Welcome to your 10km training plan and thank you for trusting this plan to help you reach your goals!

You may have some base level of fitness. But this plan does not require you to have done any significant level of running beforehand. The first few weeks will be focused on building up your running base.

This plan is a 3 run per week running plan. It also programmes in one strength session and one yoga/stretching session per week. These are highly recommended to help minimise the risk of injuries.

What makes this plan different from others is that is is designed to take your menstrual cycle into account. It allows you to pick the training that works best for you, given the stage in your cycle you are at. So it is important that you track your cycle! Otherwise you'll just be guessing.

Why working with your cycle matters?
Even though you can't control when your event will fall. You can control how you train for it. Training to get the best out of you means taking into account how you feel and how your body responds at different stages. This is not a weakness!

By doing so you'll push hard when you are best able to respond to the stress of training, and recover more when you need to. Recovery and adapting to the training stress is how you'll get stronger and fitter and reach your goals.

During your follicular phase, your hormones are low. You may handle faster and more intense sessions better. As you move into the luteal phase your hormones rise. This is when you may need more recovery time so the intensity of your sessions will drop. The week before your period is also the perfect time for your "rest" week.

But you are the best judge of what is happening to your body. So listen to it and adapt the programme as you need to.