This 8 week plan is specifically designed for people wishing to run their first 5k event in canicross, or for beginners to improve their time. Learn how to train effectively with and without your dog, to balance training and recovery to perform at your best together. The total weekly average volume is around 2-3 hours and covering roughly 20-25km dependant on your pace

It is aimed at beginner- intermediate runners, who can already run up to 45mins (without the dog) and are comfortable with 3 runs per week. You have ideally already run 2k in canicross, but you can also begin as long as you have already had at least a taster and a few runs together.

The plan includes structured workouts both without the dog and with the dog in canicross. There are normally 3 sessions a week, 2 ‘dogless’ and 1 canicross. There is also a recommendation for an easy cross training day each week.

The 8 weeks give you a variety of different types of runs and is aimed for you to have fun, whilst gearing you up towards your first or an improved 5k time in canicross. The final week is lighter and finishing with a race scenario 5k effort.

*Please note that the 'dogless' runs are set up in duration - so you can see the weekly totals in minutes. Then the canicross sessions are built on distance - so you can see the weekly totals in km (total distance per session is only 2-5km, the rest is from dogless warm up and cool downs). Therefore to understand the overall volume of this training plan you need to add the duration AND distance together. As mentioned earlier this is 2-3hours / week and around 20-25km depending on your pace.