XC - Sub 20:00 5K

Plan Length: 12 Weeks

Written by Joey Berriatua, this 3 month plan is for an athlete trying to break the 20:00 mark in the 5k.

The emphasis behind this plan is finding consistency week to week. It is critical for an athlete who is looking to make a jump to string months of consistent training together, and this plan will help give the athlete an idea of what it means to run consistently and how to structure training properly. This plan slowly builds mileage from about 15 miles/week to 30-35 miles/week. The most important aspect of this training plan is implementing a long run once per week, as well as increasing coordination through strides and an aerobic base through workouts twice per week.

This plan is very similar to what Joey did during the summer of his junior year of high school, where he jumped from running a 17:24 5k PR his sophomore year cross country season, to running a 15:55 5k PR his junior cross country season. While the plan is not the exact same plan in terms of mileage and workouts, the overall structure of the plan is very similar, where consistent training, workouts, and long runs allowed Joey to make a big jump in his fitness and abilities.

Sample Week of Training

Below is a week of training from this plan which represents the type of workouts you will be doing.

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