Easy 5K Treadmill Training Plan 

By Rick Morris

Statistics don’t lie. Millions of people can’t be wrong. Nearly eight million recreational athletes competed in this sport in 2004. The amount of people participating in this activity has been steadily expanding for over a decade and the numbers continue to grow larger each year. I am talking about the sport of competitive running, or more specifically, road racing.

Competitive running is the most pure sport available to both recreational and professional athletes. OK, I admit it. I am a running coach by trade and I have a built in bias. But, the facts back up my opinion. Your performance in a road race depends only upon you, your level of fitness, your determination and your training program. There are no team mates to rely upon. There is no expensive or specialized equipment to buy or use. There is no luck or bounces of the ball involved. It is just you against the clock, the course and the other runners. I believe that the “pureness” of the sport is part of the reason for the continued rise in popularity of road racing, but it is not the only reason.

Why run a road race

There are many reasons why so many people, from new recreational runners to world class athletes continue to make road racing one of the most popular forms of exercise and competition available. Here are just a few examples:

• Road races are available year round in all areas of the country. In larger towns and cities, there are races available nearly every week during the spring, summer and fall seasons. Even during the cold, winter season you can usually find at least one event per month.

• Road racing is the only sport where you can compete side by side with the world’s best athletes. In most races, you are running the same course, at the same time, as the sports elite competitors. In what other sport can you line up with the world’s top athletes? There is no other sport or activity available where you can brag to your friends that you competed with the sports top champions!

• You will have the opportunity to win awards and prizes. Nearly all road races present awards to the top three finishers in a number of different age groups. You will be competing against other runners sorted by age and gender. This equalizes the field so that you are always competing against runners of your same potential ability.

• You don’t need any specialized equipment or training facilities. All you need is a good pair of running shoes and the desire to succeed.

• Competitive distance runners are among fittest athletes on the planet. The training required to compete in road racing will get you into the best shape of your life. You will reach higher levels of cardiovascular fitness, mental toughness and functional strength than you have ever attained. You will lose weight and maintain a healthy weight.

• You will meet new people and make many new friends. Road races are not just for competition. They are also social events. Runners are, for the most part, a very friendly and healthy group. If you compete in local races on a regular basis, you will see the same runners over and over at each race. New friendships will certainly follow. Most of the road races, especially the larger ones, have both pre and post race activities such as parties and awards ceremonies. There are also many running clubs that you may join. These clubs will have weekly workouts and frequent social functions.

• Competing in road races will provide you with motivation in the form of both short and long term goals. A short term goal may be to compete in your first 5K race or improve your 5K time. A long-term goal may be to complete a marathon. Having a goal or race to look forward to, and train for, will motivate you to make time for your daily workouts.

Train for a 5K

Road races range in distances from 1 mile to a full marathon. The most popular distances are 5 kilometers (3.1 miles), 5 miles, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), half marathon (13.1 miles) and marathon (26.2 miles). Of all of the possible road race distances, the 5K is far and away the most popular race. Data from the Road Racing Information Center shows that over 3 million of the nearly 8 million road race participants in 2004 competed in the 5K distance. 10K races came in a distant second with just over 1 million entrants.

Why is the 5 kilometer distance so popular? The 5K distance is long enough to provide a challenge to even the most experienced runner, while still short enough for beginning runners to train for and complete. It is also the most common race distance. You will have no problems finding a local 5K race during the racing season.

The following is a generic 5K training program that will be appropriate for most runners. This program has the prerequisite of being able to run at least 2 miles without stopping. If you can’t currently run 2 miles – No worries! I have also included a beginning runner program that will get you from couch potato to 2 miles in just 8 weeks. After graduating from the beginning program, you will be ready for the 5K training program. If you are currently running but cannot run 2 miles, start the beginning program at your current level.

5K Training on the Treadmill

Other runners often ask me why I recommend doing some training on the treadmill rather than performing all workouts outside. Well - picture this: Its pitch black outside. The wind is howling, the mercury in your thermometer is huddled at the bottom of the scale and the snow looks like Mount Everest piling up on the streets. Does that sound like good running conditions? Unless you are about 400 meters short of a full mile, you are going to stay huddled in front of your fireplace. In situations like that, a treadmill is the perfect answer. You can perform any of your training runs in the safety and comfort of your own home or gym. But this is not the only reason to train on a treadmill. Used properly a treadmill can be an invaluable part of your training program. Here are just a few of the many advantages of treadmill training.

• Safety – As suggested by the frigid situation above, treadmill training can be a much safer alternative to outdoor running. Unsafe conditions include: extreme cold or heat, nighttime conditions, heavy traffic conditions, icy or snow packed streets, periods of high air pollution and severe storms or winds. Many women feel more secure doing their training at home on a treadmill.

• Convenience – What can be easier than lacing up your shoes and hopping on your treadmill? You can run whenever you feel like it. If your day has not allowed you the time to fit in your training run, you can just step onto your treadmill and do a couple of miles.

• Motivation – It is easy to make excuses for not running. Bad weather, lack of time or work commitments are all good excuses, right? Wrong – with that treadmill waiting for you, all excuses disappear.

• Work and Personal Commitments – Do you have a phone call you cannot miss? Just put your cordless phone next to the treadmill. Do you need to keep on eye on the baby? Put a crib in view of your treadmill.

• Hill Training – Many of us live in areas that have no hills. So, what do you do for hill training? The answer is simply - get on your treadmill. Most treadmills will elevate from 1 to 15 percent. That will closely mimic nearly any outside hill trail. Even in areas that have a lot of hills, the choices of distance and elevation may be limited. Do your hill training on the treadmill and you will have an almost unlimited variety of possible hill workouts.

• Speed Workouts – It can be difficult to determine the exact speed at which you are performing your speed workouts. Treadmills make this easy. Once your treadmill is properly adjusted for correct speed, you can perform your speed workouts with precision.

• Consistent Pace – Most training programs will include workouts that should be performed at a consistent pace. Most of us will subconsciously slow down when we start to become fatigued. If you do these runs on a treadmill you cannot slow down unless you purposely slow down the machine. This will improve the quality and results of your workouts.

• Forgiving Surface – Many treadmills have a built in shock absorption system. This system reduces the forces placed on the foot, hips, knee and back. This can result in a decrease in injuries and nagging soreness or pain that results from the impact of running on harder surfaces.

• Long Runs – Many runners enjoy their 2 or 3 hour long runs. But let’s face it. It can become very tedious. Place a television and VCR in front of your treadmill. Pick your favorite TV show or movie. It makes the time fly by. I like to do my long runs on Sunday, so I watch a football game during the fall and winter. The 3-hour games are a perfect length for my long runs.

• Great for Beginners – Most new runners start out by walking. A treadmill is a great tool for beginning runners. They can start out with walking and gradually add in short running repeats. The safety, convenience, and information provided by the display, such as speed, calories burned and distance traveled are all great motivation tools for beginners.

• Programmed Workouts – Many treadmills have preprogrammed workout that are designed for anything from weight loss to 10K races. This makes it easy for runners that are not interested in designing their own program. For those that do want to design their own workouts, many treadmills have the ability to store custom workouts. You just manually adjust the treadmill during your run. The treadmill will “remember” the workout. Next time you just start running and let the treadmill make all of the adjustments, just like you are running on a trail.

Easy 8-Week Treadmill Build Up Schedule

This is an eight week program that is designed for beginning runners. After completing this program you will be able to run 2 miles and will be prepared to begin the 6 week 5K training program. The design of this program assumes that you are a healthy individual with no medical or physical conditions that would limit your participation in an exercise program. You should consult with your doctor before beginning any exercise program. This 8-week beginners program is designed for individuals with little or no background in running. The workout starts out with only walking and gradually advances to walk/run workouts and finally to all running. If you feel you are a bit more advanced and would like to start with some running right away, choose your appropriate point in the program to start. Just remember not to start out too quickly. The walk/jog workouts used in this program use a sequence of walking and jogging intervals. Follow the suggested pattern for the duration of each workout. Most of the workouts in this program are approximately 30 minutes in length. For some workouts, the sequence of jog/walk times will not add up to exactly 30 minutes. Complete enough of the jog/walk intervals to add up to at least 30 minutes. If your workout goes longer than 30 minutes, that is OK. Set your treadmill elevation at 1 percent or level 1 for all of your workouts. This will make your treadmill workouts more equal to level outside running.

Week 1

Monday – Walk for 20 minutes at a comfortable pace. Since this is your first workout, take it nice and easy. Walk at a pace that gets your heart rate up and makes you breath heavier than normal, but you should not be out of breath.

Tuesday – Walk for 30 minutes at a comfortable pace.

Wednesday – Walk for 35 minutes at a comfortable pace.

Thursday – Walk/Jog for 33 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and then jog for 30 seconds. Follow that sequence for the entire workout. This is your first taste of running. Do not run for more than 30 seconds at a time. Run at a pace that is fairly comfortable.

Friday – Rest. Let your body recover from its first encounter with running.

Saturday – Walk/Jog for 30 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 1 minute. Keep your pace comfortable.

Sunday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 1 minute.

Week 2

Monday – Rest. Every Monday is a rest day in this program.

Tuesday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 1 minute. Keep the pace fairly comfortable.

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – Walk/Jog for 30 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 1 minute.

Friday – Rest

Saturday – Walk/Jog for 28 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 2 minutes.

Sunday – Walk/Jog for 35 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 2 minutes.

Week 3

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Walk/Jog for 24 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 3 minutes. Keep the pace nice and easy.

Wednesday – Walk/Jog for 35 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 2 minutes.

Thursday – Walk/Jog for 32 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 3 minutes.

Friday – Rest.

Saturday – Walk/Jog for 27 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 4 minutes.

Sunday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 4 minutes.

Week 4

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Walk for 30 minutes. You eliminate the running portion for this workout because you have made a lot of increases in the last two weeks. This will give your body a little more rest this week.

Wednesday – Walk/Jog for 30 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 5 minutes. You are now jogging as much as you are walking. Remember to keep the pace fairly comfortable.

Thursday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 5 minutes and jog for 4 minutes. You back off a bit today to recover from yesterday’s harder workout.

Friday – Rest

Saturday – Today you will start to decrease the distance of your walking intervals. Walk/Jog for 27 minutes. Walk for 4 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Sunday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 4 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Week 5

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Walk/Jog for 32 minutes. You will make another decrease in your walking interval today. Walk for 3 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Wednesday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 4 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Thursday – Walk/Jog for 32 minutes. Walk for 3 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Friday – Rest or cross train.

Saturday – Walk/Jog for 28 minutes. Decrease your walking interval to 2 minutes. Walk for 2 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Sunday – Walk/Jog for 35 minutes. Walk for 2 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Week 6

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Walk/Jog for 30 minutes. Decrease your walking interval to 1 minute. Walk for 1 minute and jog for 5 minutes. If at any time you feel you are struggling, back off to the prior week or to a point at which you feel more comfortable. Remember, however, that you must push yourself a bit to make improvements.

Wednesday – Walk/Jog for 35 minutes. Walk for 2 minutes and jog for 5 minutes.

Thursday – Walk/Jog for 36 minutes. Walk for 1 minute and jog for 5 minutes.

Friday – Rest

Saturday - Walk/Jog for 33 minutes. Today, you will decrease your walking interval to 30 seconds. Walk for 30 seconds and jog for 5 minutes.

Sunday – Walk/Jog for 42 minutes. Walk for 1 minute and jog for 5 minutes.

Week 7

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Today you are going to try something different. Warm up with vigorous walking for 10 minutes and then jog 2 x 1 mile repeats. To perform this workout, jog one mile and then walk for 5 minutes. Then jog another mile. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Wednesday - Walk/Jog for 33 minutes. Walk for 30 seconds and jog for 5 minutes.

Thursday - You will extend the distance of your workout today. After a 10-minute warm up, jog for 1.25 miles. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Warm up for 10 minutes. Jog 2 x 1 mile repeats. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Sunday - You will extend your workout again today. Warm up by walking for 10 minutes. Jog for 1.5 miles. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Week 8

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Warm up by walking for 10 minutes. Jog 2 x 1 mile repeats. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Wednesday – Walk/Jog for 33 minutes. Walk for 30 seconds and jog for 5 minutes.

Thursday - Warm up by walking for 10 minutes. Jog for 1.75 miles. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Warm up with 10 minutes of walking. Jog for 2 miles. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Sunday - Warm up for 10 minutes. Jog for 2.25 miles. Cool down with 10 minutes of walking.

Great, you've done it. You are now able to run comfortably for 2 miles.

5K Treadmill Training Schedule

This is a 6-week program that is designed to prepare you to run a local 5K race at a strong pace. Before beginning this program, you should be able to run at least 2 miles without stopping. If you are not currently up to that level, slowly build up to running two miles using the beginners program. This program uses a combination of easy runs and harder paced interval training. Interval training is a workout that uses short, hard paced runs followed by easier paced running for recovery. These short intervals are repeated several times. For example, if your workout calls for 4 x ¼ mile repeats at a hard pace with ¼ mile easy jog between the repeats, you would run ¼ mile at a pace that feels hard, then slow down to an easy pace for ¼ mile to recover. In this case you would repeat this sequence four times. Set your treadmill elevation at 1% or level 1 for all workouts. This will make your treadmill workouts equal to running outside on level ground.

While you can successfully train for a 5K using only treadmill workouts, I would suggest trying to do some training outside on the road or trails. Adjusting the incline of your treadmill to 1% will make the effort of treadmill running fairly close to that of free range running, but there are still differences. There are differences between the smooth treadmill belt and the more uneven outdoor surfaces. There are mechanical differences between running in place on a moving belt and propelling yourself along a trail. Muscles are used differently and foot strikes are different. So, you can do all these on the treadmill, but I will include some weekly recommendations for outside running.

Week 1

Try to do one of these runs outside on the road or trail.

Monday – Run 2 miles at an easy pace.

Tuesday – Run 2.25 miles at an easy pace.

Wednesday – Warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging. Run 3 x ½ mile repeats at a pace that feels moderately hard. Jog easily for ¼ mile between repeats. Cool down with ½ mile at an easy pace.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Run 2 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Run 2.5 miles at an easy pace.

Week 2

One of these workouts on the road will help your muscles and body adjust to outside running.

Monday – Rest. This program uses Monday as a rest day, because Sunday is your longest run of the week. You can adjust this to meet your needs, but take off the day after your longest weekly run.

Tuesday – Run 2.5 miles at an easy pace.

Wednesday – Warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging. Run 4 x ½ mile repeats at a pace that feels moderately hard. Jog easily for ¼ mile between repeats. Cool down with ½ mile at an easy pace.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Run 2.75 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Run 3 miles at an easy pace.

Week 3

Either Tuesdays or Fridays run would be a good choice for outside running.

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Run 2.5 miles at an easy pace.

Wednesday – Warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging. Run 6 x ¼ mile repeats at a hard pace. Run at an easy pace for ¼ mile between the repeats. Cool down with ½ miles at an easy pace.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Run 2.75 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Run 3.25 miles at an easy pace. You make another increase in mileage here. You are now running more than the 5K distance at an easy pace.

Week 4

If you could do your long run outside this week it would do wonders for your outside running ability.

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Run 3 miles at an easy pace.

Wednesday – Warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging. Run 5 x ½ mile repeats at a moderately hard pace. Run at an easy pace for ¼ mile between the repeats. Cool down with ½ mile of easy running.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Run 3.5 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Run 4 miles at an easy pace.

Week 5

I would like to see you do two of these runs outside if possible. At least try to get one free range workout in.

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Run 3 miles at an easy pace.

Wednesday – Warm up and run 8 X ¼ mile repeats at a hard pace. Run at an easy pace for ¼ mile between the repeats. Cool down with ½ mile of easy running.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Run 3 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Run 4.5 miles at an easy pace. This is the final mileage increase in this program. You are now running more than a mile further than the 5K distance. This will give you the endurance to easily complete the 5K race and will increase your confidence.

Week 6

You can do all of these on the treadmill or feel free to do one or more outside. It's your choice.

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Run 3 miles at an easy pace.

Wednesday – Warm up with 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging. Run 3 x 1 mile repeats at a moderately hard pace. Recover between each repeat with ¼ mile at an easy pace. Cool down with ½ mile of easy running.

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Run 2 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday – Run 1 mile at an easy pace.

Sunday – Race Day. Have Fun!!

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