How to Plan a Week of Workouts in Under 5 Minutes

Planning a week of workouts should be simple.

But for most people, it turns into one of three things:

• a half-finished calendar you forget to check
• a copy-paste job from somewhere on the internet
• or a vague idea of “I’ll just see how I feel”

None of those are terrible.
But none of them make training feel easy or intentional.

Here’s a way to plan a full week of workouts in under 5 minutes — no spreadsheets, no rigid plans, no overthinking.

Step 1: Decide how many days you’ll train (30 seconds)

Not which workouts yet. Just how many days.

Be honest.
If you say 6 but usually manage 3, you’re already behind.

Examples:

• 3 days → solid, sustainable
• 4–5 days → consistent training
• 6+ days → only if that’s already normal for you

Write the number down mentally and move on.

Step 2: Anchor the “key” session first (1 minute)

Every week usually has one workout that matters more than the others:

• intervals
• hills
• tempo
• a long run or ride

This is the session you don’t want to skip.

Decide:

• what type it is (intervals, tempo, long)
• roughly how hard it should feel

You don’t need exact paces or wattages yet.
Just the intent.

“Short intervals, fairly hard”
“A controlled tempo”
“Long and easy”

That’s enough.

Step 3: Fill the gaps with easy sessions (1–2 minutes)

Now look at the remaining days.

Most of them should be easy. That’s not a failure — that’s how training actually works.

For each remaining day, decide:

• easy
• optional
• rest

That’s it.

A perfectly reasonable week might look like:

• 1 quality session
• 1 longer easy session
• 1–2 short easy sessions
• 1–2 rest days

You don’t need to optimise this.
You just need to make it realistic.

Step 4: Describe workouts in plain language (1 minute)

This is where most people get stuck — they think workouts need to be written “properly”.

They don’t.

Write them the way you’d explain them to someone else:

Warm-up
Then 6 × 2 minutes hard with 30 sec easy jogging between

If you can describe it in a sentence, it’s good enough.

Step 5: Stop before you start tweaking (30 seconds)

This part matters.

Once the week is sketched out, stop.

Don’t:

• rebalance days
• adjust intensities
• compare it to someone else’s plan

A simple plan you’ll actually follow beats a perfect plan you won’t.

Why this works

• It focuses on intent, not numbers
• It mirrors how people actually think about training
• It removes the friction that causes most plans to fall apart

And importantly:
it leaves room to adapt when real life happens.

Where tools should help (not get in the way)

A good tool shouldn’t force you into rigid structures or long setup flows.

It should let you:

• write workouts the way you think about them
• turn that into something your watch understands
• make changes without starting over

That’s the gap Workout Writer was built for.

But even without it, the approach above works — on paper, in Notes, or in your head.

The takeaway

If planning your week feels hard, the problem usually isn’t motivation or discipline.

It’s friction.

Reduce the friction, and planning stops being something you avoid —
it becomes something you can do in five quiet minutes, then forget about until it’s time to train.

And that’s exactly how it should feel.