In a previous blog, I already explained more about the how and why behind the overhaul of all our training plans, but now we’re zooming in on this particular distance.

It’s important to clarify how these plans are structured. You’ll also find this info in the in-app FAQ. How is your plan built when you set an ‘ultimate goal’ in the app?

• In the final 12 weeks before your target race, you follow a specific plan. Here, we focus on the key fitness elements needed to achieve a strong performance at your chosen distance. To keep it simple: more volume for a marathon, more speed for a 5k.

• This, of course, requires a solid foundation. Without a base, there’s no room for specificity. We build that foundation with a support plan. For the experts: this is where we focus more on building capacity.

Coming clean: we didn’t have a full set of plans for the 10 miles.

There are fewer 10 miles races than 10k or half marathons. With our initially limited ability to create and adjust plans, we decided to include the 10 miles inside a 10k or half marathon plan.

That’s a thing of the past. I have now written specific plans for the 10 miles.
Not that the previous approach was wrong, let me explain:

• For faster runners, the 10k remains the foundation, but we’re now putting more emphasis on what’s known as ‘fatigue resistance’.
  Why use the 10k as a starting point? Threshold pace is an intensity you can hold for about an hour as a well-trained athlete. If you cover most of the distance within that hour, this parameter becomes more important. The new plan ensures that you can sustain that high intensity for long enough.

• For those who take longer to finish and rely more on their aerobic base, the focus is less on intensity. Why? Because threshold pace is less decisive for performance, so we don’t need to push it as much.

From that perspective, the 10 miles is probably the most unique distance, physiologically speaking. For example, more than 1,000 runners finish the Antwerp 10 miles in under 70 minutes, so for them, threshold pace is a very important factor. For anyone taking more than 1 hour 30 minutes, the focus shifts toward aerobic endurance.

That logic was already in the app, but now we’re rolling it out in a fully separate set of plans.

12 + 12: you can set a 10 miles as your goal up to 24 weeks in advance. That’s more than enough. As I also explain in the in-app FAQ: never set a goal for a full year later. Work with targets every 4 to 6 months, so you move through different training cycles.
The support plan runs continuously. If you start the plan 26 weeks before your race, you’ll get the last 2 weeks of the support plan, then 12 weeks of support, and 12 weeks of specific training.

You’re fully up to speed again. Want to use the new plans? Then it’s time to set a new goal!