For charity runners

You got the place. The job now is making the start line.

Whether it is a 10K or a marathon, most people who take a charity place and do not make it to race day are not stopped by the distance. They are stopped in the middle of the block by a calf or a knee, after training that asked too much too early. These are the plans that do not do that to you.

Find your free plan Download on the App Store

No signup to read them. No wall.

The thing nobody tells you

The risk is not that you are too slow. It is that you try too hard.

You have a cause, a fundraising page and people watching. That is a lot of motivation, and motivation is exactly what gets charity runners hurt. Every easy run becomes a bit quicker than it should be. Every long run becomes a test. Nothing is ever properly easy, so nothing is ever properly recovered, and the body files the bill somewhere in the middle of the block.

Zonna exists for that specific problem. It sets a zone for every session and holds you to it, which mostly means telling you to slow down on days you were planning to prove something. It is not the exciting version of training. It is the version that gets you to the start line.

Pick your distance

Free plans, whatever you signed up for.

Every one of these is the real thing the engine builds, laid out week by week and free to read in full. No email, no signup.

5K12 weeks
A real race distance, and the sanest place to start if this is new.
10K12 weeks
The most common charity place, and far enough to punish a rushed build.
Half marathon12 weeks
Long enough that the easy days stop being optional.
Marathon16 weeks
The one where getting to the start line is most of the job.

Doing an ultra? There is no free 50K or 100K plan on this site. The app builds them, and that sits inside the trial and the paid tier. The advice on this page still holds, and holds harder: the further the race, the more of your week should be easy.

What you get

Mostly easy. One hard day. Every run zoned.

Most of it is easy on purpose

The majority of every plan is run at a conversational effort. That is not the plan being gentle with you, it is the plan working.

One quality session a week

From the build phase, one session a week asks something of you. One. The rest protects it.

Every run has a zone and a pace band

Derived from your inputs, not guessed, so "easy" is a number you can check rather than a feeling you can talk yourself out of.

A long run that builds you up

It climbs steadily and backs off on recovery weeks, instead of getting longer every single week until something gives.

What is free and what is not

Every plan linked above is free to read on this site, in full, with no signup. You can follow one from a screenshot and never pay us anything.

The app is the part that adapts. It sets your real heart-rate zones, moves sessions when your week changes, and tells you afterwards whether you actually held the zone. New accounts get two weeks of all of it. After that a free tier keeps the plan you built.

One thing worth knowing before you start rather than after: in the app, 5K, 10K and half marathon plans can be built on the free tier. Marathon and ultra plan generation sits inside the trial and the paid tier. You keep a plan you built during the trial either way.

Questions

The ones charity runners actually ask.

I have never raced this distance. Is this for me?
Yes, with one caveat worth saying out loud. These plans assume you can already run about 30 minutes without stopping. If you cannot yet, spend a few weeks building to that first and then start. Beginning a structured block from zero is the single most reliable way to get injured before race day.
Why is so much of it easy? I have a race to train for.
Because that is what works, and because the alternative is what breaks people. Running easy on your easy days is what lets the one hard session a week actually be hard. Charity runners rarely miss the start line through lack of effort. They miss it through too much of it, too early.
How many weeks do I need?
Twelve for a 5K, 10K or half marathon, sixteen for a marathon. Less is workable if you are already running a few times a week. Well under that, the honest answer is to pick a shorter goal race first, or accept that the day becomes about finishing rather than a time. We would rather say that now than sell you a plan that pretends otherwise.
I am doing an ultra. Is there a plan here?
Not as a free plan on this site. The app builds 50K and 100K plans, and those sit inside the trial and the paid tier. If your charity place is an ultra and you have never raced one, the most useful thing on this page is still the advice: most of your week should be easy, and the long run is the session that earns the day.
What if I miss a week? Work, illness, life.
Nothing breaks. Missed sessions are a feature of adult life, not a failure. On the paid tier the plan reshapes around what you actually did. On the free tier the plan stays as generated and you pick it back up. Either way nobody guilt-trips you.
Do I need a watch?
It works best with a heart-rate source, an Apple Watch or a chest strap that writes to Apple Health, because that is what proves your easy days are genuinely easy. Without one you still get the plan, the paces and the structure. You just judge effort yourself.
Is it free?
Every plan on this page is free to read, right now, with no signup. In the app you get two weeks of everything, then a free tier that keeps the plan you built. £7.99/month or £59.99/year if you want the coaching and the reshaping.

Start with the plan. Decide about the app later.

Read the whole thing, see how much of it is easy, and judge for yourself whether that looks like training you could actually hold down alongside a job and a fundraising target.

Pick your distance Or see every free plan →