Running Plan Review Greg McMillan 10K: Novice

Does it build you up smartly?

A new runner's body grows stronger in the days after the work, not during it. That's why good plans build in steps with a pause every few weeks, a lighter stretch where built-up fatigue clears and the body absorbs what came before.

This plan has the steps but not the pauses. The running grows or holds steady nearly every week from week 1 to week 10, and the first real break comes in week 11, when the taper begins. The book itself allows a lighter week every fourth week. But the schedule doesn't print one, so taking it is up to you.

There are no distinct phases either. The same easy run-walk carries you from the first week to the last, and only the ratio and the minutes change. Plans that change their emphasis over time tend to do better than plans that hold one kind of work throughout, but this one stays in one gear.

Where it shines is detail. Every session is written to the minute: the total time and the walk and run split. And the ratio gives the plan a clear sense of progress. The first time you see 1 minute walking for 2 running, you know how far you've come.

Does it protect you from injury?

Partly. The book teaches you to spot trouble, but the schedule doesn't do enough to keep you out of it.

Brand new runners have a particular problem. Your metabolism and blood volume adapt within weeks, but tendons and bones take weeks to months. So by week 6 or 7 you'll likely feel ready for more, while your bones are still partway through a remodeling cycle that takes 3 to 4 months. New runners often get hurt in that gap, which is why lighter weeks matter so much in a first plan.

This plan has none until week 11. The sharpest step comes in week 4, and sudden jumps in running are linked to a higher injury risk. The weeks when the walk breaks shrink, 6 and 8, add more running than the session length shows.

Strength training is left to you as well. The book includes a sample routine and points you online for the full program, but none of it appears on the schedule. That's a real gap, because strength work substantially lowers the risk of injury in sport.

The book does give you warning signs to watch for and what to do about them. Use that guidance. A niggle, a low-grade ache that hangs on from one run to the next, appears to raise the risk of a full injury that interrupts training. The runner most at risk on this plan is the one who feels great in week 6, notices a sore shin, and runs through it anyway because Tuesday says 36 minutes.

What happens when you miss a day?

The plan is easy to shift around. With 3 sessions and 4 open days, a missed Tuesday can slide to Wednesday without touching anything else. The book lets you skip or move a key workout on a bad day, too, and it teaches you to judge your training by how you feel rather than by the numbers. It asks you to notice which runner showed up on a given day. For a new runner, learning to make that call is as useful as any single session.

But a missed week is another matter. Nothing on the schedule tells you whether to repeat the week, carry on, or step back a ratio. It doesn't say which session to keep when you only have time for one, either. The long Sunday session is the obvious choice, but you have to work that out yourself.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes, for what it sets out to do: get you to the finish of your first 10K.

For a first-timer, the race work is the long session itself. Getting used to being on your feet for longer and longer is what carries you through a 10K, and this plan does that well. The long Sunday session grows from 20 minutes to an hour, with its peak in week 10. The weekly total is in a sensible range for a first 10K. Then the last 2 weeks ease off, and a taper of 1 to 3 weeks reliably helps runners race better.

But race day will be the longest you've ever been out, and not by a little. The longest session is an hour of run-walk, and for most beginners that covers well short of 6.2 miles. Rested legs help on race day, but you'll be covering ground you've never covered before.

The plan never asks you to run more than 2 minutes without a walk break. It treats walking as part of the training, not a stage you graduate from. So plan your race around the walk breaks as well. Race day isn't the moment to find out whether you can run the whole way.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Not much. Every session is easy run-walk, and the plan has nothing quicker in it, not even in the last weeks.

The easy running does real work. Easy running is the base that carries everything else, and it's where most of your fitness will come from in these 12 weeks. You'll feel it, too. Within the first couple of months, the same easy pace starts to cost you less effort, and your heart rate drops with it.

But the plan leaves out the small extras that would help. There are no strides, no hills and no drills. Strides are a few brief, relaxed stretches of quicker running at the end of an easy session. They take a couple of minutes, and they tend to make runners more efficient, using less energy at the same speed. A handful of them in the second half of the plan would add a little range without making anything hard.

The variety that does exist comes from the ratio. Running 1 minute at a time feels different from running 2, and each new stage gives the plan a fresh feel. Within each stage, though, the same sessions often repeat two weeks running.