14-question setuppaces from your fitness, not your ambition
3 adaptive tracksOn-Ramp Builder · Fast 5K · Race-Ready
12-week arcthreshold first, then VO₂max + speed
Sunday check-insa real read on your week, adjustments included
A coach, not a PDF.
Static 5K plans break at the first sick week, the first twinge, the first "easy" run you took too fast, or they're just marathon training shrunk down, which misses the whole point. This one adjusts, and it trains the actual 5K: speed and efficiency at an effort you can hold for minutes, not durability at an effort you hold for hours.
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Three adaptive tracks
On-Ramp Builder (C25K graduates, novices), Fast 5K (durable runners chasing a time), Race-Ready (experienced, 35+ mpw). Fourteen onboarding questions route you deterministically, paces calibrated from your recent fitness via VDOT, never the goal you wish you had. Graduate between tracks as your durability proves out.
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The canonical 12-week arc
Lactate-threshold emphasis in the first half, VO₂max intervals and R-pace speed reps in the second, tune-up 5Ks at weeks 8 and 10 that replace the hard session and recalibrate your paces, a one-week taper, with strides kept through it. Pfitzinger and Daniels, not vibes.
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Guardrails with teeth
Daniels' quality caps enforced as code (VO₂max work ≤8% of weekly mileage, speed reps ≤5%). Every long run gated by the evidence-backed session-spike rule: no run more than 10% above your longest of the past 30 days. A goal-time realism check before week one, fantasy pacing blows up 5Ks too.
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Sunday check-ins
Every Sunday, a genuine read on your actual week, what moved, what didn't, what changes. Quality-cap and session-spike audits run automatically. Never a template.
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C25K on-ramp + 10K ladder
Can't run 30 minutes yet? A real 9-week Couch-to-5K on-ramp with a consolidation bridge is built in, the canon assumes a base beginners don't have. Hit the six graduation criteria and the pack hands your data to the 10K rung with a graduation packet.
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14-question onboarding
Goal race, goal time, recent results, mileage, longest run, running age, availability, course, strength, sleep, injury history, vibe. Every pace and phase hangs off these answers.
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Goal tracking
Your 5K becomes a tracked goal in your assistant, with phases that tick over as training progresses, and the six graduation criteria visible every Sunday.
From checkout to first run in five minutes
No apps to download. No accounts to create. It installs into the assistant you already use, and gives it a persistent brain: your history saved as files that load into every chat, wherever you go in your Muse app.
1
Check out
Pay $19 securely via Stripe.
2
Get your key
Your license key appears instantly on the success page.
3
Say the sentence
Tell your Muse: install the 5k coach powerup from poweruppacks.com
4
Answer 14 questions
Race date, fitness, schedule, injuries, then your track is assigned and your first week is planned.
Questions
Why is this better than a free 5K plan I download?
A downloaded plan can't see you. It doesn't know you got sick in week 9, that your easy runs drift too fast, that your VO₂max work crept past 8% of your weekly mileage, or that your goal time is a fantasy. This coach calibrates paces from your actual fitness via VDOT, runs a realism check on your goal time before week one, and rescales around time off instead of pretending it didn't happen. The plan is $19, the part that adapts is the coach.
Why not just ask regular Muse for a plan?
It'll give you a decent plan, but a chat isn't a training log. Muse remembers a chat and retains limited summary memory. Powerup Packs add a persistent filesystem with full working state that loads into any Muse chat, your paces, your stalls, your sick weeks, your tune-up races, all of it, in every conversation. Ask again in a month and the same coach reads the same log and notices you're going too hard. That's the memory and the method, working together.
I've never really run before. Is this for me?
Yes, that's exactly who the On-Ramp Builder track and the built-in C25K on-ramp are for: 9 weeks of run/walk at conversational pace, then a consolidation bridge before any quality work. You don't need to be fast; you need to be consistent, and the guardrails exist precisely so beginners don't do what beginners always do: too much, too soon.
Isn't speed work dangerous for beginners?
Structured intervals without a base are. Strides aren't, 20–30 seconds of relaxed-fast running with full recovery are Pfitzinger's "speedwork bread and butter," prescribed from week 1 at every tier. They're the first fast stimulus you get, weeks before any intervals, and they're the plan's speed backbone all the way through the taper.
How is this different from marathon training, shorter?
It's a different event with a different engine. Marathon training emphasizes marathon-pace long runs and durability; 5K training emphasizes VO₂max intervals and R-pace reps, stimuli marathoners barely touch. This plan's second half exists to raise your VO₂max and running economy. The marathon machinery is deleted, not shortened.
What happens if I get injured or sick?
Tell your coach. The pain rules are strict, it will never tell you to train through pain, and Pfitzinger's return table rescales the plan around time off instead of trying to "make up" for it. Above-the-neck symptoms versus below-the-neck: the neck rule governs illness, with return protocols that bring you back safely.
What happens after my 5K? Do I start over?
No, that's the ladder. Six deterministic graduation criteria (a timed 5K, 25+ mpw, a 75-minute long run, absorbed quality, consistency, clean health) are checked against your log. Hit them and the pack writes a graduation packet the 10K pack consumes to pre-fill your onboarding. Narrowly missing? An 8-week consolidation block, not a demotion.
Can I switch coaching personalities later?
Any time. Just say the word. Some runners start with the Drill Sergeant and switch to the Encourager during the VO₂max phase. No judgment.
Do I need a GPS watch or any gear?
No. If you have one, the coach can use the data. If not, perceived effort and honesty work fine.
What if it doesn't work for me?
Email stonejarhq@gmail.com within 14 days and you get a full refund. No forms, no hassle.
Not medical advice. Coaching, not medicine. 5K Coach is a coaching and organization system for your training, not medical advice. It can't diagnose, treat, or prevent any condition. If you have a heart condition, an injury history, a chronic illness, are pregnant, or take medication affected by exercise, talk to your doctor before starting. Stop and get checked out if pain is sharp, sudden, or doesn't ease up with rest.
