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

Does it build you up smartly?

The plan starts at the sharp end. On day 4 you run 12 to 14 repeats of 400 meters at goal pace, and the hard days keep that race focus all the way through, changing shape every few weeks so each kind of effort gets its turn. Training that shifts its emphasis in blocks like this produces better races than training that holds one kind of load. But the plan rarely backs off, and a lighter week is when recent training turns into fitness.

The weekly load stays close to the same level from week 1 to week 9, and the only lighter week in that stretch is week 8. McMillan's book allows a down week every fourth week, which is the right instinct, but the schedule doesn't print them, so taking one is your call. Week 8 is also lighter in minutes only. It carries 3 hard sessions, including the first time trial, and week 9 goes straight back to the biggest week of the plan. Only after that does the running start to come down toward race day.

The blocks are also hard to see. Nothing on the schedule names them or says what each one is for, so you find them only by reading ahead. Each hard session is printed as a prescription, such as 8 to 10 repeats of 1000 meters with a 200 meter jog, without a line on why it's there. The book explains the purpose of each kind of workout in another chapter, so the reasons exist. They just aren't next to the run.

Does it protect you from injury?

Mostly, yes. The plan never springs a sudden big week on you, but it leaves strength training to you.

Many running injuries begin abruptly, often set off by a week that asks more of the body than it's ready for. This plan avoids those weeks. The load barely moves from one week to the next, new kinds of hard workout arrive in weeks that aren't also growing, and no hard day is followed by another. That steadiness is only safe if the plan matches the running you already do, which is why the book sets its entry bar at 5 to 7 days a week and a long run near 2 hours. The cost of the steadiness is the one lighter week in the build, covered above, which gives your legs fewer chances to catch up.

The book also teaches you to read your body. Its chapter on warning signs walks through what to watch for and how to respond, and that matters, because a lingering niggle appears to raise the risk of a full injury. Backing off at the first one is cheaper than backing off at the second.

But strength isn't on the schedule. The book includes a sample routine and points to a full program online, then leaves it out of the 12 weeks. Fitting it around the hard days and the long run is up to you. That's a real gap, because strength training substantially lowers the risk of injury, and it makes running more economical for trained distance runners.

One smaller gap sits alongside it. The book teaches warming up before hard work, but the schedule doesn't print a warm-up on each session, so you have to remember it on a 10-rep day.

What happens when you miss a day?

Twelve weeks is long enough for something to go sideways. The schedule handles a rough day well, but it gives less help after a broken week.

There's no rule for a missed week. Nothing says whether to make it up, drop it, or carry its key sessions into the next. The book suggests that long runs and hard days matter most, but it doesn't rank them, so in a week with room for only one, you decide.

But McMillan is calm about bad days, and the schedule shows it. Monday and Friday are printed as an easy run, cross-training or rest, every week, so you have 2 flexible days to shift a hard session onto or to simply rest. Easy runs are ranges of minutes, and the book says to take the low end when you're tired. On a bad day, it lets you skip a key workout or move it. And because each session is an effort, the workout adjusts to whichever version of you shows up that morning.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes. From the first week, the plan aims at the race.

Race-pace work earns its keep when race pace sits at one of the body's thresholds, and a 5K is run close to the fastest pace your body can fuel with oxygen, so this plan's goal-pace reps are time well spent. They start in the very first week, 12 to 14 repeats of 400 meters, and come back through the build as 600s, then 400s again, then 1000s, then 800s.

Between those, threshold repeats of 1000 meters with short jogs build the pace you can hold for longer, and that pace only rises when you practice running it. The time trials in weeks 8 and 10 are a rehearsal of race effort, and the book uses them to re-check your goal, so your paces move with your fitness.

The last 3 weeks get lighter, and race week runs at a little over half of the biggest week, with 200 meter sprints and a short fartlek to keep the legs sharp. Easing off for 1 to 3 weeks before a goal race improves race performance.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes, and widely.

Some weeks it's repeats of 1000 meters, some weeks it's hills, later it's short flat sprints, and race week brings a fartlek, with progression runs on Sundays through the middle of the plan. In all there are 13 different rep sessions. Each one works on a different part of 5K fitness, and mixing clearly hard sessions into easy running builds more than running everything at a steady medium effort.

The 200 meter sprints come with 400 meters of jogging after each one, enough to recover well, so each rep can be quick rather than a grind. Along with the hills and the strides, which build to 20 to 24 of them in week 10, they train the speed a Speedster already has, and short, fast efforts like these make runners more efficient.

Around all of it, the easy days stay easy and the hard days stay apart. Most runners improve more with that clear split than with a steady stream of moderate running.