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This Four-Week Plan Will Help You Build Speed and Stamina

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This Four-Week Plan Will Help You Build Speed and Stamina

Struggling to find the time or motivation to train? Then how about a bite-sized goal you can tick off in a short timeframe. ‘This plan is designed to cut your one-mile time in four weeks, gradually increasing intensity and volume, helping you peak in the final week,’ says Jake Berney, a coach at digital training platform Fiit, with a sporting background in athletics. Aim to spread your sessions throughout the week, with rest days in between.

Before we start…

‘Begin each session with a warm-up and end with a cool-down,’ says Berney. Perform each of the moves below for 30 seconds, in turn. Don’t forget to test your one-mile pace at the start of the programme, so you can note how you progress!’

The Warm-Up

  • Knee hugs
  • Glute bridge
  • Crunch
  • Hip circles (30s each side)
  • Alternating reverse lunge with twist
  • Ankle bounce

The Cool-Down

  • Pigeon stretch (30s each side)
  • Hurdle stretch (30s each side)
  • Frog stretch (30s each side)

Kathryn Wirsing

Find Your Pace

Easy Effort (60-65%): Comfortable, conversational pace.

Tempo Effort (80-85%): Steady and challenging pace that you can sustain for the duration, but makes speaking difficult.

Speed (90%+): Hard, faster than your mile pace, with minimal ability to talk.

Week 1

Day 1: Interval Training

Warm-up: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 8 x 200m at 90-95% effort with 60 seconds rest in between.

Cool-down: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 2: Tempo Run

Warm-up: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 20 minutes at 80% effort.

Cool-down: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 3: Easy Run

Main Set: 30 minutes at 60-65% effort.

Day 4: Long Run

Main Set: 40 minutes at 60% effort. include 5 x 1-minute faster segments (80-85%) with 2 minutes easy running between (60%).

Week 2

Day 1: Interval Training

Warm-up: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 5 x 400m at 90-95% effort with 90 seconds rest in between.

Cool-down: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 2: Tempo Run

Warm-up: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 25 minutes at 80-85% effort.

Cool-down: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 3: Easy Run

Main Set: 30 minutes at 60-65% effort.

Day 4: Long Run

Main Set: 45 minutes at 60% effort. include 3 x 5-minute tempo pace (80-85%) segments with 5 minutes easy running between.

man sprinting lose weight

Week 3

Day 1: Interval Training

Warm-up: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 5 x 600m at 90-95% effort with 2 minutes rest in between.

Cool-down: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 2: Tempo Run

Warm-up: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 25 minutes at 80-85% effort.

Cool-down: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 3: Easy Run

Main Set: 35 minutes at 60-65% effort.

Day 4: Long Run

Main Set: 50 minutes miles at 60% effort. Include 5 x 3-minute intervals, with 3 minutes easy running between each at race pace to simulate race conditions.

Week 4

Day 1: Interval Training

Warm-up: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 4 x 400m at 90-95% effort with 90 seconds rest in between.

Cool-down: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 2: Tempo Run

Warm-up: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: 20 minutes at 80-85% effort.

Cool-down: 5 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Day 3: Easy Run

Main Set: 25 minutes at 60-65% effort.

Day 4: Time Trial

Warm-up: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort.

Main Set: Run a max effort mile.

Cool-down: 10 minutes easy jogging at 60% effort

‘I Maxed Out My One-mile Pace in 28 Days’

By Luke Chamberlain, gear and tech editor at Men’s Health

individual wearing a dark tshirt

As a runner, I’m a creature of habit. Every week, I run the same routes, the same distance and at more or less the same pace. As a result, personal bests have become a thing of the past. Trainer Jake Berney’s programme was my opportunity to inject some variety back into my training – and, with any luck, get back to setting PBs.

Ahead of the challenge, I checked my Garmin stats to find out my fastest 1-mile. The time to beat? A respectable six minutes and 36 seconds.

The first interval session was more challenging than I had anticipated. Running at 95% effort – or as Berney puts it, ‘with minimal ability to talk’ – isn’t something I was accustomed to. My legs rarely move that quick and I found sustaining near max pace, even over 200m efforts, tough by the eighth interval.

But by week four, my body (and mindset) adapted. The intensity and volume had increased, but once I knew how to settle into a pace and rhythm, I could feel how the interval runs were benefiting my speed.

By week four’s tempo session – a sustained 80% effort – I was running out of breath less and found it easier to hold my pace throughout. As for the easy and long runs, they became a welcomed rest in between the speed sessions, giving my legs a chance to recover.

So, did I max out my one mile? After week four, I laced up my fastest shoes – the Hoka Mach X 2, if you’re wondering – found a quiet stretch of the Thames and clocked an improved one-mile time of six minutes, eight seconds. It hurt, but it was the shake-up I needed.

Lettermark

Scarlett Wrench is the Senior Editor at Men’s Health UK.

With more than 12 years’ experience as a health and lifestyle editor, Scarlett has a keen interest in new science, emerging trends, mental well-being, and food and nutrition. For Men’s Health, she has carried out extensive research into areas such as wellness in the workplace, male body image, the paradoxes of modern masculinity, and mental health among school-age boys.

Her words have also appeared in Women’s Health, Runner’s World and The Sunday Times.

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