Your training questions, answered by our coaches.

Pick your plan based on the race you've entered, then choose the date you'd like to start. If you set a target time, the plan automatically sets your paces in the right training zones, so you train smart and effectively for your target race.

Yes. Put in your target time for the race distance you've selected. Our beginner plans also recommend a run/walk strategy. There's pace guidance, plus guidance on running to feel, and you can always do your easier runs as run/walk (also known as Jeffing).

Just pick a plan for your target race and tell us your target race time, or a current race time you think is a good predictor. The only time you choose beginner, intermediate or advanced is for your strength work. We always recommend starting strength work at beginner level, then moving up once you feel strong enough for the next routine.

It depends on your training history. If you're starting from scratch, always allow more time:

• 5k: at least 6–8 weeks. Treat it as a target distance to complete rather than a goal-time race, then improve your time from there.
• 10k: once you've done a 5k, step up to 10k. Allow more like 3–4 months.
• Half marathon: from scratch, more like a 6-month progression, building from 5k to 10k to half.

If you already have a good base and are racing these distances, you might only need a 6–8 week block for a target race.

The start date you choose sets your plan length. Pick your target race, tell us when you'd like to start, and the plan is built around the weeks you have until race day.

Choose your start date and the plan is built for the number of weeks until race day. It gets more specific as you go, and we make sure it starts with a build phase.

Yes, absolutely, but build up to it. The plan guides you sensibly towards the distance and progresses steadily to limit injury risk. It's a good idea to step up from other distances first: after a 10k, move up to the half; after a half, move up to the marathon. That's a big step, but our training guides will help you along the way.

The plan advises how many days to run, but it's always flexible. Listen to your body: if you have a niggle or illness, take an extra rest day. If you're progressing well, you can adjust the plan based on how you feel.

Yes. Tell us how many days a week you currently run and the plan adjusts to that, with a progressive element to build your training over time.

Yes. We ask for your preferred long-run day when setting up your plan, but the days are recommendations, so move them around your schedule. One rule: don't put hard days back to back. A hard day should be followed by an easier day or a rest day.

Follow it as well as you can, but no plan is ever followed to the letter. Life gets in the way. Be flexible, and be as diligent as you can where possible. Every plan has some flexibility.

Yes. Match like for like:

• Club easy run: replace one of your plan's easy runs.
• Club intervals, fartlek or hills: replace that week's higher-intensity plan session.

Don't do both the club session and the plan session. Adding sessions overloads you and risks injury.

Every plan shows pace guidance, calculated from your target time and current fitness. Plans also include RPE (rate of perceived exertion) guidance, because we want runners to run to feel and get in tune with their body.

Easy should be exactly that: easy. Conversational means you could hold a conversation with a running buddy. If you run alone, check whether you could speak out loud in full sentences. If you can, you're not demanding too much oxygen, you're still working aerobically and you're very likely in the easy zone. We call this passing the talk test.

We work them out for you. The plan calculates them from your target time and your current fitness (your current time for that distance). Our paces come from our own coaching knowledge and experience in the sport, matching target times to the right training zones.

RPE (rate of perceived exertion) is a 1–10 scale of how hard you're working, where 1 is minimum effort and 10 is maximum:

• 1: walking
• 2–4: easy runs
• 5–6: steady
• 7: tempo
• 8: threshold
• 9–10: close to maximum effort, often called VO2 max

Use all three to "triangulate". Feel comes first; it's the most important and sits at the top of the triangle. Then check heart rate against how you feel, and pace as the final check. If one doesn't match, check the third. If none of them match, something's probably wrong: stop, or check your tech is working properly.

It could be the tech. Chest straps are the most accurate because they measure the heart's electrical signal. Wrist (LED) sensors can be thrown off by moisture, sweat or the watch moving. If the reading is accurate and it's still high, slow down to bring it down. Run/walk is a good way to keep easy runs in the easy zone.

Don't panic. Paces are only a guide. Run to effort and feel, and never force your training to hit the plan's paces. You get fitter running at any pace, as long as you recover from it and adapt to the training load. If you want to reset, change your target pace and the plan gives you new paces to train to.

It depends on your training history, past performances and current training. A recent result (from the last 1–2 months) is a really accurate guide to your fitness. Aim to progress in small steps and avoid always chasing round numbers. For example, after a 25-minute 5k the next step isn't sub-20. It might be 24:30, then sub-24. There are lots of numbers between the big round ones, so don't make jumps that are too big.

Yes. Training builds up over time, and easy running lays the base of the pyramid that everything else, including the speed work in your plan, sits on top of. Running your easy runs in the right zone builds a bigger base, so you get fitter and can run faster, as long as you recover well and build up volume over time.

It's definitely not cheating. It's a very effective method: it keeps your heart rate down so you don't run too fast, and walking puts a different mechanical load on your body than running, which helps reduce injury risk.

How it works: run at easy intensity, then drop to a brisk walk. This stops your heart rate spiking and controls intensity. Plans usually suggest short bouts, such as run 3 minutes, walk 1 minute. It's not interval training: it doesn't mean run fast for 3 minutes. It means run easy for 3, then walk briskly for 1.

Always run tempo to feel, not to pace, though there's pace guidance as a reference. It's about 7–8/10 RPE. Start at the lower end and build, because the effort gets harder the longer you go. It should feel "comfortably uncomfortable". It's often continuous but sometimes split into blocks or reps. Tempo sits between your first lactate turn point (LT1) and your lactate threshold (LT2), which trains that middle zone really well.

Threshold trains close to, or slightly above, your lactate threshold (LT2). You can either run just below LT2 for a good amount of volume to push it up, or run at or just above LT2 to pull it up. It's about 8–9/10 RPE, roughly 85–90% of VO2 max. Don't get bogged down in the numbers, though: run to feel, and if the feel and intensity are right, you're in the right zone.

Intervals (reps) are efforts split up by recovery, either active or static. Splitting them up lets you run a bit faster, and the recovery lets your heart rate drop so you can hit the right intensity on the next one. Recovery depends on the session and is always written as a time or distance. "1 minute walk recovery" is active recovery. "1 minute standing" is static recovery, meaning don't move during it.

Strides are short, controlled, fast efforts. You do them either before a session to prime your body for harder work, or to work on mechanics: stride length, cadence, speed and power. We often use "alactic" strides of under about 8 seconds, so they don't stress the lactic system, with generous recovery. Strides are usually faster than 5k pace because the aim is speed: fast, but never uncontrolled.

Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play": a session where you play with different speeds. It can be structured (set out for you) or unstructured (run to feel for different durations or distances, using whatever's around you).

It's a great way to vary your paces, practise pacing at different intensities and train different systems in the same session. For example, 4 minutes fast and 1 minute slower puts you around threshold for the efforts and easy for the recoveries. That gets you used to both paces, and the easy recoveries train your body to clear lactate.

Exactly what it says: the pace increases over the run. For example, start easy, then move up to steady, then tempo, maybe threshold.

They're great pacing practice. Step up too soon or too fast and you'll pay for it later and be forced to slow down. You want a smooth curve where you get faster throughout. On hilly terrain, run the progression by effort, not set paces. Always use effort, feel and intensity to make sure you're building over the run.

If your plan has hill sessions, they're usually set by time rather than distance, with guidance on how hard each rep should feel and how to recover. Hills build sport-specific strength and endurance. The hill really is nature's gym, building muscular endurance and conditioning. They also add variety and change the mechanical load in your plan.

If your plan includes a long run, it's always set by distance or time. Long runs build muscular endurance, aerobic capacity and durability, which matters more and more as you step up from half to marathon and beyond to ultras. They're also your chance to practise fuelling and try out your race-day kit.

Treadmills are absolutely fine, especially in bad weather or if you don't feel safe outdoors. Set a 0.5–1% incline to mimic outdoor running. You can also do hill sessions on the treadmill: start around 5% incline and build over time, but don't go above 10% for hill sessions.

We recommend a RAMP warm-up:

• Raise: easy aerobic activity to lift your heart rate (easy run or run/walk).
• Activate and Mobilise: running drills or dynamic stretches.
• Potentiate/Prime: strides.

There's a warm-up video and running drills videos in our resource library.

A cool-down settles everything down. It brings your heart rate gradually back towards resting (it won't get all the way there while you're still moving), helps your body clear waste products like lactate, and means you don't stop dead after a hard session.

parkrun is parkrun, and we wouldn't swap your plan sessions for it. If you go, you could use it as a tempo run or a harder training race. Remember parkrun isn't officially a race, so it's up to you whether you race it. An interval session there would be really hard. If you run it hard, swap out one of your harder sessions that week, and don't make it a hard effort every week.

If you enjoy the social side, treat it as an easy run, but stay disciplined at easy intensity. Running with a friend at conversational pace helps.

Stick to the plan as best you can, but life gets in the way and missed sessions are absolutely fine. If you have time in your week and won't overstretch yourself, you can make it up by swapping it into a rest day or easier day.

Don't do intense days back to back unless your plan says so (usually only for ultra runners). Never put a missed session right next to a hard one. Hard sessions should be followed by a rest day or an easier day.

Don't jump ahead to the next week, because it builds on the week you missed. Either repeat the week before the one you missed, or do the missed week now.

After illness, build back gradually rather than jumping into intensity: start with a walk, then an easy run, bank one or two easy runs, then return to harder sessions. You could also replace the next week with a general easy week of 3–4 easy runs to rebuild your base, then go back to the plan.

If you're ill, take a rest day. Being 100% healthy before you train matters more, and hard exercise while ill carries real risks. When you feel better, make your first activity a walk or run/walk. If you think you need to, see a doctor and get checked before returning to activity.

Yes, as long as your plan prescribes or recommends it. Just avoid two intense days back to back. Usually consecutive days are two easier days, or a hard day followed by an easy one.

Not for most runners, unless you've built up to it in your programme. If you have, it's fine, but add easy volume before intensity: two easy runs in a day comes well before two hard ones. Doubling up is really for elite athletes who have maxed out single sessions across a 6–7 day week, need more volume and are comfortable managing it.

People want to prioritise the hard sessions (the "sexy stuff"), but a busy week usually means more stress and less time, so consider just running easy through it. Otherwise, identify the key session for your goal:

• Marathon: the long run. A couple of easy runs plus the long run would be great.
• 5k: one easy run plus one intense session (more specific to your goal), dropping the long run that week.

Look after yourself in busy weeks. Consistency always beats one-off sessions.

Amazing, but stick with the plan for now. If you keep feeling great over two or three weeks, the volume might be a little low. Add an extra easy day first, or add a little volume to your runs.

Feeling great is part of the process, and so is feeling more tired as the plan progresses; that's intentional and fine. When you feel great, make the most of it and bank the adaptations. When you don't, recover well, and you still adapt.

We usually prescribe at least one rest day a week. Some people do run most days, but they might work in 10, 11 or 14-day blocks with a rest day at the end. Rest days are hugely important because that's when you adapt to training. Our growth equation: training stress + rest = adaptation and growth.

No. Like life, we have good days, bad days and OK days, and they're all part of the process. You can't knock every session out of the park, and easy days often feel hard after intense sessions. One bad run doesn't mean you've lost fitness overnight; that's scientifically impossible. If you've been training consistently, it's probably just a run where something didn't click.

If you have several bad runs in a row or feel persistently fatigued, there may be something underlying: see a doctor, contact our coaching team, or see a physio if you think it's injury-related.

It's individual. One run doesn't define your marathon; consistency and the volume you build over time matter much more than any single run. Some people aim for a set distance (often 20 miles). Others prefer "time on feet": for example, someone aiming for a 4-hour marathon might do a 3.5-hour run. If you're on one of our marathon plans, the plan sets your longest run.

There's no evidence that running 20 miles makes your marathon better. One might be in your plan, but training load over time matters more than one isolated long run. You might go above 20 (21–22 miles), run to time, or do several runs around 16–19 miles. Either way, you build the confidence for race day, and the long run gives you the chance to practise and build the muscular conditioning the marathon needs.

Not the whole run. That would mean running marathon pace for almost as long as the marathon itself. Your plan may include blocks of race pace within long runs, but run them to race effort rather than race pace, because race pace feels harder in training than on race day.

On the day you'll have tapered and be fresher, with the atmosphere, crowds and adrenaline, the right kit and shoes, and without your training block's fatigue in your legs.

Practise over time. We call this training the gut. You're practising the mechanics (opening wrappers, eating on the move, getting rid of gel packets) and training your gut to tolerate the carbohydrate you want on race day. Long runs are the best place because they're your most race-specific session. Also practise at different intensities and in different temperatures.

There's no actual wall. People mean slowing down in the second half of the marathon, usually caused by poor pacing. Go off too fast and you burn too much energy. If you also haven't fuelled enough, you run low on energy (not out). Your body then shifts towards burning fat, which is less efficient, so you slow down. The aim is to keep relying on carbohydrate and hold your intensity all the way. To avoid it:

• Pace well and don't go out too fast.
• In the heat, adjust your pacing and slow down a little.
• Fuel well throughout to keep carbohydrate as your main energy source.

RunThrough has plenty of races, and there are race suggestions at the bottom of your plan. A half usually fits well 5–7 weeks out, with some flexibility: 4 weeks is fine, and so are 8–9 weeks.

We don't recommend racing a half just a few weeks before a marathon. That's too much for most runners, and while you may see well-trained runners do it, they recover faster. Leave enough time in between. You'll be in your best half-marathon shape on marathon day, so once you've recovered, why not cash in with a half 6–7 weeks after the marathon?

Around three weeks out, depending on the athlete, and your plan will set it. Your hardest or longest long run usually comes 3–4 weeks out. Then things taper gradually before a full taper about two weeks before the marathon.

Tapers are usually 1, 2 or 3 weeks depending on the person. We recommend two weeks. Volume and intensity drop gradually, then more sharply in race week. The point is to freshen up your legs.

Rather than "tapering", think of it as peaking for race day: you're absorbing all the training you've done, which means more rest than usual, so you arrive fresh and ready for your best race.

Yes, because your training routine has changed. Keep your daily routine as normal as possible. If you'd normally run in the morning, go for a light walk or walk the dog instead, and get out in the fresh air so you don't get too sluggish. Feeling heavy and itchy to go is part of it, and your body is also adapting to the training that came before.

It's your choice. Some people like a shakeout run with a few strides; some do nothing. Stay off your feet as much as you can. Walking round the expo adds up, and at big city marathons, try not to be the tourist doing lots of sightseeing.

A short easy shakeout can help loosen you up after long travel the day before. Keep up your stretching and mobility so you feel loose and supple for race day.