10K in 8 Weeks – 3 Days per Week
Magic Training
About the plan
An 8-week plan for people who run about 9 miles (15 km) per week, can finish a 10K and want to improve their time with three workouts a week. There are three runs a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday — and all three count: one interval session, one threshold workout and the long run. There is no filler run, because someone with only three days cannot afford to waste one. The other four days are rest or the sport you already do. Tuesday's repeats progress from 1 minute up to 3-minute blocks; Thursday is threshold, which grows from 10 to 18 accumulated minutes and becomes a race-pace time trial in week 7; Sunday is the long run, from 40 to 58 minutes. 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
- 3
- Weekly volume
- 1h 35m → 2h 12m
- Longest run
- 58 min
Week 1 starts at 1h 35m and volume builds to 2h 12m in week 6, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 3 runs, and the longest session reaches 58 min (Long, week 6).
Over the final 2 weeks volume drops from 2h 12m to 39 min so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (6.2 mi) falls on Sunday of week 8; the week holds 39 min of running before it.
There is 1 tune-up race on the way to the goal race.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Interval7 sessions across 7 weeks
- Long7 sessions across 7 weeks
- Threshold7 sessions across 7 weeks
- Repetition1 session across 1 week
Who it's for
Intermediate level. To start safely you should already be running about 1h 35m per week and be comfortable with a 40 min session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
1h 35m this week
30 min
25 min
40 min
Week 6 — the heaviest of the plan
2h 12m this week
35 min
39 min
58 min
Plan Structure
8 weeks · 24 workouts · 32 rest days
See the full plan
Create your account to unlock every week, sync with your watch and get personalized paces.