I am always recommending the couch to 5k (C25K) training plan to friends and family as a great way to get into running. The plan set out in a way that reduces injury risk while building fitness gradually. I want more people to experience the joy of running. It only becomes apparent after building some fitness. Then you will reach a point where running becomes playful movement rather than torture. The internet is full of variations of C25K plans but many places ask for money or convoluted sign ups to access the plan.
In this post I am going to share with you the original C25K plan for free*. I will show you how to set up the plan so you have structured workouts on your fitness watch and a fulfilling way to track your progress.
*This setup utilises Intervals.icu which is free to use but I recommend paying if you like the service
The Couch to 5k Training Plan
The original Couch to 5k Training Plan was developed by Josh Clark in 1996. It is a 9 week plan that builds you up from a sedentary life to being capable of running a continuous 5k. Ever since it’s inception this plan has helped millions of people get into running.
This is the summary from Josh Clark:
“It all starts with being gentle to yourself. The first week of Couch to 5K asks you to jog for just a minute at a time, an achievable victory for most of us right out of the gate. The challenges gradually increase, but in increments that are always within reach. In the process, one discovers that there’s more inside them than they realized.
Nearly all of us can run if we want to; we just have to start by walking or jogging. Speed, distance, frequency—those are all beside the point. The animating notion behind Couch to 5K is that anyone who laces up their shoes and gets moving earns the right to be called “runner”—and to enjoy the benefits in mind, body, and even self-image of finishing a run or crossing a finish line. Recognizing yourself as a runner—giving yourself permission to do this thing—is half the trick of actually doing it.”
Josh Clark 2018
The Training Plan
The training plan consists of three workouts per week for a duration of nine weeks. I recommend spacing out workouts with at least one rest day between. You will see in the plan I setup Monday, Wednesday and Saturday are workout days. You can play around with these days as you please to suit your schedule.
The workouts consist of run / walk intervals of varying times. The intervals gradually working up to full time running. Workouts are time based, there is no point getting concerned with distance.
Below is a table that outlines the whole plan. I have converted this into a training plan in Intervals.icu. Using this setup you get structured workouts automatically synced to your fitness device. Continue reading and I will tell you how to set it up for free.
| Week | Workout 1 | Workout 2 | Workout 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. | Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. | Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. |
| 2 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. | Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. | Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. |
| 3 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: – Jog 90 Seconds – Walk 90 Seconds – Jog 3 Minutes – Walk 3 Minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: – Jog 90 Seconds – Walk 90 Seconds – Jog 3 Minutes – Walk 3 Minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following: – Jog 90 Seconds – Walk 90 Seconds – Jog 3 Minutes – Walk 3 Minutes |
| 4 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 3 minutes – Walk 90 seconds – Jog 5 minutes – Walk 2.5 minutes – Jog 3 minutes – Walk 90 seconds – Jog 5 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 3 minutes – Walk 90 seconds – Jog 5 minutes – Walk 2.5 minutes – Jog 3 minutes – Walk 90 seconds – Jog 5 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 3 minutes – Walk 90 seconds – Jog 5 minutes – Walk 2.5 minutes – Jog 3 minutes – Walk 90 seconds – Jog 5 minutes |
| 5 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 5 minutes – Walk 3 minutes – Jog 5 minutes – Walk 3 minutes – Jog 5 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 8 minutes – Walk 5 minutes – Jog 8 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog for 20 minutes with no walking. |
| 6 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 5 minutes – Walk 3 minutes – Jog 8 minutes – Walk 3 minutes – Jog 5 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then: – Jog 10 minutes – Walk 3 minutes – Jog 10 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 25 minutes with no walking. |
| 7 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 25 minutes. | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 25 minutes. | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 25 minutes. |
| 8 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 28 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 28 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 28 minutes |
| 9 | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 30 minutes | Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 30 minutes | The final workout! Congratulations! Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 30 minutes |
Getting Started with the Plan
The training plan is programmed on Intervals.icu. It’s an awesome website for planning and tracking training data. Intervals.icu is able to push structured workouts directly to compatible fitness trackers. Structured workouts are easy to follow, your watch will keep track of all of the walk / run intervals. After an activity is recorded, the data is uploaded to Intervals.icu where you can track your progress and fitness.
The figure below shows the flow of information. If you have a compatible device the process is super simple.
Compatible Devices
The table below shows device compatibility with the Intervals.icu training plan. Don’t be put off if your device isn’t compatible. Using a phone with Strava and an interval timer app you can still follow the plan. Here are the definitions of the terms:
- Planned Workout Upload: Structured workout can be automatically pushed to your fitness device on the day that they are planned
- Download Activities: The activity file can be automatically downloaded back into Intervals.icu upon completion to track progress
| Device | Planned Workout Upload | Download Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Garmin | ✅ | ✅ |
| Coros | ✅ | ✅ |
| Suunto | ✅ | ✅ |
| Wahoo | ✅ | ✅ |
| Apple Watch | ✅ (with Watchletic) | ✅ (with Strava) |
| Other devices | ❌ (manually setup or use timer app) | ✅ (with Strava) |
Getting the Plan on Intervals.icu
To gain access to the training plan you must first setup an Intervals.icu account.
After you fill in the initial sign up screen you are asked to connect to your device / service. You can skip this step if you are not sure how you want to configure your account.
Once you have set up your account you will have a blank calendar view. If you linked to a fitness service the “Activities Page” will populated with your past activities . Intervals.icu has all sorts of fancy features but these can be overwhelming. I suggest only looking at the ‘Activities Page’, ‘Fitness Page’ and ‘Settings’ initially.
You can find the training plan by clicking the workout library icon at the top of the “Activities” page. Then search for training plans and type ‘C25k’, my training plan should be the first result to pop up. Click add to library and now you have the plan in your workout library.
Now that the plan is in your library, you can drag and drop it onto the day you intend to start the plan. I would suggest starting the plan on a Monday.
Planning Your Workouts
With the plan loaded in your calendar you are ready to go. You can change the days that you want to perform each workout by dragging and dropping workouts to new days. I recommend maintaining at least one rest day between workouts.
To see the plan for each day you can click on the workout. It will bring up a dialog box showing a description of the workout and the steps.
Linking Your Devices
If you use a Garmin, Suunto, Wahoo or Coros these are all super easy to setup. Once you have linked Intervals.icu to these accounts your workouts will be Automatically uploaded to the device and your activities will be automatically downloaded back into Intervals.icu. You are now pretty much all set and ready to start training.
Ensure that you click both the ‘Download activities’ and ‘Upload planned workouts’ tick boxes when setting up your device.
For Apple watch users there are a few extra steps. I will also explain a method for people without a supported device to still follow the plan using only a smartphone.
Apple Watch Setup
To set up the workouts with an Apple watch it isn’t as straight forward as with other devices. To get the workouts onto your watch you need to either manually make the workouts on the watch or use an app called Watchletic. This page explains how to setup structured workouts on an Apple watch using the Workout app. Setting up the workouts on the watch is free but takes some time and effort.
Watchletic is an app that allows workouts to be automatically loaded to an Apple watch. It costs $2 a month to enable this premium feature. If you are truly committed then $2 is a small price to pay.
Intervals.icu cannot get data directly from Apple but it can from Strava. So you should setup your intervals.icu account to get the data from Strava. This requires you to have your Apple watch linked to Strava.
If you don’t want to share your activities you can set Strava to private and just use is as a means of storing and transferring data to Intervals.icu. Once you have a Strava account setup you can go to the “Settings” page in Intervals.icu and setup the link.
Non-Compatible Devices
If you have another fitness device that is not supported or no fitness device you can still follow this plan. You just need a Strava account and an interval timer app on your phone.
Firstly download an interval timer app for your phone, here are a couple of recommendations:
Before each workout you will need to manually add each time interval to the interval timer app. Open up the workout on Intervals.icu and see what the intervals are and transfer these into the timer app. This can be a little tedious but for the first few weeks you do the same workout multiple times so you can recycle your work.
You will record the activity either with the Strava phone app or your fitness device that is linked to Strava. When you start the activity also start the interval timer on your phone. The timer app should make a sound when it’s time to run / walk. Once complete the activity will be uploaded to Strava and then automatically uploaded to Intervals.icu where you can track your progress against the plan.
Run Intensities
You should forget about pace all together while following this plan. Just run to time and moderate the intensity. There is no need to push too hard. The main focus is to maintain a pace that allows you to run the full duration of each “run” interval.
My training plan uses Heart Rate zones for the intensities. This is just a guide that you can follow if you like and if your watch has the features. In the ‘settings’ page on intervals you can setup your HR zones. I recommend setting the run zones to the ‘CTS Run’ zones. You can roughly set the top of your Zone 2 using the 220 – your age formula. It is not a perfect formula but it is a helpful guide.
Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is a great subjective metric for moderating the intensity of your run intervals. No need for a HR monitor. The table below gives you an idea of how to gauge your RPE based on your ability to talk. You can probably stray into the Steady State Zone (7 – 8 RPE) when starting out your run intervals. Keeping HR and RPE low will make the journey more enjoyable and less painful while still giving you aerobic benefits.
| Zone | Description | HR | RPE | Talking Ability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recovery | 4 – 5 | Story time | |
| 2 | Endurance | < 220 – age | 5 – 6 | Comfortable conversation |
| 3 | Steady State | 7 – 8 | 2–3 sentences at a time | |
| 4 | Tempo | 8 – 9 | 5–7 words at a time | |
| 5 | Interval (VO2Max) | 9-10 | Single word, probably four letters |
Tracking Your Progress
As you record your workouts they will get uploaded to Intervals.icu and matched against what was planned. It will tell you your compliance with the plan.
On the ‘Fitness Page’ you will start to see a graph that roughly represents your ‘fitness’. It is called a Performance Management Chart, follow the link to learn more. It is a motivating graph to look at when you see it trending upwards. If you stick to the plan you will get to see a nice steady trajectory of fitness gains.
Conclusions
This concludes my guide on how to setup and use the Couch to 5k Plan. Hopefully this motivates some people to get out and have a go at running. Here is a summary of the process for setting yourself up with the plan:
- Sign up to Intervals.icu
- Add the training plan to your library
- Drag the training plan onto your calendar
- Link Intervals.icu to your fitness watch or Strava account
- Start doing the workouts and following the plan
- In 9 weeks you will be running a 5k!!
As I mentioned above, if you really enjoy using Intervals.icu consider paying for it. It’s developed and ran one by dedicated bloke and he has hosting costs to cover. If you want to get really motivated consider linking the plan to Beeminder and make yourself pay money if you don’t stick the the plan. See my post on how I am using it to make myself go to the gym.
Now is as good a time as any to get off the couch and go for a run. You will thank yourself for it later. Think of the feeling of accomplishment when you smash out your first 5k!!
Joseph Nunn: An avid trail runner based in Hobart, Tasmania. He loves getting out for big days on the trails with mates or racing against them.