Beyond B210K/Magic 10K Plan Question 🙋‍♂️

[PhoenixRise]

Hi all! 👋

As I near the end of Ju-Ju-‘s Magic 10K Plan (2 runs left!) I’m looking ahead to devising a Bridge to 20K plan for myself.

So, a few questions for the longer distance runners:

Should I be aiming to only increase my distance by an additional 5K over 8 weeks like with the Magic 10K Plan? So hitting 20K in 16 weeks?

Or - would it be sensible for me to attempt an additional 1K each week over a 10 week period?

I have the two shorter runs in mind for Run 1 & Run 2 each week with the last run being the 1K add on ....

Something like:

Week 1: 4K 5K 11k

Week 2: 4K 5K 12K

And so on to 20K for the 10 week version.

I may give myself a well deserved full weeks of rest once I’ve completed this week and before I start my 20K journey 🧘‍♂️

Answers on a postcard (or below 🤭)

[Hidden]

Wotcha!

Firstly, as you know I've been reading lots of your posts. You can take your running wherever you want!

Secondly, I'm not an advocate of 1km incremental build ups if I'm honest. I only work in miles so I'd see how you feel on longer ones and go with this. If you go 7/8m a few times then go 10 and stabilise a bit then stretch to 11 or 12 then booooooooom HM! It's important to stabilise every few weeks then build more.

You're very quick so this will undoubtedly help you on longer runs. The only thing I recommend is to keep consistent and slow down the long runs so they are super comfy. Once you go long, you can take it wherever you need. Exciting times ahead 😃

More experienced runners will hopefully give you their opinion. There's loads of views and this is mine.

[Jennyhare]

The general view is that you should be increasing your volume of running by no more than 10% per week.

[Jools2020 Graduate10]

I would prefer the more flexible approach, like GTFC is suggesting. Longer, much slower runs. Running that slowly gives you time to listen to your body and not go too far. (Mostly!) I didn’t do the magic plan, I just increased the time I spent running on my long runs as I wanted to. I stuck at 10K for about 3 weeks before pushing on. I really like that distance anyway. Then increased to 12K. I intended to stick there a while, but the next long run I was feeling really good so carried on for 10 miles. It was super slow (2.5 hours). Now I’ve gone back to 10K for a while and will extend it when I’m ready. The most important thing for me is that I’m enjoying my runs and don’t feel under pressure.

[Hidden]

You've kinda sorted your own plan, looking at it the increases are safe and sensible 👍

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

That’s exactly what I did. But I stopped at 10 miles, which was definitely far enough for me.

If you get any niggles such as ITB, just take things slower for a week or so.

[a_in_gsr Graduate10]

Personally I'd also increase your shorter runs a bit - i.e. a short run being 6/7k instead of 4/5. I found this really helped me as I am building up to 10 miles. Also speed-work could be fun and a bit of a change - but keep the hard running hard and the easy running (most of it!) super easy.

For the long runs: yes 1k a week is easily doable, but i think I prefer the plan of increasing by however much you feel like (within reason!), but then once a month taking a recovery week.

For increasing you long runs, you could also start doing timed long runs. For me, after 1h, I'm really just adding 10 /1 15 minutes to my long run each week. i.e. I think my next run I'll add 10 minutes to last week - 1h20 to 1h30.

[PurpleFish59 Graduate10]

Having just trained and run a half marathon I think your plan is very similar to most training plans I came across, however they generally recommend a cut back week every 2-3 weeks. So skip the long run and replace it with a shorter run on those weeks. I personally found the cutback weeks very valuable in keeping me fresh and motivated. As a result most are therefore doing what you are planning but over 12-16 weeks rather than 10.

Like others have said though, it’s really about listening to your body as what worked for me might not be the same for you. Good luck on your journey!

[PhoenixRise Graduate10]

Thanks everyone 🙏🏻 Plenty food for thought 💭 My plans don’t exceed the general view of 10% so I may readjust/increase the weekly increase.