PACEPLOTTER

Preparing a 5K

Preparation: 6 to 12 weeks

5K plans by goal

Your personalized plan

Race date, reference time: your complete plan in 30 seconds.

Optional: without a date, the plan starts next Monday.

Your reference

E.g. 52:30 or 3h45. A recent race or test, any distance.

Sessions per week

The 5K: the perfect distance for making progress

Accessible to beginners, brutal when you're chasing an ambitious time: the 5K takes 6 to 8 weeks of training with 3 workouts per week. It's also the best distance for testing yourself regularly, since your 5K time feeds directly into the calculation of all your training paces.

Intervals, the heart of the 5K

The 5K is run at a pace close to your maximal aerobic speed. Short-repeat workouts (300 to 800 m) at 5K pace, with a jog recovery, are therefore the key: they teach your body AND your mind to hold that intensity.

Threshold and endurance

Threshold blocks (2×8 up to 20 minutes) give you the engine you need so the 5th kilometre isn't a death march. The "long" run (8-12 km at easy pace) builds the aerobic base: even over 5 km, it's your aerobic system that does most of the work for your time.

Plan structure

  • Base: getting going, short repeats.
  • Build: longer repeats (600-1,000 m), extended threshold.
  • Taper (1 week): ease off the volume, keep some rhythm.
  • A recovery week every 4 weeks if the plan is long.

Race day

Over 5 km, everything happens fast: warm up properly (15-20 minutes with strides — it's the only distance where you start "hot"), go out at your goal pace, not above it, and attack the last kilometre like an interval session.

Choose your goal

From 20 to 30 minutes: each plan spells out the exact paces for every workout. For a personalised plan, the generator starts from your current time, even one run over a different distance.