San Silvestre Vallecana 2026: a 10-week plan for your 10K
There are ten weeks left until New Year's Eve, exactly what you need. Here is a plan to reach the 10 km of Madrid's San Silvestre Vallecana enjoying it (or knocking time off your PB), plus everything practical for race day.
If you are reading this at the end of October, congratulations: you have exactly ten weeks until 31 December. Not one more, not one less. That is just enough time for the 10 km of the San Silvestre Vallecana to feel like a party rather than a penance, so let's make the most of it.
What you need to know before lacing up
In 2026 the Vallecana reaches its 62nd edition and, as every year, it is run on 31 December through the streets of Madrid: 10 km, with a popular race and an international one, which is where the professionals compete. According to the official website, entry is priced in tiers: 27 euros for the first 10,000 bibs, 29 up to bib 20,000 and 31 up to 42,000, plus a 0.80 euro booking fee. In other words: the sooner you decide, the cheaper and calmer it is.
There are three practical details worth bearing in mind right now. When you sign up you choose a start time, and start pens are allocated according to your accredited 10 km time (from «over 60 minutes» down to «under 38»), so if you have a recent time, keep proof of it handy. The race pack is sent out from 1 December and the T-shirt is collected between 26 and 30 December: leave a gap in your Christmas diary. And the course map is on the website itself; look at it calmly, because knowing where the hills are before you meet them is half the work done.
Where are you starting from?
Ten weeks can achieve a lot, but not miracles, so we suggest two routes. Plan A, «finish in one piece and with a smile», is for you if today you can run 20 or 30 minutes non-stop without calling for help: three days a week. Plan B, «chasing a PB», is for anyone who has already run 10 km this year and wants to shave off minutes: four days a week.
If you cannot yet run 20 minutes non-stop, that is fine: alternate walking and jogging for the first few weeks, gradually lengthen the jogging sections and treat the Vallecana as 10 km at your own pace, walking a stretch if you need to. Nobody will take your fancy dress away for that. And if you have been inactive for a long time or have a health condition, see your doctor first.
A note on paces, so we speak the same language: «easy» means you can chat in full sentences; «comfortably hard» means only short phrases come out; and «10K pace» is the pace you think you could hold on race day.
Plan A: finish in one piece and with a smile (3 days a week)
Weeks 1 to 4 (26 October to 22 November)
- Day 1: 25-30 minutes easy.
- Day 2: 30 minutes easy with 4-6 one-minute pick-ups at a livelier pace; jog for 2 minutes between them to recover.
- Day 3, the long run: 35 minutes in the first week, adding 3 or 4 minutes each week until you reach around 45.
- If your legs feel heavy one day, cut it short. Consistency beats heroics.
Week 5 (23 to 29 November): recovery week
- The same three days, trimming roughly a quarter of the time from each session.
- Absorbing the work is training too: this is the week that makes the following ones feel good.
Weeks 6 to 8 (30 November to 20 December)
- Day 1: 35-40 minutes easy.
- Day 2: after a 10-minute warm-up, 3 blocks of 5 minutes at a comfortably hard pace with 2 minutes of jogging between them. In week 8, make them 7 minutes.
- Day 3, the long run: 50, 55 and 60 minutes easy. If there is a hill near you, include it so your legs are used to climbing.
Week 9 (21 to 27 December): ease off
- Day 1: 30 minutes easy.
- Day 2: 2 blocks of 5 minutes at a comfortably hard pace.
- Day 3: 40-45 minutes easy. Yes, it can be done between mince pies.
Plan B: chasing your PB (4 days a week)
The foundation is the same as in plan A —most of the kilometres easy— but with two quality sessions a week. If one of them leaves you wiped out for days, it is a sign you are going too fast: slow down before dropping sessions.
Weeks 1 to 4
- Day 1: 40 minutes easy.
- Day 2, intervals: 5 × 1,000 m at your target 10K pace with 2 minutes of jogging between them; from week 3, add one more repetition.
- Day 3: 30-35 minutes easy with 6 strides of 20 seconds at the end.
- Day 4, long run: 60 minutes easy, building gradually up to 70.
Week 5: recovery week
- Cut a quarter of the total volume.
- Keep the intervals, but with one repetition fewer.
Weeks 6 to 8
- Day 1: 40-45 minutes easy.
- Day 2, intervals: 3 × 2,000 m at 10K pace with 3 minutes of jogging (weeks 6 and 8) and 6 × 1,000 m a touch quicker than your target pace (week 7).
- Day 3: after warming up, 20-25 minutes continuous at a comfortably hard pace.
- Day 4, long run: 70-75 minutes easy.
Week 9: ease off
- Three days instead of four: 35 minutes easy, 4 × 1,000 m at race pace and 50 minutes easy.
Race week (for both plans)
28 to 31 December
- Monday 28: rest.
- Tuesday 29: 20-30 minutes easy with 4 short accelerations at the end.
- Wednesday 30: rest or 15 very easy minutes. A good day to get your bib, kit and travel to the start sorted.
- Thursday 31: race day. Eat something light and familiar about three hours beforehand and do not wear anything new, neither shoes nor socks.
Race day: cold, crowds and fancy dress
The Vallecana is a winter race: you will usually wait in your pen feeling cold and finish sweating. The classic trick is to wear an old jumper or a bin bag with holes for the wait and take it off when you set off. Thin gloves and something on your head will not go amiss either.
The start is packed —price tiers going up to bib 42,000 give you a clue—, so for the first few minutes you will be slower than you would like. It is a blessing in disguise: it stops you shooting off like a rocket and paying for it at kilometre 6. Let the tide sort itself out and settle into your pace.
If you like a coffee before training, race day is no time for experiments: have it the way you have tried it on your training runs. You have these ten weeks to fine-tune the coffee dose that actually works before a session.
And once you cross the line, the most generous feed station of the year awaits: New Year's Eve dinner. Drink some water when you get in, put some carbohydrate and a bit of protein on your plate without obsessing and, if you fancy a toast, we have written about the post-workout beer, without the drama. As for the Spanish twelve grapes at midnight: one at a time, as ever.
No bib, or a long way from Madrid?
Not being able to be in Madrid on the 31st does not mean these ten weeks are wasted. In Victoris's Adrenaline Race you log your 10 km at your own pace and from wherever you live, with a medal at the end: the same plan lets you close the year with a goal achieved.
Ten weeks, three or four days a week and most of the kilometres easy. That is all it takes. See you at the finish (or at dinner).
You already have your challenge.
All that's left is to start it.
Join this challenge and every workout gets you closer to your medal.
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