Great! You have decided to start running. I am already proud of your decision, and within a few weeks you will be running for 30 minutes straight! Below you will find a training schedule you can follow.
Step 1: Plan your training sessions and rest days
Choose 2 days, with 2 days in between, on which you can definitely go running. Add them to your calendar with the time, so nothing can get in the way. It can help to link them to already fixed (weekly) commitments: during your lunch break, when your children are at their hobby,...
You can choose from:
- Monday + Thursday (+ Saturday?)
- Monday + Friday (+ Wednesday?)
- Tuesday + Friday (+ Sunday?)
- Tuesday + Saturday (+ Thursday?)
- Wednesday + Saturday (+ Monday?)
- Wednesday + Sunday (+ Friday?)
- Thursday + Sunday (+ Tuesday?)
You have now fixed 2 training sessions per week. Neither of these 2 training sessions may be skipped! In the overview above you can see, alongside your 2 fixed training days, another day in brackets. On this day you may do an extra training session. Only do it if you feel good. If you do not feel like running that day, unlike your 2 fixed training days, you do not have to.
It is better to plan too few training sessions than too many. It is more motivating to be able to say at the end of the week that you went running 1 extra time, than to have to cancel one.
Step 2: Follow our training schedule
We have worked out 24 training sessions for you below. The idea is that you start at Training 1 and work through the list.
Did you find a training session too easy? Then skip at most 1 training session (e.g. from Training 6 to Training 8). Keep in mind that you not only need to improve your fitness, but you also need to give your tendons and joints time to keep up. These generally need a little more time, and injuries are the last thing we want.
Did you find a training session too hard? Then repeat the same training session before moving on to the next one. If necessary, you can also go back a training session. Give your body time to adapt.
In the schedule below you will always see the number of minutes you need to run. The number of minutes in brackets you do walking.
We always start and end our training session with 1 minute of walking.
Example:
Training 3: (1) 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 2 (2) 1 (1)
- 1 minute walking
- 1 minute running
- 1 minute walking
- 2 minutes running
- 2 minutes walking
- 3 minutes running
- 3 minutes walking
- 2 minutes running
- 2 minutes walking
- 1 minute running
- 1 minute walking
The training schedule
| Training 1 | (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) |
| Training 2 | (1) 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 (1) 2 (1) |
| Training 3 | (1) 1 (1) 2 (2) 3 (3) 2 (2) 1 (1) |
| Training 4 | (1) 3 (2) 3 (2) 3 (1) |
| Training 5 | (1) 2 (1) 4 (2) 4 (1) 2 (1) |
| Training 6 | (1) 3 (2) 5 (2) 3 (1) |
| Training 7 | (1) 5 (2) 5 (1) |
| Training 8 | (1) 4 (1) 6 (1) 4 (1) |
| Training 9 | (1) 5 (1) 5 (1) 5 (1) |
| Training 10 | (1) 6 (2) 6 (2) 6 (1) |
| Training 11 | (1) 5 (1) 5 (1) 5 (1) 5 (1) |
| Training 12 | (1) 6 (2) 8 (2) 6 (1) |
| Training 13 | (1) 7 (1) 7 (1) 7 (1) |
| Training 14 | (1) 6 (2) 10 (2) 6 (1) |
| Training 15 | (1) 8 (2) 8 (2) 8 (1) |
| Training 16 | (1) 6 (2) 12 (2) 6 (1) |
| Training 17 | (1) 8 (1) 8 (1) 8 (1) |
| Training 18 | (1) 6 (2) 15 (2) 6 (1) |
| Training 19 | (1) 10 (1) 10 (1) 10 (1) |
| Training 20 | (1) 15 (2) 15 (1) |
| Training 21 | (1) 20 (2) 10 (1) |
| Training 22 | (1) 15 (1) 15 (1) |
| Training 23 | (1) 20 (1) 10 (1) |
| Training 24 | (1) 30 (1) |
Bart Vandenbussche is passionate about sport and never shies away from a sporting challenge. He has run several marathons (including sub-3h), is an Iron+Ultra Viking, and currently has the Hyrox bug.
Question or suggestion?
Do you have a question or suggestion? Let us know!
