13 juil. 2025

Training + Nutrition Plan for 5 km Veggie

A 5 km run finished in 35 minutes costs about 368 kcal for a 70 kg runner and 289 kcal for a 55 kg runner. That is roughly a bowl of porridge with a banana on top. This single number explains most of what follows: over this distance, nutrition does not create performance, it only avoids wrecking it. What decides the outcome is the running volume you accumulate week after week, and the only things a vegetarian diet genuinely changes are three specific nutrients: iron, vitamin B12 and calcium.

This page gives the official NHS running plan week by week with the exact durations, carbohydrate and protein targets expressed per kilogram of body weight, a fully weighed vegetarian day calculated on the Ciqual food composition table, and the Swiss reference values to compare those numbers against.

What a 5 km actually costs

The Compendium of Physical Activities, whose third update was published in 2024 in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, assigns a MET value to each activity measured by indirect calorimetry. Running at 6.9 to 7.7 km/h is 7.8 METs, running at 8.9 km/h is 9.0 METs, and running at 10 km/h is 9.3 METs. Energy expenditure is METs multiplied by body weight in kilograms and by duration in hours.

Body weight	5 km in 40 min (7.8 METs)	5 km in 35 min (9.0 METs)	5 km in 30 min (9.3 METs)
55 kg	286 kcal	289 kcal	256 kcal
60 kg	312 kcal	315 kcal	279 kcal
70 kg	364 kcal	368 kcal	326 kcal
80 kg	416 kcal	420 kcal	372 kcal

Three sessions a week of about 35 minutes therefore add somewhere between 950 and 1150 kcal across the whole week for a 70 kg runner. That is real, but it is nowhere near enough to justify rebuilding your diet. This is the paradox of preparing for a 5 km: energy needs barely move, while injury risk depends directly on a variable almost nobody tracks, the cumulative running volume.

Notice too that running faster does not cost more over a fixed distance. The 5 km in 30 minutes burns less than the same 5 km in 40 minutes, simply because you are running for less time. Distance covered, not pace, drives the total.

The running plan: exact durations from the NHS programme

The British health service publishes Couch to 5K, a free nine-week plan built around three sessions a week with a rest day between each. Every session opens with a five-minute warm-up walk and closes with a five-minute cool-down walk. Here is the running content, excluding the walks at either end.

Week	Content of each of the three sessions	Running minutes across the week
1	run 1 min, walk 1 min 30, seven times, then run 1 min	24 min
2	run 1 min 30, walk 2 min, five times, then run 1 min 30	27 min
3	run 1 min 30, 3 min, 1 min 30, 3 min, with matching walk breaks	27 min
4	run 3 min, 5 min, 3 min, 5 min, with 1 min 30 to 2 min 30 walks between	48 min
5	session 1: 5-5-5 min; session 2: 8-8 min; session 3: 20 min without stopping	51 min
6	session 1: 5-8-5 min; session 2: 10-10 min; session 3: 25 min without stopping	63 min
7	25 minutes of continuous running, three times	75 min
8	28 minutes of continuous running, three times	84 min
9	30 minutes of continuous running, three times	90 min

Two details in that table deserve attention. First: volume goes from 27 minutes in week 3 to 48 minutes in week 4, a 78 % jump from one week to the next. That is the sharpest step in the whole programme, and it is where beginners get hurt. The NHS states explicitly that repeating a week is expected and fine; in practice, redoing week 4 before moving on to week 5 is often the most profitable decision of the entire block.

Second: the plan counts minutes, never kilometres. The final session is a 30-minute run, not a timed 5 km. For many beginners, 30 minutes of running covers 4 to 4.5 km rather than 5. The NHS accepts that gap because the goal is the ability to run for half an hour without walking, and the distance follows on its own afterwards.

An umbrella systematic review of thirteen reviews, published in 2024 in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, pooled 207 outcomes from 148 primary studies on risk factors for running-related injuries. Training characteristics, meaning volume and its progression, sit among the factors with large effect sizes. The authors also flag the low methodological quality of the included reviews, which rules out turning that finding into a precise numerical rule. Caution about progression stays justified; the familiar 10 % per week rule, on the other hand, rests on no solid demonstration.

On stretching, the evidence is less comfortable than tradition. A systematic review published in 2016 in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found that static stretches held for 60 seconds or more per muscle group reduce immediate performance by about 4.6 %, against 1.1 % for shorter holds. The British Journal of Sports Medicine went further in 2020, listing the belief that static stretching reduces injury risk in runners among running myths. Dynamic stretches before the run and a walking cool-down afterwards remain useful; their job is to prepare and to wind down, not to prevent injury.

How much carbohydrate and protein you actually need

The joint position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada and the American College of Sports Medicine, published in 2016 in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, sets reference intakes for endurance athletes at 6 to 10 g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight per day and 1.2 to 1.7 g of protein per kilogram per day. Fat should supply 20 to 30 % of total energy, and that floor matters because below 20 % the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and the supply of essential fatty acids both suffer.

Those ranges were built for athletes training one or several hours a day. A 5 km runner accumulating 90 minutes of running per week at the peak of the programme sits at the bottom of the carbohydrate range, not the top. For 70 kg, that means roughly 350 to 420 g of carbohydrate a day rather than 700.

Body weight	Carbohydrate, bottom of range (5 g/kg)	Protein (1.2 to 1.7 g/kg)
55 kg	275 g	66 to 94 g
60 kg	300 g	72 to 102 g
70 kg	350 g	84 to 119 g
80 kg	400 g	96 to 136 g

Protein is the target that worries new vegetarians most, and it is precisely the one that causes the fewest problems. A randomised crossover trial published in 2026 in Nutrition Journal followed 36 recreational athletes across four universities, 16 of them runners, through two four-week periods, one on an omnivore diet and one on a plant-based diet, both served in university dining halls. The difference on the 12-minute timed run was 36.2 metres in favour of the omnivore diet, with a 95 % confidence interval running from -130.3 to +57.9 metres, a result entirely compatible with no difference at all. On strength, the composite gap was 4.0 % with an interval of -8.5 to +0.6 %, also non-significant.

A narrative review published in 2026 in Frontiers in Nutrition on vegetarian diets in female athletes reaches the same conclusion: available intervention and observational studies report comparable performance and health outcomes between vegetarian and omnivorous athletes. What these papers do not say is that any vegetarian diet will do. They compare planned diets, served by university kitchens or supervised by dietitians.

The weighed day: what a vegetarian runner’s plate actually contains

Here is a day built for a 70 kg runner on a training day, with every item weighed and calculated on the ANSES Ciqual 2020 composition table. Percentages refer to the nutrient reference values in annex 10 of the Swiss ordinance on food information (OIDAl, RS 817.022.16).

Breakfast: 90 g of oat flakes, 200 ml of semi-skimmed milk, a 120 g banana, 15 g of chia seeds, 30 g of dried banana. Snack: a 150 g apple, 30 g of unsalted cashews. Lunch: 200 g of cooked lentils, 200 g of cooked quinoa, 100 g of raw red pepper, 80 g of carrot, 15 g of olive oil, a 150 g plain yoghurt. Before the session: a 100 g banana and 60 g of wholemeal bread. Dinner: 150 g of plain tofu, 250 g of cooked brown rice, 150 g of cooked spinach, 10 g of olive oil.

Nutrient	Daily total	Comparison
Energy	2727 kcal
Carbohydrate	363 g	5.18 g/kg, bottom of the ACSM range
Protein	103 g	1.47 g/kg, inside the 1.2 to 1.7 range
Fat	78 g	26 % of energy
Fibre	76 g	against the 30 g recommended by the NHS
Iron	23.2 mg	166 % of the 14 mg reference value
Calcium	1173 mg	147 % of the 800 mg reference value
Vitamin B12	1.49 µg	60 % of the 2.5 µg reference value
Zinc	17.1 mg	171 % of the 10 mg reference value
Magnesium	1022 mg	273 % of the 375 mg reference value

Two numbers in that table are uncomfortable and deserve a straight look.

The 76 g of fibre first. The NHS recommends 30 g a day and reports an average intake of about 20 g among British adults. This day supplies two and a half times the recommendation. That is not dangerous, but it is a load that a gut used to 20 g will not absorb overnight, and certainly not right before running. A systematic review of 29 studies published in 2025 in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition surveys the strategies against exercise-related gastrointestinal symptoms and singles out progressive gut training as the most promising approach, while noting that the restrictive nature of a low-FODMAP diet can create problems of its own. In short: fibre load is built over weeks, and a training session is not the moment to raise it.

Vitamin B12 second. With 200 ml of milk and a yoghurt, this day reaches 1.49 µg, or 60 % of the Swiss reference value. Replace the dairy with a calcium-fortified almond drink and change nothing else, and the same day drops to 0.23 µg, or 9 % of the reference value, while calcium falls from 1173 to 882 mg. Iron does not move at all. That is the most useful result of the whole calculation: the vegetarian question in running is not settled on protein, but on B12 for anyone excluding dairy, and secondarily on calcium.

Iron: the real issue, and why the numbers mislead

The table above shows 166 % of the iron reference value. That number is true and, taken alone, misleading, because it measures what goes onto the plate, not what reaches the blood.

Non-heme iron from plants is absorbed in wildly variable proportions. A narrative review published in 2025 in Advances in Nutrition compiled stable-isotope absorption studies on iron naturally present in soy: absorption adjusted for a given iron status ranges from 4.1 % to 22.2 % depending on the meal, contributing 13 to 70 % of the daily requirement for absorbed iron in adult men and 10 to 40 % in women. A fivefold spread driven by meal composition alone, at identical iron content.

What drives that yield is well documented. Phytates from wholegrains and legumes, plus calcium and the polyphenols in tea and coffee, lower it; ascorbic acid raises it. The practical consequences follow immediately. The after-dinner coffee, praised elsewhere as an ally of the athlete, is the direct enemy of iron absorption when it accompanies a legume-heavy meal; moving it an hour away costs nothing. The raw red pepper in the lunch above is not decorative: its 100 g deliver 37 mg of vitamin C in the same meal as 200 g of lentils.

On the iron status of vegetarian athletes, a narrative review published in 2026 in Current Nutrition Reports concludes that available studies do not consistently show a higher prevalence of iron deficiency among vegetarian athletes than among omnivores: despite lower bioavailability, total dietary iron intake in vegetarians often equals or exceeds that of omnivores, and several adaptive responses come into play. A controlled trial published in 2025 in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research points the same way: after eating 150 g of pistachios, the area under the serum iron curve was higher in 27 vegans than in omnivores, suggesting an adaptation of absorption. The sample is small and the protocol acute, so the result points rather than settles.

There is, however, a mechanism specific to exercise and independent of diet. An individual participant data meta-analysis published in 2023 in Sports Medicine shows that exercise is associated with a 1.5 to 2.5-fold increase in hepcidin, the hormone regulating iron, peaking 3 to 6 hours after the effort. High hepcidin reduces intestinal iron absorption. The practical takeaway is clean: an iron-rich, vitamin C-rich meal is better placed before the session or shortly after it, rather than inside the several-hour window that follows.

Reference requirements differ between sources, and that difference is meaningful. The NHS sets the reference nutrient intake at 8.7 mg a day for men aged 19 and over, 14.8 mg for women aged 19 to 49, and 8.7 mg for women aged 50 and over. The Swiss nutrient reference value in annex 10 of the OIDAl is a single labelling figure, 14 mg, which does not distinguish by sex. For a menstruating woman who runs regularly, the first figure is the one to aim at.

Calcium and bone: what actually breaks in runners

The stress fracture is the injury that keeps runners out longest, and it is also the one whose mechanism links most clearly to diet. A narrative review published in 2026 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine emphasises the modifiable contributors: training load errors, neuromuscular fatigue and low energy availability within the framework of relative energy deficiency in sport.

The International Olympic Committee consensus statement on relative energy deficiency in sport, published in 2023 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, defines the syndrome as the set of harmful health and performance outcomes arising from energy availability that is inadequate relative to exercise energy expenditure. Since the 2018 version, more than 170 original research publications have advanced the field, particularly on the role of low carbohydrate availability and on how the condition presents in men.

This point deserves saying plainly in an article that covers both running and vegetarian eating: combining a very high-fibre, very satiating diet with the start of a training habit easily leads to eating less without ever deciding to. A vegetarian day at 76 g of fibre fills the stomach well before it fills the requirements. If weight drops during the build-up without that being the goal, if periods become irregular or stop, if performance stalls despite the training, the likeliest cause is not a protein shortfall but an energy deficit, and that belongs in a medical consultation.

On calcium, the Swiss labelling reference is 800 mg a day. The weighed day above supplies 1173 mg with dairy and 882 mg with a fortified plant drink. The detail matters: a plain unfortified almond drink supplies 12 mg of calcium per 100 g according to Ciqual, so 30 mg in a large 250 ml glass, while the fortified version supplies 54 mg per 100 g, so 135 mg in the same glass. A factor of 4.5 between two cartons that look nearly identical on the shelf. It is one of the few shopping decisions that genuinely moves a daily intake.

Before, during and after the session

Before. The NHS recommends a light carbohydrate snack one to two hours before running and names a banana or a slice of toast explicitly. Those examples are well sized: 120 g of banana provides 24 g of carbohydrate and 3.2 g of fibre, 60 g of wholemeal bread provides 27 g. Combining both takes you to 41 g of carbohydrate, still reasonable, but also to 6 g of fibre, which starts to weigh on a nervous stomach. For hydration, the ACSM position suggests 5 to 7 ml per kilogram in the four hours beforehand, so 350 to 490 ml for a 70 kg runner.

During. Over 5 km there is nothing to do. The recommendation to take in 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour applies to efforts lasting beyond an hour and makes no sense for a 30-minute session. A few sips if the heat demands it will do. The ACSM position also reminds athletes not to drink more than has been lost.

That point is not cosmetic. A narrative review published in 2022 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine on exercise-associated hyponatremia in marathon runners notes that neurological disorders and deaths from hyponatremic encephalopathy still occur, and that the dominant mechanism is excessive fluid intake combined with non-osmotic vasopressin secretion, with sodium loss through sweat playing a smaller role. A 2025 review in the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine, which analysed 220 cases from 56 field studies, notes that it is a greater percentage of women, not a greater absolute number, who experience it. The risk is low over 5 km, but it comes from drinking too much, not too little.

After. The ACSM position suggests 450 to 675 ml of fluid per 0.5 kg of body mass lost during exercise. For glycogen restoration, the aggressive protocols of 1 to 1.5 g of carbohydrate per kilogram within thirty minutes apply when fewer than four hours remain before the next effort. After a 30-minute session followed by a rest day, an ordinary meal does the job, and the famous thirty-minute anabolic window has no practical bearing here.

A word on coffee, since the question always comes up. A network meta-analysis published in 2025 in Nutrients, covering 48 studies and 612 participants, identifies low-dose capsules, around 3 mg per kilogram, as the most effective strategy for time-trial completion time, with a standardised mean difference of -0.34 and a 95 % confidence interval of -0.62 to -0.06. The effect is real and modest, it was measured on time trials, and between-person variability remains substantial. For a recreational 5 km, the main virtue of coffee is still that it gets you out of the door.

Supplements: what works, what does not

Creatine is the only supplement whose logic genuinely changes with diet, because it comes mostly from animal foods and vegetarians therefore carry lower muscle stores. A randomised double-blind trial published in 2025 in Physiological Reports gave 0.3 g per kilogram per day for seven days to fifteen vegans and vegetarians: the creatine group gained 1.56 kg of body mass and 1.15 kg of fat-free mass, with no change in the placebo group. Much of that gain is intramuscular water. For a 5 km runner it is a poor trade: you add weight to carry for a benefit that applies to very short repeated efforts, not to a thirty-minute run.

Beetroot juice, a source of dietary nitrate, has friendlier data. A meta-analysis of 33 studies published in 2026 in Frontiers in Nutrition reports improvements in VO₂max with a standardised mean difference of 0.30, confidence interval 0.05 to 0.55, and in mean power output at 0.43, interval 0.21 to 0.64. An umbrella review of fifteen meta-analyses published in 2025 in Nutrients qualifies the picture: effects are clearer in moderately trained people than in elite athletes. These are small effects measured under standardised protocols, and they will never compensate for a missed training week.

Multivitamin supplements are not needed when energy intake is adequate and food varied: that is the explicit ACSM position, which reserves supplementation for people restricting energy intake, eliminating whole food groups, or carrying a documented specific risk such as iron deficiency anaemia. Vitamin B12 is the exception for anyone excluding all animal products, and that question is settled with a doctor rather than in a shop aisle.

The mistakes that come up most often

Raising protein and neglecting carbohydrate. That is the opposite of the need. An endurance runner needs 5 to 10 g of carbohydrate per kilogram and 1.2 to 1.7 g of protein per kilogram, three to five times more carbohydrate than protein. The weighed day above hits its protein target without a single supplement.

Loading fibre the day before a session or a race. A well-built vegetarian day easily doubles the 30 g the NHS recommends. The gut adapts to a high load, but over weeks, not overnight.

Drinking coffee straight after a legume-heavy meal. Polyphenols cut non-heme iron absorption within that same meal. Shifting it by an hour costs nothing.

Drinking heavily as a precaution. Over 5 km, excess fluid is a documented hyponatremia risk, whereas dehydration only becomes limiting beyond 2 to 3 % of body weight according to the ACSM position. Over half an hour of running, that threshold is rarely reached.

Moving from week 3 to week 4 of the NHS plan because the calendar says so. That is the single point in the programme where volume jumps by 78 % at once. When the legs complain, the right answer is to repeat a week.

Counting kilometres instead of minutes. The plan is built in duration and ends with 30 minutes of continuous running, which often means 4 to 4.5 km for a beginner. Insisting on a full 5 km the moment the programme ends adds a goal the plan never promised.

Dropping dairy without changing anything else. The calculation shows it: B12 falls from 60 % to 9 % of the reference value, and calcium loses nearly 300 mg. That is not an argument against a vegan diet, it is an argument for planning one.

Adapting to your profile

A menstruating woman who runs regularly stacks two factors on iron: a reference intake of 14.8 mg a day according to the NHS, against 8.7 mg for adult men, and the rise in hepcidin after exercise. This is the profile for which systematically pairing a vitamin C source with legume-heavy meals carries the most value, and for which a blood test is justified in the face of unusual fatigue.

A vegan runner should settle the B12 question with a health professional, independently of running. No menu adjustment closes the gap measured above: 0.23 µg against a reference value of 2.5 µg. Calcium, by contrast, is easily recovered by always choosing fortified plant drinks.

Someone returning after a long break gains from adding a consolidation week rather than following the calendar to the letter, and from spreading the programme across twelve weeks rather than nine. The NHS explicitly allows for this.

Someone with a sensitive gut can push most of the fibre into the meals furthest from the session, keep the pre-run snack simple, and leave at least two hours between a full meal and the start.

Someone running fasted in the morning for 30 minutes is not making a mistake: a review published in 2020 in Nutrients notes that pre-exercise carbohydrate ingestion improves performance for longer but not shorter exercise. The calculation changes as soon as the session passes an hour.

The limits of what you have just read

The nutritional values come from the ANSES Ciqual 2020 table, which is French: Swiss products can differ, particularly breads, plant drinks and tofu, whose compositions vary between brands. The reference values used for the percentages are those of annex 10 of the OIDAl, which are single labelling figures rather than individualised requirements.

Energy expenditures derived from METs are population averages. Individual running economy, terrain and temperature can shift those numbers by plus or minus 20 %.

The crossover trial on plant-based diets and performance covers 36 participants split into two groups, which is small; its wide confidence intervals are consistent with that. The data on adaptive iron absorption in vegans rest on 27 participants and an acute protocol.

None of the above replaces medical advice. Persistent fatigue, unusual breathlessness, localised bone pain that worsens on weight-bearing and the loss of periods are reasons to consult, not parameters to optimise alone. The NHS itself recommends speaking to a GP before starting Couch to 5K if you have any concern about your health.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to eat before running 5 km in the morning? Not necessarily. Over a 30-minute session, the 2020 review in Nutrients shows no performance benefit from carbohydrate before short exercise. If you feel better with something in your stomach, the NHS suggests a banana or a slice of toast one to two hours ahead.

How much protein per day for a vegetarian runner? From 1.2 to 1.7 g per kilogram per day according to the ACSM position, so 84 to 119 g for a 70 kg runner. The weighed day above supplies 103 g with no supplement.

Does a vegetarian diet cost performance over 5 km? The available data do not show that. The 2026 crossover trial in Nutrition Journal found no significant difference on a 12-minute timed run between four weeks of a plant-based diet and four weeks of an omnivore diet.

Should vegetarian runners take an iron supplement? Not without a blood test. The 2026 review in Current Nutrition Reports finds no consistently higher prevalence of deficiency among vegetarian athletes. Supplementation is decided on results, with a doctor.

Does plant milk replace cow’s milk for a runner? On calcium, only if it is fortified: 54 mg per 100 g against 12 mg for the plain unfortified version according to Ciqual. On vitamin B12, no, unless the product is specifically fortified; the calculation above drops the intake from 1.49 to 0.23 µg.

How long does it take to run 5 km without stopping? The NHS plan allows nine weeks to reach 30 minutes of continuous running, at three sessions a week. The NHS notes that this can be extended as needed, and repeating a week is part of the programme.

Should I stretch before running to avoid injury? Long static stretches reduce immediate performance by about 4.6 % according to the 2016 review in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, and the British Journal of Sports Medicine placed their protective effect among running myths in 2020. The five-minute warm-up walk built into the NHS plan plus a few dynamic movements are enough.

Is beetroot juice worth it for a 5 km? The measured effect on VO₂max is real but small, a standardised mean difference of 0.30 in the 2026 meta-analysis in Frontiers in Nutrition, and it fades in well-trained people. Across a nine-week build-up, one extra session actually completed counts for more.

Where to go next

On nutritional basics, the complete guide to plant proteins covers portions and sources, and the article on essential amino acids explains why protein complementarity matters less than commonly claimed. For B12, see needs and reliable sources.

On iron, absorption of plant-based iron: myth and reality revisits the factors that change the yield of a meal, and optimizing plant iron absorption turns them into habits.

On training and endurance eating, see vegetarian diet and endurance sports, the method for planning a veggie menu for endurance athletes, and if 5 km is only a stage, the beginner half marathon plan.

On hydration, hydration and electrolytes for vegetarian athletes covers exercise drinks. On coffee, coffee and sports nutrition develops the double effect mentioned above. On nitrates, see lacto-fermented beetroot for endurance.