10K in 8 Weeks – Beginner
Magic Training
About the plan
An 8-week plan for people who can already run 5K without stopping and want to finish a 10K safely. It has four runs a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, with three rest days — often enough to progress and spaced out enough for the body to cope. Wednesday's quality session alternates between short repeats, which teach you to run faster without struggling, and threshold blocks, which teach you to hold a pace. The Sunday long run grows from 45 to 65 minutes and builds the endurance the race demands. Week 4 is a recovery week, week 7 sharpens, and week 8 ends at the 10K. Paces come from your times in the Magic Calculator; update your reference time in your profile before starting so threshold, interval and race paces are calibrated.
The plan in numbers
- Duration
- 8 weeks
- Runs per week
- 4
- Weekly volume
- 2h 16m → 2h 53m
- Longest run
- 1h 5m
Week 1 starts at 2h 16m and volume builds to 2h 53m in week 6, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 4 runs, and the longest session reaches 1h 5m (Long, week 6).
Over the final 2 weeks volume drops from 2h 53m to 1h 13m so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (6.2 mi) falls on Sunday of week 8; the week holds 1h 13m of running before it.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Long7 sessions across 7 weeks
- Interval4 sessions across 4 weeks
- Threshold4 sessions across 4 weeks
Who it's for
Beginner level. To start safely you should already be running about 2h 16m per week and be comfortable with a 45 min session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
2h 16m this week
30 min
36 min
25 min
45 min
Week 6 — the heaviest of the plan
2h 53m this week
40 min
33 min
35 min
1h 5m
Plan Structure
8 weeks · 32 workouts · 24 rest days
See the full plan
Create your account to unlock every week, sync with your watch and get personalized paces.