I recently received the following email from a friend of mine:
hey there – can you design a training program for a 5k that would involve jogging once during the week and once on the weekend?
That’s a pretty tall order. This plan is the first I’ve thought about under those conditions, so if anyone has any feedback on what to add, or what might work, I’d love to hear it! This plan is designed for the person just wants to finish with a decent time and is doing it to get into shape, not set record:
Here’s the basic plan: Start by running 7 minutes on the first day. On the weekend, run 11 minutes. That’s this week. Every week after, increase the time by 4 minutes. So, next week would be a run of 11 minutes followed by run of 15 minutes. Like this:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Week 1 | x | 10mins Cardio Play*** | x | 7min Run* | x | 11min Run** | x |
| Week 2 | x | 10mins Cardio Play*** | x | 11min Run* | x | 15min Run** | x |
| Week 3 | x | 15mins Cardio Play*** | x | 15min Run* | x | 19min Run** | x |
| Week 4 | x | 20mins Cardio Play*** | x | 19min Run* | x | 23min Run** | x |
| Week 5 | x | 30mins Cardio Play*** | x | 23min Run* | x | 27min Run** | x |
| Week 6 | x | 15mins Cardio Play*** | x | 15min Run* | x | Stretch | 5k! |
Remember to warm up *before* and cooldown *after* these times for at least 10% of the total time (and at least one minute) at an easy jog pace. At the end of the run, do some basic stretching!
* – Day One each week you’re going to do “lazy sprints”. That means, you’re going to warm up for 2minutes at an easy jog, then increase speed to a lazy-like sprint for 30 seconds, then jog for 1 minute to recover, then lazy sprint again. The first week will be 2 reps, then every week after that will increase by one rep a week.
** – Day two each week will be an easy “long run” with the goal of not stopping for the entire run, but keeping the pace at a conversational pace. Finally, somewhere along the way, go run on a few hills if the 5k has hills!
*** – Cardio Play. At least once a week do something that gets your heart rate pumping and fun! It could be chasing your children around the house, going for a run, playing basketball, playing netball, doing an exercise video, a fast walk, or jumping rope – essentially anything active for at least as many minutes as given. You can always play longer!
**** – Feel free to apply the “slide” rule. If you can’t do your run on Thursday, feel free to “slide” the workout to Wednesday. Same thing for the long run – if Saturday doesn’t work, “slide” the long run to Sunday. But don’t take more than 3 days off in a row – you lose fitness! Try to never go more than 2 days off! And on any “X” day, try to do at least 10mins of aerobic exercise – Jumping rope, jogging in place, skipping… even a 10minute exercise video. Burpees are a great choice! (1min on, 1min off!).
Good luck and enjoy the journey!