5K Tinman Critical Velocity

About the plan

Twelve weeks built on the central idea of Tom "Tinman" Schwartz, coach of Drew Hunter and one of the most influential names in American training: critical velocity. CV is the pace you could sustain for about half an hour — strong, but far from your limit. Trained in blocks of 3 to 5 minutes with short rest, it develops the aerobic capacity of the intermediate fast-twitch fibers, which are exactly the ones that decide a 5K race, without the recovery cost of a VO2max workout. That is why the CV session appears every week, from start to finish, while the truly hard work only comes in during the final four weeks. The rest of the plan is truly easy volume, strides and a long run — the base on which CV pays off. Five runs per week at the start, six from week five, for 2 to 3 hours per week. For intermediate runners who want a sustainable plan that doesn't leave you in pieces by Thursday. How to read the paces: Tom Schwartz's critical velocity (CV) is the pace you could sustain for about 30 minutes — in practice, close to your 10K pace and a few seconds per kilometer FASTER than classic threshold. The platform has no dedicated zone for it, so the CV sessions appear as @threshold: run them at the upper end of that range, controlled, with a "strong, but not hard" feel. What defines the session is the short rest — it is what keeps the aerobic stimulus high without turning it into a VO2 workout.