Run a 10k in 3 months

The protocol

1. Weeks 1–3

   Build the long run

   • Two easy 25-minute runs, plus a long run of 35, 40, then 45 minutes.
   • Easy means conversational. If you're running every session at the same effort, you're doing one workout three times.
   • Long runs go slower than the easy runs, not faster. This is the part everyone gets backwards.
2. Week 4

   Down week

   • Cut everything by a third: two 20-minute runs and a 30-minute long run.
   • You'll feel like you're losing fitness. You're absorbing it — this is where the adaptation lands.
   • Good week to check your shoes. Most road shoes are done between 500 and 800 km.
3. Weeks 5–7

   Past 5k, into new distance

   • Easy runs go to 30 minutes; long runs go 50, 55, then 60 minutes.
   • Walk breaks in the long run are allowed and cost nothing. Take one every 15 minutes if it helps.
   • Start drinking a little water before longer runs. You'll notice the last 15 minutes if you don't.
4. Week 8

   Second down week

   • Two 25-minute runs and a 40-minute long run.
   • Add one short set of strides — 4 × 20 seconds fast, walking back between — at the end of one easy run.
   • Strides are the only fast running in this plan, and they're there for form, not fitness.
5. Weeks 9–11

   Race-distance confidence

   • Long runs of 65, 70, then 60 minutes. Somewhere in there you'll cover 10k without ceremony.
   • Keep the easy runs genuinely easy. The temptation to race yourself peaks now.
   • Practise the race morning once: same breakfast, same time, same shoes.
6. Week 12

   Taper and run it

   • One easy 30-minute run, one 20-minute run with two strides, then two rest days.
   • Run the 10k. First 3km deliberately slow, middle 4km steady, last 3km however you feel.
   • Whatever the time is, it's a baseline, not a verdict.