at, which is why the plan's steady runs, tempo runs and 1000-meter repeats matter. They train that edge directly.

Where the plan shines is the way its race-pace work builds toward the race. From week 5, every other Thursday holds about 6 miles at 10K goal pace, and the pieces grow while the total stays the same. In week 5, it's 6 single miles, each with a jog to reset. By week 11, it's 3 stretches of 2 miles, and the pace that took all your focus for a single mile in week 5 is now something you hold for 2 at a time. Weeks 8 and 10 end with a short time trial at goal pace or a 5K tune-up race, a chance to check that your goal still fits. The last weeks ease off, and a taper of 1 to 3 weeks improves race performance compared with training straight through.

But the long run stops growing early. It reaches 90 to 105 minutes in week 3, and week 6 is the last time it's that long. After that, Sundays alternate between runs with a fast finish and the time trials. For a 10K, that's enough distance. But no long run builds through the second half of the plan, so the long run here holds the endurance you came in with instead of adding to it.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Even the strides in this plan have a progression. They come on Tuesdays, and they grow in number before they grow in length: 10 of 20 seconds, then 15, then 20, then 8 of 30 seconds. Each set is a few minutes of fast, relaxed running, and short, fast efforts like these improve running economy, the energy each stride costs you.

The rest of the week has range too. About 84 percent of the running is easy, and the hard days move between hills, tempo runs, race-pace miles and faster track repeats, with a fartlek in race week. Mixing easy running with clearly hard sessions builds endurance better than long stretches of steady, moderately hard running. Changing the kind of hard session from week to week also keeps each one fresh, for your legs and your head.