Couch to 5K
Nine weeks of three short sessions a week. It starts with one-minute runs between walks and builds, a little at a time, to running for 30 minutes without stopping, which is about 5K for most new runners. There are no pace targets: run slowly enough to talk.
New runners, or anyone coming back after a long break, who can walk briskly for 30 minutes.
Length
9 weeks
Runs a week
Up to 3
Biggest week
2 h
Level
Beginner
Weekly running time, week 1 to week 9
Week by week
Easy
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Week 1
1 h 30 min
Week 2
1 h 35 min
Week 3
1 h 25 min
Week 4
1 h 35 min
Week 5
1 h 40 min
Week 6
1 h 45 min
Week 7
1 h 45 min
Week 8
1 h 55 min
Week 9
2 h
Rest Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat
Days are a suggestion: once you start, you can move any session to another day that week. Not sure of your goal? Predict it from a recent race.
The workouts
12 different sessions make up its 27 runs. Open one to see it in full, or run it on its own.
First runs
- Run-walk · 8 x 1 min3 times
- Run-walk · 6 x 90s3 times
- Run-walk · 90s, 3 min, 90s, 3 min3 times
- Run-walk · 3 min, 5 min, 3 min, 5 min3 times
- Run-walk · 3 x 5 minonce
- Run-walk · 2 x 8 minonce
- Continuous run · 20 minonce
- Run-walk · 5 min, 8 min, 5 minonce
- Run-walk · 2 x 10 minonce
- Continuous run · 25 min4 times
- Continuous run · 28 min3 times
- Continuous run · 30 min3 times