5K

Six weeks you can actually fit in.

A short, sharp cycle built around short VO₂ intervals, strides, and one longer tempo. Designed to move your 5K time meaningfully without demanding a runner's lifestyle.

Join the waiting list See a sample week

Free for 30 days. Then €9.99/month or €69.99/year. Cancel anytime.

Built around your schedule, not the other way around.

Tell TrainPlan which days you can run. It builds the week from what you actually have, not what a generic plan assumes.

Adapts when your training data says it should.

Missed a session? HRV tanked? Heart rate spiked on what was meant to be an easy run? The plan rebuilds the next week accordingly, and tells you exactly what changed.

Speed without the track anxiety.

Interval paces are written in minutes per kilometre and effort, not splits at a 400m oval. You can run every session on the roads around your door and still hit the intensity the plan is asking for.

SAMPLE WEEK

A week from the sharpening phase.

Four running days, one strength session, two honest rest days. Most TrainPlan users train on exactly this pattern. Have more time? The plan adds. Only three days? It adapts to that too.

  1. Monday

    Rest

    Rest

    —

  2. Tuesday

    VO₂

    6 × 600m at 5K pace, 90 s jog recovery

    Zone 5

  3. Wednesday

    Easy

    5 km easy with 4 strides

    Zone 2

  4. Thursday

    Rest

    Rest or mobility

    —

  5. Friday

    Speed

    6 × 200m at mile pace, full recovery

    Zone 6

  6. Saturday

    Strength

    Strength + mobility (35 min)

    —

  7. Sunday

    Tempo

    8 km with 3 km at 10K pace

    Zone 3–4

The plan scales all interval paces to your current fitness — whether your 5K is 17 minutes or 27, the session shape stays the same.

IN THE APP

What the plan looks like in your hand.

Your week, the session it hangs on, and the personal bests it is aimed at.

  • TrainPlan schedule screen showing a training week and a proposed plan change with the reasoning behind it
    Schedule Your week, with the proposed plan change and its reasoning waiting at the top.
  • TrainPlan session detail screen showing warm-up, main set and cool-down with target paces and heart-rate zones
    Session detail Warm-up, main set and cool-down, each with its target pace and zone.
  • TrainPlan progress screen showing personal bests per distance, a weekly training load chart and completion rate
    Progress Personal bests, weekly training load and completion rate over twelve weeks.

SIX WEEKS

Short cycle. Nothing wasted.

  1. Base (week 1)

    One tempo, one easy long run, two-to-three recovery runs. A calibration week before the intensity arrives.

  2. Build (weeks 2–3)

    VO₂ intervals twice a week — mid-length reps and short reps. Strides added after one easy run to keep the neuromuscular system awake.

  3. Sharpen (weeks 4–5)

    Race-pace specificity. Shorter intervals at goal pace, fewer reps, fuller recovery. The plan keeps rehearsing the exact effort race day will demand.

  4. Taper (week 6)

    Volume cut by a third. One sharpener midweek — a handful of fast reps — then rest before race day.

See how adaptation works

Chasing a sub-time.

Sub-20, sub-22, sub-25 — the plan knows the target and builds around it. Interval paces flex to match the effort required.

First 5K under your belt.

You're running a few times a week and ready to race one. The plan builds you to finish strong, then sharpens for a second go at the distance.

Racing the 5K every weekend.

We treat each parkrun as a test event, not a race. The plan reads your weekly result and adjusts the next week's intervals accordingly.

Serious mileage already.

You're putting in 50+ km a week. The plan keeps most of that easy and carves out quality sessions that sharpen the top end.

What the plan reads

Current fitness from a test event or recent activity. HRV trends where your watch reports them. Sleep patterns across weeks, not just last night. Your rating after each session — 'how did that feel?'

What you've got to work with

Gym tier (none, home, commercial). Running shoes and treadmill availability if you share them. Cross-training sessions pick themselves from what you can reach — not what we wish you had.

What we work around

Days you can't run. Preferred session times. Injury or movement exclusions. Other races in the same block. The plan respects all of them without needing a nag.

WATCHES & PLATFORMS

Works with what you already run in.

Sync your runs automatically. TrainPlan reads heart rate, HRV, sleep, and pace to keep every session honest.

Garmin

Runs, heart rate, HRV and sleep, through your phone's health store.

Polar

Runs, heart rate and sleep, through your phone's health store.

Strava

Time, distance and calories from the runs you record in it.
See all integrations

FAQ

5K-specific questions.

Yes. The plan sets interval paces from your current fitness and asks the right number of reps — no more — to get you there in six weeks.

Even effort with a push in the final kilometre. The plan rehearses exactly this shape on long runs and race-pace intervals so race day feels familiar.

Yes, more than usual. A structured plan means your parkrun isn’t the only hard session of the week — and the rest of the week stops being noise.

No. A five-session week hits every stimulus the 5K needs. Doubles are optional for high-volume runners and aren’t prescribed by default.

The plan moves it, not drops it. If two hard sessions land back-to-back because of the shuffle, one is downgraded — it’ll tell you which and why.

READY?

Six weeks. Five kilometres. One sharper you.

Thirty days free. Your first 5K block is ready in under five minutes.

Free for 30 days. Then €9.99/month or €69.99/year. Cancel anytime.