Running Plan Review Greg McMillan 5K: Advanced (Combo)

Does it build you up smartly?

Partly. The order of the hard work is sound, but the plan almost never lets you ease off, and the schedule doesn't say what any session is for.

There's only one lighter week before race week, and it's lighter in miles only. Week 8 drops by about 30 percent, but it still holds 3 hard sessions: sprints on Tuesday, a tempo run on Thursday and a time trial on Sunday. Week 9 then goes straight back to the full load. A lighter week every few weeks is when recent training turns into fitness, and in 11 weeks this plan gives you one, and only partly. The book itself says a down week every fourth week is fine, so taking one at week 4 is allowed. The schedule just doesn't print it, so you have to decide to take it.

The schedule also tells you what to do but not why. Each workout gives the repeats and the recovery, and nothing about what the session is for or how to warm up for it. The reasons are in the book, and they're good. But on a Thursday morning with the schedule in front of you, you're on your own.

What does build well is the hard work. There is no ramp in mileage: week 1 is within about 3 miles of the biggest week, and the total barely moves after that. Instead, the hard days change. The plan opens with race-pace 400s and a steady run, moves to hills and threshold work, then sprints and a first time trial, and finishes with race-pace reps of up to 1000 meters. The blocks aren't labeled, but the order is clear once you look for it. Training that shifts its emphasis from block to block like this tends to produce better races than repeating the same load week after week.

Does it protect you from injury?

Mostly, yes, for a runner who already handles this much running. The gaps are strength and rest.

There's no strength work on the schedule. The book includes a sample routine and points to a full program online, but when to do it, and how it fits around 2 or 3 hard days a week, is left to you. That matters. Strength training cuts the risk of sport injuries substantially, more than stretching does, and over 12 weeks of near-daily running, it's the protection you'd most want added.

Rest is thin too. With one lighter week before race week, your legs carry close to the full load for 11 weeks, so the extra down week the book allows is the simplest protection you can add.

Otherwise the build is careful. New kinds of hard work arrive in ordinary weeks, not big ones, and no hard day is ever followed by another. The mileage barely changes from week to week, which matters because many injuries follow a sudden jump in training. But there is one jump. Week 9 goes straight from the lighter week 8 back to the full load, a rise of more than 40 percent in a single week, and your legs will notice it.

The book also helps you read your own body. It has a full chapter on obeying warning signs and another on recovery, which tell you what to look for and what to do when something starts to hurt. That's useful, since a lingering ache between runs appears to raise the risk of an injury that stops you running.

Above all, the plan assumes you're already at its level on day one. A high weekly load you've built up to gradually is linked to fewer injuries, not more, so a runner already at 45 to 50 miles a week has a steady 12 weeks ahead. A runner coming in at 30 doesn't. For them, week 1 is the jump.

What happens when you miss a day?

Inside a normal week, yes. When a whole week goes missing, you're on your own.

The book doesn't say whether to repeat a missed week, skip ahead or fit the hard sessions into fewer days. It doesn't say which sessions to keep when you only have time for some, either. The long run and the hard days clearly matter most, but that's for you to work out.

Inside the week, though, 2 days are yours to decide. Monday comes the day after Sunday's long run or hard session, Friday comes after Thursday's reps, and each can be an easy run, cross-training or a day off. That makes it a 5 to 7 day plan without you changing a thing. Nearly every easy run is a range of minutes, and the book tells you to take the low end on a tired day. On a bad day, it lets you skip or move a key workout instead of forcing it.

The book also teaches you to judge for yourself. It trains by effort, using 4 training zones, and asks you to check each day how you actually feel before deciding how hard to go. The time trials in weeks 8 and 10 show whether your goal still fits, and if it doesn't, a fresh result gives you new paces from the calculator. A runner who reads those chapters gets better at making their own calls, which helps most on the days the schedule and your life disagree.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes. Almost every week has work aimed straight at the 5K.

A 5K is raced close to the point where your body is taking in all the oxygen it can use, and that's where practice at race pace earns its keep. This plan has some of that work in every week: 400s, 600s, 800s and 1000s at your goal pace, hills, and short sprints for leg speed. The work also changes as the race gets close, and the last few weeks bring race-pace repeats of up to 1000 meters. By race day, you've run your goal pace many times on tired legs and know how it should feel.

The threshold work in the first 2 months backs that up: a steady run in week 2, repeats of 1000 meters with short jogs in week 4, and a tempo run in week 8. Each one builds the pace you can hold for longer, which is what keeps a 5K from falling apart in the third mile. Threshold gains come from running at that effort, and the plan comes at it 3 different ways.

The finish is good too. Race week drops by almost half, with short sprints on Tuesday and a short fartlek on Thursday to keep your legs sharp. A taper like this reliably makes runners faster on race day.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes. The hard days change shape from week to week, and the easy days stay easy.

The plan starts at the sharp end. Its very first hard session, in week 1, is 10 to 12 repeats of 400 meters at 5K goal pace, before any hills or threshold work. From there the hard days range across 7 kinds of session: race-pace repeats from 400 meters to 1000, hills, short sprints, threshold work, runs with a fast finish, a fartlek and time trials. Thursday's session never repeats from one week to the next. That mix matters, because easy running paired with clearly hard sessions of different kinds builds endurance better than long stretches at a steady, moderately hard pace.

Leg-speed work shows up in most weeks of the build: strides, hill repeats or short sprints. Short, fast efforts like these make each stride cheaper, so the same pace costs less energy. Week 10 asks for 20 to 24 strides in one session.

About 90 percent of the running is easy, and the easy days ask for nothing more than time on your feet. That helps. Runners improve more when easy days stay easy and hard days stay hard than when everything drifts toward the middle.