Increasing Mileage Without Injury: How to Use the 10+5+0 Rule for Safe Progression

The 10+5+0 rule is a progressive method for safely increasing weekly mileage by alternating a 10% and 5% increase in load with a consolidation week, allowing the body to adapt and avoid injury.

• Increasing mileage too quickly is the number one cause of injury among runners.
• The 10% rule is a good starting point, but a more structured approach is safer.
• The 10+5+0 method is based on a three-week cycle: in the first week, you increase mileage by 10%; in the second, by 5%; and in the third, you consolidate the new load without increasing it.
• This third “consolidation” week is crucial because it’s when the body adapts and gets stronger.
• Every six weeks, a deeper recovery week is recommended, reducing mileage by 25% to consolidate progress and prevent accumulated fatigue.
• Extra miles should be added to easy runs, not to quality sessions like intervals.
• Numerical rules are a guide, but listening to your body’s signals (pain, fatigue, mood) remains the most important principle.

Want to Run More? Haste Is Your Worst Enemy

There comes a moment in every runner’s life when something clicks. The usual runs aren’t enough anymore, you feel good, almost invincible, and a thought begins to form: “I can do more.” It’s a wonderful feeling, a sign that you’re improving. And it’s also the most dangerous moment.

That’s because the desire to progress almost always clashes with our worst enemy: haste. We start lengthening our runs without a plan, adding miles upon miles each week, convinced that “more” is always synonymous with “better.” But building endurance is like building a house: you can have the best bricks in the world, but if you don’t give the foundation time to set, something will eventually give way. And in our case, what gives way are tendons, muscles, and joints.

For years, the golden rule has been the 10% rule, a wise but sometimes overly simplistic principle. Today, we can do better by using a more structured, scientific, and safer method to add stories to our house without creating cracks.

The 10+5+0 Rule: A Scientific Method for Progressing Without Getting Hurt

Don’t worry, these aren’t the coordinates to a mysterious island. The 10+5+0 rule is a progression system based on a three-week cycle, designed to give your body not only the stimulus to improve but also the time to adapt to that stimulus. The principle is simple: Stress + Rest = Growth. Skipping the rest (or rather, consolidation) phase just means accumulating stress.

Here’s how the cycle works:

• Week 1: Increase your total weekly mileage by 10%. This is the main training stimulus.
• Week 2: Increase the previous week’s mileage by an additional 5%. This is a smaller increase that reinforces the stimulus without overloading.
• Week 3: The increase is 0%. This week, you don’t add any miles; you repeat the total from Week 2. This is the most important phase: the consolidation week.

It’s in this third week that your body “logs” the new workload, repairs tissues, strengthens itself, and transforms the fatigue of the previous two weeks into real improvement. It’s like letting the concrete dry before building the next floor.

How It Works in Practice: A Step-by-Step Example

Theory is great, but numbers make it easier. Let’s say you’re a runner who comfortably runs 30 km per week. This is your “Base Mileage.”

Week 1: The 10% Increase

The math is simple: 10% of 30 km is 3 km.

• New weekly goal: 30 km + 3 km = 33 km.
• Coach’s tip: Where do you add these 3 km? Not in your quality workout. Add them to your easy runs. If you do two 10k runs and one 10k recovery run, turn one of the 10k runs into a 13k, or add 1.5 km to two of your outings.

Week 2: The 5% Increase

Now, calculate 5% of the new total of 33 km (which is about 1.65 km; let’s round up to 2 km for simplicity).

• New weekly goal: 33 km + 2 km = 35 km.
• Coach’s tip: Again, distribute this increase across your low-intensity runs to avoid accumulating too much fatigue.

Week 3: The Zero-Increase Consolidation

This is the week you catch your breath and allow your body to adapt.

• New weekly goal: 35 km + 0 km = 35 km.
• Coach’s tip: Run the same mileage as the previous week, enjoying the feeling of a load that your body is now beginning to handle more easily.

At the end of this 3-week cycle, your new “Base Mileage” to start the next 10% increase from will be 35 km. You’ve just built a new floor on your house, solidly and safely.

The Big Picture: The Strategic De-Load Every 6 Weeks

What happens after you’ve completed two three-week cycles? Your mileage has increased significantly, and with it, so has your accumulated fatigue. That’s why it’s crucial to include a deeper de-load week to consolidate all the progress you’ve made.

Every six weeks, reduce your mileage by 25% from your last peak week. If you’ve worked up to running 40 km, your de-load week will be 30 km. This isn’t a setback; it’s a strategic investment in your longevity as a runner. It allows the body to “supercompensate”—that is, to repair and adapt on an even deeper level, wiping out residual fatigue and preparing you for an even stronger building cycle.

Beyond the Numbers: 3 Body Signals You Must Always Listen To

Rules and charts are valuable maps, but you are the real navigator. Learning to listen to your body’s signals is the most important skill for a long and happy running career. Even if you’re following the 10+5+0 rule, always watch out for these three red flags:

1. “Bad” Pain: General muscle soreness after an effort (DOMS) is one thing; a sharp, localized pain that worsens as you run or involves a tendon or joint is another. Muscles can complain, but joints should never scream. If you feel this kind of pain, stop. Sometimes, the real workout is having the courage to rest.
2. Persistent Fatigue: Feeling tired after a workout is normal. Waking up already tired for several days in a row is not. If your sleep quality declines, if you feel apathetic, or if your morning resting heart rate is higher than usual, your body is telling you it’s overloaded. It’s time to cut back, not increase.
3. A Dark Mood: Often, the brain hits a wall before the muscles do. If the thought of going for a run becomes a huge burden, if you feel unusually irritable or unmotivated, it could be a symptom of mental overtraining. The body and mind are a single system.

Remember: the goal isn’t to accumulate as many miles as possible in the shortest amount of time. The goal is to build a body that can run for many years, enjoying every step. Use this method as an intelligent guide, but always let your body have the final say.