Not set in stone but a progression as you join the intermediates
Running 3 times a week is great and you will continue to benefit from this as you increase the length of your long runs. Having 4 rest days will aid you in recovery between sessions.
When time allows try to fit in a 4th run, I personally recommend making this a fartlek (speed play) where you will keep varying your pace from slow to fast for a minute or 2. Or do a long run. Adding the 4th run you will see massive benefit to your running. However don’t run on 4 consecutive days!
Following this plan will get you running for 1 hour and depending on your pace this will be between 4 miles and 6 miles.
I have put parkrun for the weekend runs just because we are there to support you and its nice to run with other people but feel free to do it elsewhere. Similar duration to the Tuesday run.
If you feel an injury coming on ease back on both pace and duration and hopefully it will go away, if it does not then stop and seek advice. As all our interval training is around lakeside if you are worried about a niggle you can run around the lake nice and steady.
When you can happily run for 60 minutes keep adding more building up to 90 minutes. You can add a lap of the lake to the end of your run on Tuesdays.
Week Number after graduation
Tuesday
Thursday
Weekend
1
Interval training
Running for 35 minutes
Parkrun with 5 minutes warm up and warm down.
2
Interval training
Running for 40 minutes
Parkrun with 5 minutes warm up and warm down.
3
Interval training
Running for 45 minutes with 2 or 3 short efforts of 90 seconds (faster than race pace with at least 2 minutes jogging between them)
Parkrun with 5 minutes warm up and warm down.
4
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 50 minutes
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up
5
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 55 minutes
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up
6
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 60 minutes with 4 or 5 short efforts of 90 seconds (faster than race pace with at least 2 minutes jogging between them)
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up and a lap to warm down
7
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 60 minutes
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up and a lap to warm down
8
Interval Training and a lap of lake after
Running for 60 minutes with 4 or 5 short efforts of 90 seconds (faster than race pace with at least 2 minutes jogging between them)
Parkrun with a lap before to warm up and 2 laps to warm down
9, 10, 11, 12…..
Interval training
60 Minutes
Keep adding more time to your weekend run(s) building up to 90 minutes
Alternate 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes. Faster ones:Alternate 60 seconds of running and 60 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then alternate 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes
2
Alternate 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes. Faster ones: Alternate 90 seconds of running with 1 minute of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then alternate 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
3
Two repetitions of 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking. Faster ones 2 x 90 sec run with 60 sec recovery then 3 min run with 90 sec recovery up to 20 minutes then run back to start (say another 3 minutes)
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then Two repetitions of 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking.
4
3 minutes of running, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of running, 2½ minutes of walking, 3 minutes of running, 90 seconds of walking, 5 minutes of running.
Same as Tuesday
5 minutes brisk walk then three repetitions of 5 minutes running, 3 minutes of walking.
5
5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running.
8 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running.
20 minutes of running, with no walking.
6
5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running.
10 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of running.
Doncaster Park Run or 25 minutes of running with no walking.
7
25 minutes running
Interval Training
Doncaster Park Run or 25 minutes of running with no walking.
8
28 minutes of running
Interval Training
Doncaster Park Run or 25 minutes of running with no walking.
The Doncaster Pacers specialise in beginner runners and to ensure you get the best support possible we limit our beginners courses to 2 each year, this is so when the beginners graduate we then put all our resources into helping them develop furtherto join our intermediate groups. All our beginners courses have 2 coached sessions each week. We are part of Doncaster Athletic Club.
For anyone who is already a runner (6 minute miles to 14 minute miles no problem), we offer various training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to cater for ALL abilities, just call down at 6:15pm or call Martin on 07916 659740. Try us for free for a few sessions, no obligation.
We are often referred to as a drinking club with a running problem, lots of social events in town and further afield (Belfast parkrun this year, Benidorm in 2020).
