• For Runners with some experience of training


• For races from 20 to 25km with 800 to 1200m of climb


• Designed for those who want to train with a heartrate monitor


• Introductory pack included with the plan


• Longest training session is 3.5 hours


• Most training hours in one week is 8 hours

This is an intermediate programme

You do need to have some running experience for this programme, a minimum base fitness level would be running regularly 3 times per week including one long run of 90 minutes so if you can do this you are ready to start the programme. It is designed to progress you from this base to running 5 times per week.

There are 5 training sessions prescribed for each week, so it requires some weekly commitments with long sessions at the weekend.

Training days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, but so long as you stick to the same order of sessions and rest days, taking Tuesday as day 1, you could do the sessions on different days.

The plan has your target race on Sunday, but it could be a Saturday race.

It is based on heartrate zones, but can be adapted for those who do not have a heartrate monitor.

If you are not sure about training zones and would like to know more before you buy you can check out this blog created by John: What does a heart rate monitor tell you?

• Weeks 1-12 work on your base fitness and increase your endurance.


• Weeks 12 - 18 work on up-hill running strength and some flat speed.


• Weeks 21 - 24 include a good taper.

It is based on 3 week cycles (2 weeks hard and one week easy).