This is the shape of plan Orbit writes for a runner who can run three or four times a week and lift twice. It is an example, not anyone's real plan: yours is built from your own history, your paces and the days you actually have.
Base, build, peak and taper. Every fourth week of the first eight steps back, and the long run grows from 5 miles to 10 before the taper.
Each week stays within about 10% of the bigger of the two weeks before it. Week 7 is the one shown below.
Week 7, in the build. This is how it looks in the app: a row a day, each session a chip, coloured by what kind of work it is.
A full day off after the weekend's long run.
1.5 mi easy to warm up, 2 mi at tempo, 1.5 mi easy to finish. The tempo miles carry the band when the workout goes to your watch.
Kept a day after the tempo and three days before the long run, so the legs are fresh for both.
Conversational, around 11:15–12:00/mi. Easy days stay easy.
The day before the long run.
Easy the whole way, around 11:15–12:15/mi. Practise the fuel you will race with.
Push-up 3 × 10, one-arm row 3 × 10 / side, step-up 3 × 8 / leg, glute bridge 3 × 12. Light, and nothing that leaves the legs sore for Tuesday.
The paces here assume a threshold of about 9:15/mi. Orbit sets your pace bands from your own threshold, not from this example.
A plan like this is where Orbit starts, not where it stops. A few of the things that keep it fitting the week you are having:
If you leave the weekly build on, Orbit writes the coming week on Sunday night from what you actually ran, and emails you what it did. You can change any of it.
Every week is measured against the two before it, planned and run, and the long run against your longest recent one. If a week would climb past your rule, you get a version inside it.
Save a trip with its dates and whether there is a gym, and Orbit proposes a week that fits around it: runs that suit where you will be, and a bodyweight lift when there is no gym.
Want a plan like this, built for you?Orbit is private for now. Request an invite and Ryan will send you a link.