The ratio of easy to hard is one of the few things research really compares between protocols. The ideal length of an easy run is not — and we say so rather than invent a number.
The long run is the hole in the field
Everyone prescribes one, nobody has compared it in a trial. Your plan builds it from your own longest recent run, the only figure that holds.
Frequency before duration
To build volume back up, adding a short run does more than lengthening the ones you already do.
Start
A template plan for your goal, ready right away.
Four questions, and a plan built automatically based on your level and your number of sessions.
$39one payment
You pay once. Nothing renews.
Four questions: goal, race date, level, sessions per week
Built automatically based on your level and your number of sessions
Up to your race, 20 weeks at most; 8 weeks without a race (up to 15 if you start with walk-run)
Paces from a recent race time, otherwise by perceived effort
Ready as soon as you pay if you ask to start right away
Best for getting started fast with a simple framework, paid once.
Your plan built from your answers and reviewed by a person, with nutrition and race strategy. Automatic analysis of your watch data is coming soon. A subscription with no commitment: monthly, first month free on your first subscription; yearly, paid in one go.
$250a year
or $24.90 a month
Monthly: first month free on your first subscription · no commitment, stop whenever you want
Built from the full questionnaire: your background, your week, your constraints
Reviewed by a person before it reaches you
Messages to adjust a session, and a plan that moves with you
The ones you can repeat, not the ones in a table. Your plan starts from your real volume over the last eight weeks and progresses while watching your longest run.
Do I have to run slowly to improve?
For most of the volume, yes. The split between easy and hard is one of the few points where protocols have been compared with each other, and easy dominates in every one that works.
How long before I see a difference?
Adaptations do not all move at the same speed, and it is that gap that makes patience necessary. Your plan is built on those timescales, not on a round promise.
Can I switch to a race along the way?
Yes. Send us the date and we rebuild the plan around it. It is the most common path, in fact.
Where the figures on this page come from
Every figure on this page points back to the paper it comes from. When a question has no settled answer, the page says so instead of inventing a number.
Seiler S (2010) — What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes?. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance 5(3):276-291. doi:10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276
Rosenblat MA, Watt JA, Arnold JI, Treff G (2025) — Which training intensity distribution intervention will produce the greatest improvements in maximal oxygen uptake and time-trial performance in endurance athletes? A systematic review and network meta-analysis of individual participant data. Sports Medicine 55(3):655-673. doi:10.1007/s40279-024-02149-3
Your race is on the calendar. Your plan should be too.
