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

Does it build you up smartly?

Partly. The work comes in the right order, but the plan runs for 7 weeks before it ever eases off.

That's the main gap. The book lets you take a down week every fourth week, but the schedule doesn't place one in the first half. Weeks 1 through 7 never ease by more than a little, and the first lighter week comes in week 8, straight after the biggest week of the plan. Lighter weeks are when built-up fatigue clears and recent training turns into fitness. Without one, the tiredness adds up, and a runner who reads "or rest" on Wednesday and Friday as "run anyway" reaches week 7 already worn down. From week 8 the plan alternates lighter and fuller weeks all the way to the race. The fix is already in the book: take its down week in week 4.

The schedule also tells you what to run but not why. Each session gives you the task, such as 20 to 30 minutes at a steady effort just below threshold, and leaves the reason for another chapter of the book.

The sequence itself is well made. Thursday's workout moves from steady running and strides, to threshold repeats and tempo runs, to longer and longer stretches at goal pace. The phases are never named, but they're there, and training that shifts its emphasis in stages tends to beat training that holds one load throughout. Each step prepares you for the next, so by the time goal pace arrives, you've spent weeks running close to it.

Does it protect you from injury?

Sharp jumps in weekly running raise injury risk, and mileage alone undercounts a jump when the new running is also harder running.

That's this plan's main risk, and it lands in week 7. The week holds nearly a third more running than week 6. The longest long run of the plan, 90 to 105 minutes, arrives that Sunday. The first set of miles at goal pace, the hardest session so far, arrives that Thursday. Week 5 is a smaller version of the same pattern, with threshold repeats appearing in the same week the easy runs get longer. Each of these is reasonable on its own. Stacked together, they ask your legs to absorb a lot at once.

Strength is the other gap. The book includes a sample routine and points you to a full program online, but none of it appears on the schedule. Fitting it around Thursday and Sunday, and deciding what goes in it, falls to you, and strength training substantially lowers injury risk in sport. Warm-ups are a smaller version of the same problem: the book asks for them before hard sessions, but the schedule doesn't print one.

The rest of the week protects you well. Monday is always off, every hard day is followed by an easy or open one, and Wednesday and Friday can be rest whenever you need them to be. The book also covers the warning signs of injury and how to respond to them. A small ache that lingers between runs appears to raise the risk of an injury that stops you running, so a runner who learns those signs and acts on them early is well covered.

What happens when you miss a day?

Day to day, yes. After a lost week, you're on your own.

The plan builds its flexibility into the calendar. Two days a week are already open, every easy run is a range of minutes, and the book lets you take the low end when you're tired and move or skip a key workout on a bad day. It teaches you to judge each run by how you feel that day, using four effort zones rather than one number on your watch, and it tells you plainly what fitness you need before you start. A runner who learns that system can make most of these calls well, and the book is written to get you there.

But the schedule has no answer for a missed week. It doesn't say whether to run the week again, move on, or fit the missing work into the days that remain. The book implies that the long run and Thursday's workout come first, but it never sets out an order for what to drop. When four days go missing in week 6, you work out the rest yourself.

Will it get you ready for race day?

10K race effort sits close to your threshold, the line where controlled breathing starts to turn labored. Raising your threshold takes running at it, and practicing race pace pays off most when race pace sits near a threshold like this.

This plan is built on that. From week 7, every other Thursday holds about 6 miles at goal pace, split up by short jogs. The total holds still and the pieces grow. In week 7 you run one 2-mile stretch and then single miles. By week 11 it's three 2-mile stretches. Each time, you learn a little more of how the middle of the race will feel, and by race day the effort is familiar.

In week 10 you run a 5K at goal pace without stopping, or race one. It works as a test as well as a workout. If goal pace holds for half the distance, your goal is about right, and if it doesn't, you can re-check it with 2 weeks still to go.

The long run reaches 90 to 105 minutes in week 7, comfortably longer than the race itself. The running eases through the final weeks, and race week is the lightest of the plan. A taper of 1 to 3 weeks before a goal race improves race performance, and this one gives you that.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes. Over 12 weeks you'll meet 6 kinds of hard session, and almost everything around them stays easy.

About 5 of every 6 miles you run are easy. The hard days bring tempo runs, 1000-meter repeats at threshold, interval sessions that range from fast 400s to goal-pace miles, Sunday runs that finish fast, a 5K test, and 1-minute pickups in race week. That spread suits the Combo runner this version is written for, someone without a strong lean toward speed or toward endurance. And because the easy days stay easy, each hard day gets a fresh effort. Most runners improve more when easy days stay easy and hard days are clearly hard.

The plan opens gently, with strides on the Thursdays of weeks 1 and 3: 10 to 14 bursts of 20 seconds, with a minute of jogging after each. Short, fast efforts like these make your stride more economical, and they get your legs used to moving faster before the threshold work of week 5.