Guide · Plan basics
How to read your Milewell training plan
A plain guide to the calendar, week phases, session types, effort descriptions and pace estimates in a plan, and what each one means.
When you build a plan you get a week-by-week calendar. Here is how to read it.
The top of the plan
The plan opens with a fit message: whether your timeline and current mileage support the goal, and why. If the planner has a caution, such as a result that is too old to use or a tight timeline, it appears next. Read these first. A “proceed with care” message is the planner telling you the margin is thin.
Then come the next run, the peak week and longest run the plan reaches, and the weekly-miles chart. Easier, taper and race weeks are outlined in the chart so you can see the shape of the build.
Week phases
Each week carries a phase:
- Base: the first weeks, which stay close to what you already run.
- Build: mileage rises in small steps, and a harder session can appear.
- Peak: the highest-mileage weeks of the plan.
- Taper: a reduced week before race week (half marathon plans only).
- Race week: short and easy, with rest before race day.
Weeks marked easier are scheduled drops in the build. They are part of the plan. See why plans back off on purpose.
Session types
- Rest day: no running. Easy walking or gentle stretching is fine.
- Easy run: conversational, about 3 to 4 out of 10. You could speak in full sentences. Walk breaks are fine.
- Easy run with strides: an easy run plus a few short, relaxed pick-ups near the end. They are fast but relaxed, not sprints, with walking or jogging between.
- Long run: easy and relaxed, the longest run of the week. Slower is fine, and you should finish feeling you could do more.
- Tempo run: a warm-up, a stretch at comfortably hard effort (about 6 to 7 out of 10, where you can manage only short phrases), then a cool-down.
- Intervals: a warm-up, repeats of 3 minutes hard (about 7 to 8 out of 10) with 2 minutes of easy jogging between them, then a cool-down. The session spells out the number of repeats.
- Race: the final session, on race day.
There is at most one harder session a week, it is kept short, and it never sits right next to the long run. Harder sessions do not start until you have a base, and not in the first three weeks.
Distances, times and paces
Distances and times are approximate. They assume an easy pace, either a deliberately slow default for your experience or one from your recent race. Run by effort, not by the clock.
Pace estimates appear only if you gave a race or time trial from the last 8 weeks, shown as a range and marked as an estimate. Without one, you get effort guidance. The training pace calculator shows how those ranges are set.
Assumptions and the fine print
At the bottom of every plan is a list of assumptions, the defaults the planner filled in and what it did with your optional answers. Check it. If a default is wrong for you, edit your answers and the plan is rebuilt. The plan also records the engine version that built it.
What the plan does not do
It does not adapt as you run. It is generated once from your answers. It cannot assess your health, it is not medical advice, and it has not been reviewed by a qualified coach or clinician. If you feel pain, dizziness, chest discomfort or unusual shortness of breath, stop and get professional advice.
What this article is based on
Engine statements. Statements about what the planner does come from its published rules and outputs. See How It Works and Our method.
Written by the Milewell team and published on the site owner's approval. The owner is not a credentialed coach or clinician, and this article has not been reviewed by one. See our editorial policy.
This plan is general training information, not medical advice and not clearance to exercise. Stop and get professional advice if you feel pain, dizziness, chest discomfort or unusual shortness of breath. If you have a health condition or are unsure whether running is right for you, talk to a doctor first.