10 miles · 8 or 10 weeks · free

The 10-mile training plan

The distance between a 10K and a half, and the first one where fuelling actually matters. Two complete plans below — eight weeks from a 10K base, ten weeks from a 5K base — with every run written out and the long run climbing from 6 miles to 9.

Get RunMatch

Free · no signup · printable · two plans, 32 and 34 runs

9:41

Training block10 Miles · 8 Weeks

Pot$1604 runners · $40 each

Week 6 of 8

Long run 9 mi — the peak

1You142
2Priya131
3Alex111
4Sam85

Your stake$40

Weeks left2

Start long run

$+$10.00First mile verified

131 bpmHeart rate on file · run counts

Who should run a 10-miler

It is the most under-rated distance in running and almost nobody writes a proper plan for it.

A 10K is over in under an hour for most people, which means you can muscle through it on fitness alone. A half marathon is a genuine project. Ten miles sits in between: long enough that the race has to be paced and fuelled properly, short enough that the training block does not take over your life.

Take the 8-week plan if you can already run a 10K without it being an event. Take the 10-week plan if your longest run right now is around a 5K. Both finish in the same place; the ten-week version just spends longer getting you there.

A 10K base, or a 5K base and ten weeks. That is the entry test for the two plans below.
Three or four days a week you can defend. The long run is the one that cannot move.
Shoes you are happy to be in for 90 minutes. Ten miles finds every hotspot a 10K let you get away with.
Nothing currently hurting. Crossing 8 miles is where a small niggle becomes a real one.

Stake the block

The 8-week plan (from a 10K base)

Four runs a week: two easy, one quality session, one long. Keep the long run on its own day with rest either side of the quality session.

easy runtempointervalslong run

Week1

Easy 3 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 6

16mi this week

Week2

Easy 3 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 7

17mi this week

Week3

Easy 4 · Tempo 4 · Easy 4 · Long 8

First run over 80 minutes. This is where fuelling starts to matter — there is a section on it below.

20mi this week

Week4

Easy 3 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 6

Cutback week.

16mi this week

Week5

Easy 4 · Intervals 5 · Easy 4 · Long 8

21mi this week

Week6

Easy 4 · Intervals 5 · Easy 4 · Long 9

Peak. Nine miles is 90% of the race and deliberately not ten.

22mi this week

Week7

Easy 3 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 7

Cutback before the taper.

17mi this week

Week8

Easy 3 · Easy 3 · Easy 2 · Race 10

Taper. Mileage drops about 40%, intensity with it.

Racemi this week

Weekly mileage runs 16 → 17 → 20 → 16 → 21 → 22 → 17 → race. The bold weeks go backwards on purpose; skipping them is how week 6 becomes an injury instead of a peak.

Stake the eight weeksFree · 0% of the pot

The 10-week plan (from a 5K base)

easy runtempointervalslong run

Week1

Easy 2.5 · Easy 3 · Long 4

9.5mi this week

Week2

Easy 3 · Easy 3 · Long 5

11mi this week

Week3

Easy 3 · Tempo 3 · Easy 3 · Long 5

A fourth run appears. If anything hurts, stay at three days.

14mi this week

Week4

Easy 3 · Tempo 3 · Easy 3 · Long 4

Cutback week.

13mi this week

Week5

Easy 3 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 6

16mi this week

Week6

Easy 4 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 7

Over 70 minutes on the long run. Start practising fuelling now.

18mi this week

Week7

Easy 3 · Tempo 4 · Easy 3 · Long 6

Cutback week.

16mi this week

Week8

Easy 4 · Intervals 4 · Easy 4 · Long 8

20mi this week

Week9

Easy 4 · Tempo 4 · Easy 4 · Long 9

Peak long run.

21mi this week

Week10

Easy 3 · Easy 3 · Easy 2 · Race 10

Taper, then race.

Racemi this week

Three runs a week to start, with a fourth appearing in week 3. If anything hurts when that fourth day arrives, stay at three — you will still finish. The long run does the work either way.

The long run: 6 miles to 9

6 mi

8 mi

9 mi

6 miWeek 1
a comfortable 10K

8 miWeek 3
the first 80-minute run

9 miWeek 6
peak, and not ten

Three cutback weeks sit between these, which is why the line is a staircase rather than a ramp.

Everything else in the plan exists to let you keep doing this one run. If a week collapses and you can only save one session, save the long run.

It stops at nine deliberately. The tenth mile costs more in recovery than it returns in fitness, and race day supplies it for free — the same call almost every mainstream half-marathon plan makes at twelve.

From week 3 onwards, treat it as a dress rehearsal: same shoes, same breakfast, same fuel at the same intervals. By the peak there should be nothing about race morning you have not already tested.

Race a training partner

Fuelling for the first run over 90 minutes

This is the section no other 10-mile plan bothers to write, and it is the reason this distance catches people out.

Under about 75 minutes you can run on what is already stored in your muscles and liver. Ten miles at a first-timer’s pace is 90 to 110 minutes, which puts you past that line — and the way it fails is not a dramatic collapse, it is the last two miles feeling inexplicably awful while your legs seem fine.

Eat normally the day beforeNo carb-loading ritual needed for ten miles. Just do not go into it having skipped meals.
Something small 90 minutes beforeFamiliar and low-fibre. Toast, a banana, porridge — whatever you have already tested on a long run.
First fuel at 45–60 minutesA gel, chews or sports drink. Before you feel you need it, which is the part people get wrong.
Then every 30–40 minutesAim for 30–60g of carbohydrate per hour after the first hour. Drink to thirst, and more in heat.

Practise all of it from week 5 of the 8-week plan, or week 6 of the 10-week one. The only real rule is the oldest one in racing: nothing new on race day.

If your stomach objects to gels — plenty of people’s do — chews, dried fruit, a sports drink or even sweets all work. The carbohydrate does not care what shape it arrives in. What matters is that you have practised it at race pace, because your gut tolerates things at a jog that it will not tolerate at effort.

What to take, and when

0:000:451:151:45

Water or sports drinkto thirst, more in heat

First gel or chewsbefore you feel you need it

Second fuelif you are out past 75 minutes

Caffeine, if you use itand only if you have tested it

Anything newnever, on race day

Rough timings for a 1:30–1:50 finish. Shift everything earlier if you are slower, not later.

The last row is the real rule. Every gel, drink and breakfast on this page should have been tested on a long run before it appears on race morning, because your stomach tolerates things at a jog that it will flatly refuse at race effort.

Pacing a 10-mile race

Ten miles punishes a fast start more than a 10K does and less than a half does, which makes it the best distance to learn pacing on.

Your target is roughly your 10K pace plus 15 to 25 seconds per mile. Find a goal finish time below and run the right-hand column.

Ten miles at 9:00/mile is a 1:30 finish. The third column is deliberately slower than goal pace.
Goal finish	Goal race pace	Run the first 3 miles at
1:50	11:00 / mi	10:30 – 10:45 / mi
1:40	10:00 / mi	9:30 – 9:45 / mi
1:30	9:00 / mi	8:35 – 8:50 / mi
1:20	8:00 / mi	7:35 – 7:50 / mi
1:10	7:00 / mi	6:40 – 6:50 / mi

Run the first three miles slower than goal pace. That is the whole strategy. Adrenaline makes race pace feel like jogging for the first fifteen minutes, and every mile you bank early is repaid with interest after mile seven.

The race is decided between miles 7 and 10. If you arrive at mile 7 still feeling like you are working moderately, you paced it correctly and you will pass people for the rest of the way. If you arrive there already hanging on, the last three miles will be the longest of your life.

Get RunMatch — run 1 mile, get $10

Popular 10-mile races in the US

Dates move year to year — check the organiser before you build a plan around one. Several of these ballot or sell out months ahead.
Race	Where	When	Worth knowing
Cherry Blossom Ten Mile	Washington, DC	Early April	Lottery entry; flat and fast, runs under the blossoms.
Broad Street Run	Philadelphia, PA	Early May	One of the largest 10-milers in the US. Net downhill, straight down Broad Street.
Crim Festival of Races	Flint, MI	Late August	The famous one. Bradley Hills in the middle break people who went out fast.
Army Ten-Miler	Washington, DC	October	Big field, flat, finishes at the Pentagon.

Work backwards from the date. Eight or ten weeks before race day is the start of your block, and it is worth adding a spare week at the front for the cold that always arrives at the wrong time.

Print or add to calendar

Both schedules print on two pages with the site chrome stripped out. A plan on a fridge gets done more often than a plan in a tab.

Going further? Half marathon →

Stake the block

Thirty-two runs over eight weeks is not a fitness problem. It is an attendance problem, and the week it usually goes wrong is week 4 — far enough in that the novelty is gone, far enough out that race day is not yet real.

RunMatch lets you put your own money on completing the block. Hit it and the stake stays yours. Miss it and it goes to a recipient you named in advance — never to us, because RunMatch takes 0% of the pot. Or find someone else running the same race and race each other through the training for a pot.

$21.14average win, one-day competition

$10median win

$740largest pot to date

Free to download, free to race friends, 0% of the pot, 3% when you withdraw. Requires an iPhone and an Apple Watch — runs without Apple Watch heart-rate data are rejected. The plans above are free either way.

Bet on finishing the block

Two ways to make the block cost something

Race your friends

Find someone running the same 10-miler and race the training. Same buy-in each; most miles or first to the distance takes the pot.

Bet on yourself

Or stake your own money on completing all 32 runs. Miss it and the money goes to the person you named, never to RunMatch.

$21.14average one-day win
$10median win
$740biggest pot so far

Start a match — run 1 mile, get $10Free · 0% of the pot

Every RunMatch training plan

Same format on all of them: every session written out, free, printable, no email.

Couch to 10K8 or 12 wkCouch to 10K Training Plan 5K8 wkThe 8-Week 5K Training Plan 5K → 10K6 wkThe 5K to 10K Bridge Plan 10K beginner12 wk10K Training Plan for Beginners 10K4–12 wkAll 10K Plans & Generator 10K in 88 wkThe 8-Week 10K Training Plan Half marathon12 wkHalf Marathon Training Plan

10-mile training questions

How long does it take to train for a 10-mile race?

Eight weeks if you can already run a 10K comfortably, ten weeks if your longest run is currently a 5K. Both plans are on this page. If you can't yet run 3 miles continuously, neither is the right starting point — the 10K beginner plan comes first.

How many miles a week for a 10-mile race?

This plan runs 16–22 miles a week and peaks at 22. That's deliberately modest: it's enough to finish a 10-miler comfortably, and low enough that most people get through the block without breaking. Higher-mileage plans exist and are for people chasing a time.

How long does 10 miles take to run?

Most first-timers finish somewhere between 1:30 and 1:50 — a pace of 9:00 to 11:00 per mile. There's a pace table further up this page that works backwards from a goal time.

Do I need to eat during a 10-mile run?

Probably, and this is the first distance where the answer changes. Anything over about 75 minutes starts to draw down stored glycogen faster than you can replace it. Take 30–60g of carbohydrate per hour after the first hour, and practise it on the long runs from week 5 rather than discovering your stomach's opinion on race day.

Is 10 miles harder than a 10K?

Yes, but not in the way people expect. It isn't 60% harder because it's 60% longer — the aerobic effort is similar. What changes is duration: you cross into needing fuel, needing fluid, and needing your shoes and kit to be genuinely comfortable for an hour and a half.

What's the longest run in a 10-mile plan?

Nine miles, in week 6 of the 8-week plan and week 9 of the 10-week one. It stops at nine on purpose: the last mile costs more in recovery than it adds in fitness, and race-day adrenaline covers it reliably.

Can I run a 10-miler on three runs a week?

Yes — the 10-week plan starts that way and only adds a fourth day in week 3. Keep the long run and the tempo and drop an easy run if you need to. You'll arrive slightly less durable but perfectly capable of finishing.

What should I do the week after?

A full easy week, then decide direction. Ten miles sits neatly between a 10K and a half marathon, and the half marathon plan starts from a base this block will have already built.

Ten miles. Thirty-two runs.

Print the plan and start Monday, or put money on finishing the block and give week four a reason to happen.

Get RunMatch — run 1 mile, get $10

Payments via Stripe
GPS + heart rate on Apple Watch
Withdrawals via Stripe Connect

One $10 first-mile reward per new account · 18+ · iPhone and Apple Watch required · Terms apply

Stake your 10-mile block — $10 for mile one