Breaking 1:20 requires 3:47/km. Most plans train you at your current fitness. Ours trains you at goal pace from peak phase onward — because you cannot run a pace you have never rehearsed.
51–54 km/week. Long runs 15.8 → 18 km. Quality is Tuesday fartlek or progression run, 45 min cap. Down-weeks at W4 and W8.
57–62 km/week. Tuesday becomes the 65-min extended quality session alternating tempo (40 min @ T) and intervals (6 × 4 min @ I). Week 11 = 10K time trial.
64–72 km/week. Kilo intervals (5–6 × 1 km @ I), LT intervals (2 × 2.3 km @ T), Sunday race sims with 25 → 35 minutes at 3:48/km goal pace.
25 km training + race day. Shakeout Tuesday, easy Mon/Wed/Thu, race Sunday.
Your body needs to know what 3:48/km feels like, physiologically and neurologically. Runners who only train at current-fitness paces hit a wall in the last 5 km of their race because their legs have never held that pace for more than a parkrun. Our peak Sunday sessions build up from 25 → 30 → 35 minutes at goal pace so race day is a known ceiling, not a hope.
Rule of thumb: if your current 10K is under 36:30 and you can hold 4:00/km for 30 minutes, sub-80 is live. If your 10K is 37:00–38:30, train the plan honestly and the W11 time trial will tell you whether to commit or re-aim at 1:22.
For 4 runs/week: about 4–5 hours. For 5 runs: 5–6 hours. The peak 65-min Tuesday is the longest weekday session; Sundays top out at 2 hours for race-sims.
Yes for intervals (set belt to exact pace). Long runs are better outdoors for heat adaptation and race-day terrain feel. Tempos work either way.
The engine offers automatic re-calibration — it drops peak-phase paces to your new VDOT and keeps the same structure. Your target time shifts but the training is still productive.
Pfitz and Hanson are marathon-first with adapted HM versions. Our plan is half-specific: lactate threshold work, VO2 blocks at true interval pace, and goal-pace race sims that Hanson omits because they go against their 'under-distance' philosophy. Good if you want Hanson, but for sub-80 you need race-specific pace exposure.