Advanced 10K – 4 Days per Week
Magic Training
About the plan
A 12-week plan for advanced runners who want to improve their 10K while training four days a week. There are four runs a week: two quality sessions, a short recovery run that bridges them, and the long run. The other three days are complete rest. The difference from traditional advanced plans is not intensity — the quality sessions are the same — but base volume, which stays in the range that fits someone who trains before work. Intervals progress from 800 m up to 2 km blocks and threshold work goes from 4 km continuous to 7 km. The long run reaches 11 miles (18 km), and Wednesday's recovery run exists to speed recovery between the two hard sessions, not to add mileage. Weeks 4 and 8 are recovery weeks and week 12 ends at the race. All paces come from your times in the Magic Calculator; adjust your reference time in your profile before starting so threshold, interval and race paces are calibrated.
The plan in numbers
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Runs per week
- 4
- Weekly volume
- 25 mi → 34 mi
- Longest run
- 11 mi
Week 1 starts at 25 mi and volume builds to 34 mi in week 9, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 4 runs, and the longest session reaches 11 mi (Long, week 7).
Over the final 3 weeks volume drops from 34 mi to 14 mi so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (6.2 mi) falls on Sunday of week 12; the week holds 14 mi 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:
- Interval11 sessions across 11 weeks
- Long11 sessions across 11 weeks
- Threshold11 sessions across 11 weeks
- Repetition1 session across 1 week
Who it's for
Advanced level. To start safely you should already be running about 25 mi per week and be comfortable with a 8.7 mi session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
25 mi this week
6.8 mi
4.3 mi
5.6 mi
8.7 mi
Week 9 — the heaviest of the plan
34 mi this week
8.9 mi
6.2 mi
7.5 mi
11 mi
Plan Structure
12 weeks · 48 workouts · 36 rest days
See the full plan
Create your account to unlock every week, sync with your watch and get personalized paces.