Build a free periodized running plan for 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon. Plans follow a four-phase model: base building for aerobic foundation, development for tempo work, sharpening for race-pace intervals and tune-up races, then a taper into race week.
| Race | Level | Total | Base | Development | Sharpening | Taper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5K | Beginner | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 5K | Intermediate | 10 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 5K | Advanced | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 10K | Beginner | 10 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 10K | Intermediate | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 10K | Advanced | 14 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Half Marathon | Beginner | 12 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Half Marathon | Intermediate | 14 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Half Marathon | Advanced | 16 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Marathon | Beginner | 16 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Marathon | Intermediate | 18 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Marathon | Advanced | 20 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
Every plan ends with a race week in addition to the taper weeks shown. Weekly volume starts from your current fitness level and builds with down weeks for recovery; workout paces come from the same VDOT zones as the pace calculator.
Every page on this site has a Markdown mirror at the same path with a .md suffix (for example /calculator.md), and honors an Accept: text/markdown request header on the HTML URL. The calculations here are also available as callable tools through a free public MCP server — no account or API key.