Your starting point. Your ambition. Your schedule.A little structure to help you go a little further.
Keep easy days easy. Finish feeling like you could do a little more. If a week feels too much, repeat it before moving on.
Your recent weekly distance, frequency, longest comfortable run, last-run effort, and time away set the starting load. Age and sex are not used as shortcut fitness scores.
This is a transparent, rule-based planner, not a validated coaching or medical model. For established runners, the default running-volume factors are 1.00, 1.05, 1.10, and 1.00 of the adjusted baseline. These are design choices, not a universal safe progression rule. Time away and fewer available days reduce that baseline. An extra run is introduced at most one day above your recent frequency; other chosen days become walks.
Beginners and runners with six or more weeks away get short, timed run–walk sessions, with at most three running days and a rest day between them. This four-week block does not promise a 5K. Only progress when the current week feels comfortable.
Easy pace is a rough estimate from your last run and its effort. Conversation and comfort take priority over the number. Strides are optional relaxed 15-second accelerations with full easy recovery, only for an established routine. Targets that exceed this block’s conservative distance ceiling are treated as longer-term goals. Edits are yours and may change the original balance.
General principles: NHS: gradual run–walk training and recovery · CDC: use the talk test to judge effort. The specific generated schedule is our own heuristic.
If running causes pain or you’re unsure about exercising with a health condition, pause and seek individual advice. Missed a run? Resume gently; don’t stack sessions to catch up.
Edits change the plan’s totals. Keep recovery between demanding sessions.