Calcz

Training Plan Generator

Enter your race, the date, and how much you run now, and this builds a periodized week-by-week plan that rises, backs off to let you absorb the work, peaks, then tapers so you arrive fresh. It is built on the same principles coaches use, not a random mileage ladder.

How to use it

  1. Pick your race distance and the date you are racing.
  2. Enter roughly how far you run in a typical week right now, and how many days a week you can run.
  3. Set your current level. Changing it sets a sensible starting weekly distance, which you can override.
  4. Open the Plan tab to see every week: its phase, target volume, long run, and key sessions.

If you have not set a future date yet, the tool shows a 12-week sample so you can explore.

The principles behind the plan

  • Periodization. Training is split into phases. A base phase builds aerobic fitness, a build phase adds harder work, a peak phase sharpens you, and a taper sheds fatigue. Each phase has a job.
  • The 10 percent guideline. Weekly volume rises gradually, on the order of 10 percent, so your body adapts instead of breaking down.
  • Cutback weeks. Every fourth week steps volume back so you can absorb the training and avoid the slow slide into overtraining.
  • 80/20 easy to hard. Most running is easy, with about one in five sessions being quality (tempo or intervals) once you reach the build and peak phases. Easy days are what make the hard days possible.
  • Long run cap. The long run is kept to roughly a third of weekly volume so a single run does not dominate and wreck your recovery.
  • The taper. In the final two to three weeks, volume drops by around 40 to 60 percent while a little intensity stays in. Tapering done right adds fitness on race day rather than taking it away.

Reading your plan

Each row is a week. The phase tells you what that block is for. Volume is the week's total running; the long run is your single longest effort; sessions summarize the rest. Cutback weeks are shaded and labelled, and the final weeks taper down to the start line.

This is a smart, principled starting template. Adjust it around injury, travel, and life. Consistency over weeks matters far more than nailing any single day.

Sources

  • Periodization and training phases: Tudor O. Bompa and G. Gregory Haff, "Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training."
  • Easy/hard distribution (polarized training): Stephen Seiler's research on intensity distribution in endurance athletes; Matt Fitzgerald, "80/20 Running."
  • Tapering: Inigo Mujika and Sabino Padilla, "Scientific bases for precompetition tapering strategies," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1249/01.MSS.0000074448.73931.11