Couch to 5K on a treadmill
Written by Jamie Miller, Founder & EditorLast checked
Yes, and the NHS says so itself. All 27 sessions are set in minutes, so they run on a belt exactly as written.
Set your walking and jogging speeds
5 and 8 km/h are starting numbers to type over, not a recommendation. The NHS sets no speed anywhere in the plan, and tells you to focus on time rather than speed, so we are not going to set one for you. At 5 km/h the site calls that a walk and at 8 km/h a jog.
Can you do Couch to 5K on a treadmill?
Yes. The NHS says it on its own Couch to 5K page, under "Plan your route": "If running outside isn't your thing, you can do your runs on a treadmill instead." That is the answer, and it is not ours.
The reason it works is in how the plan is written. Every session is a list ofminutes, never a distance, a pace or a route: run for a minute, walk for a minute and a half, seven times. A treadmill holds a set speed for a set time, which is what every one of those intervals asks for. Nothing in the plan has to be converted, adapted or scaled to move it indoors, which is why this page can simply set the NHS's own intervals out and add the speeds and distances that follow from them.
The NHS Couch to 5K plan on a treadmill
9 weeks, 3 runs a week, 27 sessions in all. Every one of them opens with a 5 minute warm-up walk and closes with a 5 minute cool-down walk, with the running and walking intervals in between. The NHS asks for a rest day between each run.
Weeks 1 to 4 give you the same session three times, and so do weeks 7 to 9; only weeks 5 and 6 change run by run. The table groups the sessions the way the plan itself does rather than printing an identical row three times.
Week by week: the sessions, the settings and the distance
Each bar is one session drawn to time, on one scale across every row, so a longer session really is a longer bar. Solid is running, pale is walking, and the five minute walk at each end is in every bar. The times are the NHS's; the distances are ours, and they are nothing more than your two speeds multiplied by those times, warm-up and cool-down included.
| Session | The session, drawn to time | After the warm-up walk | Total | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1, runs 1 to 3 | Run 1 min, walk 1 min 30 s, 7 times; then run 1 min | 28 minutes 30 seconds | 2.78 km | |
| Week 2, runs 1 to 3 | Run 1 min 30 s, walk 2 min, 5 times; then run 1 min 30 s | 29 minutes | 2.87 km | |
| Week 3, runs 1 to 3 | Run 1 min 30 s; walk 1 min 30 s; run 3 min; walk 3 min; run 1 min 30 s; walk 1 min 30 s; then run 3 min | 25 minutes | 2.53 km | |
| Week 4, runs 1 to 3 | Run 3 min; walk 1 min 30 s; run 5 min; walk 2 min 30 s; run 3 min; walk 1 min 30 s; then run 5 min | 31 minutes 30 seconds | 3.43 km | |
| Week 5, run 1 | Run 5 min; walk 3 min; run 5 min; walk 3 min; then run 5 min | 31 minutes | 3.33 km | |
| Week 5, run 2 | Run 8 min; walk 5 min; then run 8 min | 31 minutes | 3.38 km | |
| Week 5, run 3 | Run 20 min | 30 minutes | 3.50 km | |
| Week 6, run 1 | Run 5 min; walk 3 min; run 8 min; walk 3 min; then run 5 min | 34 minutes | 3.73 km | |
| Week 6, run 2 | Run 10 min; walk 3 min; then run 10 min | 33 minutes | 3.75 km | |
| Week 6, run 3 | Run 25 min | 35 minutes | 4.17 km | |
| Week 7, runs 1 to 3 | Run 25 min | 35 minutes | 4.17 km | |
| Week 8, runs 1 to 3 | Run 28 min | 38 minutes | 4.57 km | |
| Week 9, runs 1 to 3 | Run 30 min | 40 minutes | 4.83 km |
The plan is called Couch to 5K, and the last session is a 30 minute run rather than a 5 km one. Covering 5 km inside that run needs 10 km/h (6.2 mph), which the NHS neither asks for nor mentions. The 5k pace page works the same sum the other way round, from a target time to a belt speed.
How this is calculated
The plan is transcribed, not summarised. Every interval on this page was read off the NHS page on 19 September 2026 and entered session by session, including the sessions that repeat.
The NHS prints a total time on each session as well as its intervals, which is two independent statements about the same session. A test adds each session's intervals up and compares the sum with the stated total, and the build fails if any one of the 13 rows disagrees. That check caught a real error on the first pass: a summary of week 5 run 1 had two 5 minute runs where the plan has three.
Distance is speed x time, applied separately to the walking minutes and the running minutes and added: (walk minutes x walk speed + run minutes x run speed) / 60. Nothing else. The speed to cover 5 km in the final run is 5 / 30 x 60.
Sources
- Publisher stated, Independent publication
- The Couch to 5K plan, week by weekNHSCouch to 5K running planOpened 19 September 2026Nine weeks, three runs a week, every session a 5 minute warm-up walk and a 5 minute cool-down walk around the running. The intervals on this page are transcribed from it run by run, not summarised: weeks 1 to 4 repeat the same session three times, weeks 5 and 6 differ run by run, and weeks 7 to 9 are a single continuous run of 25, 28 and 30 minutes. Each session’s stated total time is reproduced and we checked every one against the intervals.
- Publisher stated, Independent publication
- Who the plan is for, and when to speak to a GPNHSGet running with Couch to 5KOpened 19 September 2026States that "Couch to 5K is for everyone, no matter your fitness level", and under non-urgent advice, to speak to a GP if "you’re worried about your health before starting an exercise plan like Couch to 5K". That caution is reproduced on our page in the NHS’s own terms; we add none of our own. This page is ALSO where the NHS answers the treadmill question itself, under “Plan your route”: “If running outside isn’t your thing, you can do your runs on a treadmill instead.” The older /live-well/ URL we first cited now redirects here, and the citation has been moved to the address the NHS serves.
- Publisher stated, Independent publication
- The 1% treadmill grade that is said to match outdoor runningJournal of Sports SciencesJones AM, Doust JH. A 1% treadmill grade most accurately reflects the energetic cost of outdoor running. J Sports Sci. 1996 Aug;14(4):321-7Opened 19 September 2026The origin of the advice to set 1% incline, and the reason our page does not pass it on to a beginner. The abstract states the finding as holding “over a duration of approximately 5 min and at velocities between 2.92 and 5.0 m s-1”, which is 10.5 to 18.0 km/h, or 6.5 to 11.2 mph. A Couch to 5K jogging pace is below the whole of that range, so the study does not cover it. Nine trained male runners, habituated to treadmill running. We read the abstract, not the paper, which is why this is graded D rather than higher.
- Independently verified, Independent publication
- One mile is exactly 1.609344 kmNIST (US National Institute of Standards and Technology)SI units — lengthOpened 19 September 2026Corroborated byWeights and Measures Act 1985 (UK)Schedule 1, Part VI: Mile = 1760 yards; YARD = 0.9144 metreOpened 19 September 2026NIST states that the inch has been exactly 25.4 mm since the international yard and pound agreement of 1959. A mile is 63,360 inches, so it is exactly 1,609.344 m. UK statute gives the same number by a different route: Schedule 1 Part VI of the Weights and Measures Act 1985 sets "Mile = 1760 yards" and "YARD = 0.9144 metre", and 1760 x 0.9144 is 1,609.344 exactly. THE CAVEAT, because it is the reason this is a B and not higher: both descend from the same 1959 international agreement, so they are independent publications rather than independent measurements. Neither copies the other, and an error in one would not reach the other, which is what the B test asks. It is a definition rather than a measurement either way, which is why every conversion on these pages is exact.
Limits
This is not medical advice and nothing here is ours to advise on. The NHS's own caution is that you should speak to a GP if you are worried about your health before starting an exercise plan like Couch to 5K. We reproduce that and add nothing to it.
If you have read that you should set a 1% incline, here is where that comes from and why this page does not repeat it. It traces to a real study, Jones and Doust in 1996, which found a 1% grade matched the energy cost of outdoor running. It found that at velocities between 2.92 and 5.0 metres a second, which is 10.5 to 18 km/h, or 6.5 to 11.2 mph, in nine trained male runners already habituated to a treadmill. A Couch to 5K jogging pace sits below the whole of that range. The paper is in the sources above; what it does not do is cover the reader this page is for.
The distances assume the belt holds your two speeds exactly, for every minute, and that the console is telling the truth. We have not measured the belt speed of any machine. Treat the distance column as arithmetic rather than as a measurement.
The plan can change, and this is a transcription of the version published on 19 September 2026. If a session on the NHS page no longer matches a row above, the NHS page is right and this one is out of date.
Related tools
Looking for a machine rather than a number? See our guide to treadmill workouts built around pace and incline. Every specification there carries its source and the date it was checked.