Stepping up from 5K or chasing a new time: Pulsar builds the weeks from where you are, and every run says how far, how fast and why.
On a computer? Scan it with your iPhone camera.
A 10K is 10 kilometers, 6.2 miles: twice a 5K, and the distance where endurance starts to matter as much as speed. It’s a popular first race after a 5K and a good test of fitness for anyone.
If you’re stepping up from 5K, the main job is more easy running and a long run that grows a little each week, to an hour and a half at the most. The faster sessions come in once that base is there.
If you’re chasing a time, a 10K rewards two kinds of faster running in about equal measure: tempo runs, which raise the pace you can hold for a long time, and intervals at about 5K effort, which raise your ceiling. In a week with one faster session, a Pulsar 10K plan alternates them.
Pulsar builds the plan from your recent race time if you have one, the days you can train and how you run today. It recommends at least eight weeks for a newer runner and six for a trained one.
I trained for three marathons alone. Pulsar is the coach I wish I’d had.
Four things every Pulsar plan does for you, shown the way they look in the app.
How long can you run without stopping?
An honest answer sets the right starting point — there’s no wrong one.
Pulsar asks how long you can run without stopping, which days you can train and your latest race time, if you have one. Week 1 is built from those answers.
Aerobic Easy
Week 7 · Tuesday Upcoming
4.1 mi · ~45 min
Coach’s insightTap to ask
Keep your heart rate in Zone 1-2. You should be able to hold a conversation easily. If you’re breathing hard, slow down.
Target heart rate
Z1 RecoveryZ2 Aerobic123–148 bpm
Structure
Easymax 10:50 /mi
4.1 miRepeat ×4
Strides7:55 /mi
100 mWalk recovery
1 min Each run carries its distance, the pace to hold, the heart-rate zone to stay in and what it’s for, in plain words.
PULSAR Coach
Why is my easy pace so slow?
Because easy runs do a different job. They build your engine — heart, lungs, legs — without leaving you tired for Thursday’s 400s. If you can talk in full sentences, you’re right where you should be.
AI-generated guidance, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor about health concerns.
After every run, a short note on what it meant, with your numbers. Between runs, ask about pace, fueling or a missed week.
The voice coach, in your earbuds: “Slow down, 20 seconds fast.”
Voice cues in your earbuds when a tempo or interval drifts off pace, and the whole workout on Apple Watch, with or without your phone.
Two runners, two 10K plans, both built by the app. Switch between them to see how the weeks change with the starting point.
Built for a runner with a 33:00 5K and about 7 miles a week, three days a week, aiming to finish. Miles per week as the app built them, race week without the 6.2-mile race; yours are built from your goal, your days and how you run today.
Built for a 25:40 5K runner aiming at 52:00, four days a week, long run on Sunday. Miles per week as the app built them, race week without the 6.2-mile race; yours are built from your goal, your days and how you run today.
Four steps from here to the start line.
It’s free to download on iPhone. Your plan lives on the phone, and on Apple Watch if you wear one.
A race and its date, a distance, a time to beat, or running without stopping. Then how you run today.
Open today’s run and start it. Pulsar gives you the pace and the zone, and talks you through every segment.
The plan builds week by week, then eases off before race day so you arrive fresh, not tired.
Every session has a job. These are real workouts from the two plans above, laid out the way the app shows them.
Easy run
Aerobic Easy
Week 7 · Tuesday
4.4 mi · 51–57 min
Structure
Easymax 10:50 /mi
4.1 miRepeat ×4
Strides7:55 /mi
100 mWalk recovery
1 minThe run most of your week is made of: easy enough to talk the whole way, with four short pickups at the end to keep your legs quick.
Easy run
Recovery Easy
Week 5 · Saturday
2.1 mi · 23–26 min
Structure
Easy runmax 11:00 /mi
2.1 miA short, easy run next to a hard day. Two easy runs in one week aren’t meant to be the same length.
Tempo
Progression Run
Week 2 · Tuesday
2.9 mi · 30–33 min
Structure
Easymax 11:00 /mi
1.8 mi10K pace9:05 /mi
1.1 miStarts easy and finishes the last mile at 10K pace. The first taste of race pace, in the base weeks.
Intervals
800 Repeats
Week 5 · Thursday
3.7 mi · 39–43 min
Structure
Warm upmax 11:00 /mi
1.2 miRepeat ×2
Threshold8:45 /mi
800 mWalk recovery
2 min 55 secCool downmax 11:00 /mi
1.2 miTwo 800-meter repeats with a walk between. A newer runner’s first interval weeks run at tempo pace: the shape first, the speed later.
Tempo
Cruise Intervals
Week 6 · Thursday
4.9 mi · 50–56 min
Structure
Warm upmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miRepeat ×4
Threshold8:45 /mi
900 mWalk recovery
1 minCool downmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miA tempo run cut into four pieces with a one-minute walk between. Splitting it is what lets you hold more tempo pace than you could in one go.
Tempo
Classic Tempo
Week 8 · Thursday
4.7 mi · 46–51 min
Structure
Warm upmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miThreshold8:45 /mi
2.2 miCool downmax 10:50 /mi
1.2 miA little over two miles at tempo pace between a warm-up and a cool-down. Comfortably hard: you can speak in short phrases, not full sentences.
Tempo
Tempo Sandwich
Week 7 · Thursday
2.4 mi · 30–33 min
Structure
Easymax 13:25 /mi
0.7 miThreshold10:50 /mi
0.9 miEasymax 13:25 /mi
0.7 miEasy, then almost a mile at tempo pace, then easy again. This is how a first-time 10K plan meets tempo running.
Long run
Fast-Finish Long Run
Week 8 · Sunday
7.5 mi · 79–87 min
Structure
Easymax 10:50 /mi
6.2 miFast finish — steady9:15 /mi
1.2 miSix miles easy, then the last mile steady. A rehearsal for the second half of the race, when your legs are tired.
It depends on where you start. If your date is too close, Pulsar says so before it builds the plan and suggests a target you can reach.
Can’t run nonstop yet
6 weeks or more
Your plan starts with run/walk and builds to the 10K from there. With less time, Pulsar suggests a 5K first.
Newer runner
8 weeks or more
Pulsar recommends at least eight weeks for a newer runner. Ten gives the long run room to grow.
Trained runner
6 weeks or more
Six weeks can sharpen a 10K. Longer gives you more faster sessions to build on.
What matters around the runs: what to eat, how to pace the race, how to recover. The coach in the app answers the rest.
For a 10K, ordinary meals do most of the work. Eat enough carbohydrate on the days before your faster sessions and long runs, and some protein at every meal to help you recover.
Race morning: a familiar breakfast of about 300 to 500 calories, two to three hours before the start, low in fat and fiber. Try it before a long run first, so race day holds no surprises.
A 10K asks your legs to hold their form for twice as long as a 5K. Two short strength sessions a week help most runners: squats, lunges, single-leg calf raises, hip bridges and a side plank. Twenty minutes is enough. The evidence that it prevents injuries is mixed, so treat it as a useful extra rather than a must.
Cycling, swimming and the elliptical add aerobic work without the impact of running, which is useful if you want more fitness but not more miles. Keep them easy, and keep them away from the day before your tempo run or your long run.
A 10K is long enough that a fast start costs you in the last two miles. The steady plan works for almost everyone:
Choose the goal from your training: Pulsar predicts your 10K time from your runs, and that’s the pace to start at. On a hilly course or a hot day, run by effort and let the pace go.
Form matters most in the second half, when you’re tired and it starts to slip. The cues are simple:
Practice on your tempo runs and strides, where holding form under effort feels most like the race.
A 10K plan has more faster running than a 5K plan, so recovery matters more. The plan does its part: hard days never land back to back, and every fourth week is lighter. Your part:
Sharp pain, pain that gets worse as you run, or pain that changes how you run: stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist. Pulsar’s coach won’t diagnose it either.
Race day: nothing new. The shoes, the clothes and the breakfast should all be ones you’ve trained with.
The rules every plan keeps. They’re the same rules the coach explains when you ask why.
Mostly easy
About four-fifths of your running is easy enough to talk through, and Pulsar leans more careful than that on purpose. Easy running builds the engine; the hard sessions only work on top of it.
Every fourth week lighter
Three weeks of building, then a lighter week at about 80 percent so your legs catch up. The week after picks up where the build left off, not beyond it.
A little more each week
Weekly mileage grows by about 7.5 percent for newer runners and 10 percent for trained ones, with a cap on any single jump. Hard days never land back to back.
Paces from today’s fitness
Your paces are worked out from your recent race or how you run now, never from your goal, and they move week by week as the plan goes on.
Long runs have a time limit
In a 10K plan the long run stops at 1 hour 30 minutes. For a slower runner that comes before the distance limit does, and that’s intended: past it, the run costs more recovery than it builds.
Easier at the end
The last two weeks cut the miles by 30 to 40 percent and keep the pace, so you race the 10K on fresh legs.
A 10K is 10 kilometers, which is 6.2 miles.
Eight weeks or more if you’re newer to running, six if you already train regularly. Ten to twelve weeks gives the long run more room. The two example plans on this page are ten weeks each.
Yes. If you can’t run nonstop yet, Pulsar starts the plan with run/walk and builds to the 10K from there, as long as there are at least six weeks. With less time, it suggests a 5K first.
For a first 10K, the one you finish. After that, your first time becomes the baseline, and Pulsar builds the next plan from it.
Three is enough to finish one; four or five helps you run it faster. Pulsar builds plans on 2 to 7 days a week and lets you choose the days and your long-run day.
Mostly easy running, a long run of up to an hour and a half, and one or two faster sessions a week, alternating tempo runs and intervals. Keep it up for eight to twelve weeks.
Not always. Long runs build toward the distance and stop at 90 minutes. In the first-10K plan on this page, the longest run is 6.7 miles, a little over the race distance.
Yes. Walk breaks are allowed in almost every 10K, and many runners use them. A run/walk plan in Pulsar builds them in from the start.
Keep running three to five times a week and build your long run gradually, with a lighter week every fourth. The half marathon plan does exactly that, starting from your 10K time.