Revise a personal essay around its turn: the moment you, or your understanding, changed. About 1¼ hours.

1. Let it rest
2. Read it on paper · 20 minutes
3. Find the turn · 10 minutes
4. Cut towards the turn · 25 minutes
5. Read it aloud · 15 minutes
6. Get a reader

Turn a race into a story people actually want to read, within a few days of finishing. About 1¼ hours.

1. Gather your notes
2. Timeline · 10 minutes
3. Draft · 40 minutes
4. Break · 5 minutes
5. The ending · 10 minutes
6. Finish

Dig up raw material for memoir and personal essays from one year of your life. About 45 minutes.

1. Pick a year · 5 minutes
2. List twenty memories · 15 minutes
3. Pick one
4. Sensory freewrite · 20 minutes
5. Why does it matter? · 5 minutes

Long holds for the places running makes tight: calves, hamstrings, hip flexors and glutes. About 15 minutes. Use a strap or belt for the reclined leg stretch.

1. Downward dog · 60 seconds
2. Low lunge, right · 45 seconds
3. Half splits, right · 45 seconds
4. Low lunge, left · 45 seconds
5. Half splits, left · 45 seconds
6. Pigeon, right · 60 seconds
7. Pigeon, left · 60 seconds
8. Reclined hand-to-big-toe, right · 45 seconds
9. Reclined hand-to-big-toe, left · 45 seconds
10. Legs up the wall · 2 minutes

Five minutes to swap pre-race nerves for calm focus. Do it standing, in the start area if you like.

1. Ground your feet · 60 seconds
2. Scan your legs · 60 seconds
3. Find your breath · 60 seconds
4. Drop your shoulders · 60 seconds
5. Set an intention · 60 seconds

Diaphragmatic breathing practice to make running breathing easier, for 10 rounds. Lie on your back with your knees bent, one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Only the bottom hand should move.

1. Inhale · 4 seconds
2. Exhale · 6 seconds

Repeats for 10 rounds

Twenty minutes at a comfortably hard pace to push up your lactate threshold. Tempo pace is about what you could hold for an hour in a race: you can manage a few words, not a conversation.

1. Easy jog · 10 minutes
2. Tempo · 20 minutes
3. Easy jog · 10 minutes
4. Strides

Hard climbing and easy descents on a flight of stairs, for 6 rounds. Use a long staircase or a stadium. Warm up with a few minutes of walking first. Always walk down, never run.

1. Climb · 60 seconds
2. Walk down · 60 seconds

Repeats for 6 rounds

Swedish for speed play: surges of faster running mixed into an easy run, for 6 rounds. Jog easily for 10 minutes before you start. The surges should feel quick and smooth, not sprinting.

1. Surge · 60 seconds
2. Float · 2 minutes

Repeats for 6 rounds

Strength training in disguise: hard efforts up a hill, recovering on the way down, for 8 rounds. Find a moderate hill that takes about a minute to climb. Jog for 10 minutes to warm up first, and finish with an easy 10.

1. Run uphill · 60 seconds
2. Recover downhill · 1.5 minutes

Repeats for 8 rounds

A big jump in week four, with five-minute runs, for 2 rounds. Warm up with a brisk 5-minute walk. If it's too much, repeat week three first: there's no rush.

1. Jog · 3 minutes
2. Walk · 1.5 minutes
3. Jog · 5 minutes
4. Walk · 2.5 minutes

Repeats for 2 rounds

The run that should make up most of your week: easy, steady and conversational. If you can't speak in full sentences, slow down. Easy days are what make hard days possible.

1. Brisk walk · 5 minutes
2. Easy run · 30 minutes
3. Walk · 5 minutes
4. Calf and quad stretch

The first step to running 5K: alternate 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking, for 8 rounds. Start with a brisk 5-minute walk to warm up. Jog slowly enough that you could chat. Do this three times this week.

1. Jog · 60 seconds
2. Walk · 1.5 minutes

Repeats for 8 rounds