Build for three weeks, then take an easier one. Repeat until the race.
You will read the ten percent rule: never increase your weekly distance by more than a tenth. It is a reasonable rule of thumb and it is not a law of nature — the evidence behind it is thin, and ten percent of very little is nothing at all.
What the rule gets right is the shape of the mistake. Almost nobody gets hurt from running too slowly. People get hurt from running more than they did last week, again and again, with no let-up.
The pattern that works
Three weeks up, one week easier. On the down week, drop your distance by about a quarter and keep the runs easy.
| week | distance |
|---|---|
| 1 | 20 km |
| 2 | 22 km |
| 3 | 24 km |
| 4 | 18 km |
| 5 | 25 km |
The down week is not lost progress. It is when the adaptation you have been provoking actually happens — see rest. Every plan on this site is built this way, which is why some weeks in the half marathon plan look like a mistake and are not.
Change one thing at a time
Distance, speed and hills are three separate demands. Adding all three in the same fortnight is how you find out which one you were not ready for, with no way of telling which.
Build distance first. Speed can wait — it always can.
What “too much” feels like
Not, usually, a dramatic injury. It is:
- A niggle in the same place that keeps coming back
- Legs that feel heavy on easy runs for more than a few days
- A resting heart rate several beats above normal
- Sleeping badly, or waking up tired
Any two of those together mean take three days easy. That is a cheap price. Running through them is how a niggle becomes six weeks off.