I review every week and adjust what comes next, with WhatsApp access.
5K Coaching
12 Weeks to a New Personal Best
Built on your strengths and schedule.
Reviewed every week by your coach.
Reviewed every week by your coach.
Personalized at Every Level
Every workout
Every session is chosen for a specific purpose and adapted to your strengths, weaknesses, and current fitness. I set your training zones from a recent race or time trial, and update them as your fitness changes across the block.
Every week
I build your week around your preferred running days and space the key sessions to match your recovery profile. Leave a note after any session and I rebuild the next week around your feedback and training data.
Every question
Message me on WhatsApp any time, and you get a reply within 12 hours, seven days a week. A niggle, a session that went wrong, a fueling question, you get an answer before the next run.
Athlete Results
Sandro’s expertise and attention to detail has helped me improve more than I had thought possible. Through his online coaching, I broke my 20 year 5K PR by 21 seconds to 15:48 and I was able to break my half marathon PR by almost 4 minutes to 1:14:29.
Shai Birmaher
United States
The structure and guidance helped me execute a new marathon PR with a first place overall finish in 2:39:37 on a hilly course. Sandro’s scientific approach ensures that every run and workout has a purpose, arriving at the starting line fit, healthy, and fresh.
James Mount
United States
Sandro’s very well thought out coaching has assisted my running greatly, being able to fit my runs around the changing hours I work with my job. I am certain I would not have managed a 2:58 marathon PB at 45 years old without Sandro’s coaching.
Richard Leary
New Zealand
12-Week 5K Preparation
01 Foundation
Weeks 1 to 3 build the aerobic base everything else sits on. Steady mileage, hills, and strides to prepare your legs and tendons for the harder work ahead, so the next phase does not arrive too soon.
02 Threshold
Weeks 4 to 6 raise the pace you can hold before fatigue takes over. Tempo runs and cruise intervals lift your threshold, which is what lets you absorb the hard intervals in the next block and recover between them.
03 VO2 max
Weeks 7 to 9 raise your maximal aerobic capacity. At 5K you race at or above this intensity, so it comes late in the block, when the adaptations are still fresh on race day.
04 Peak
Weeks 10 to 12 turn fitness into race readiness. Race pace intervals, sharpening, and a taper that leaves you fast rather than flat on the start line.
Sandro Sket, CSCS
NSCA-Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
I’ve been an endurance athlete since my teenage years, racing everything from the 400m to the marathon. I know what it takes to push through hard track sessions and demanding long runs.
As an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with 12 years of coaching experience, I apply elite-level training principles and customize them to each athlete I coach.
My focus is simple: turn your training into 5K performance.
If you’re already training hard but not progressing the way you should, I’ll help you identify what’s holding you back and rebuild your training so that every session moves you toward your race.
Sandro Sket, CSCS
NSCA-Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
I’ve been an endurance athlete since my teenage years, racing everything from the 400m to the marathon. I know what it takes to push through hard track sessions and demanding long runs.
As an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with 12 years of coaching experience, I apply elite-level training principles and customize them to each athlete I coach.
My focus is simple: turn your training into 5K performance.
If you’re already training hard but not progressing the way you should, I’ll help you identify what’s holding you back and rebuild your training so that every session moves you toward your race.
How it Works
1. Sign up for 12 weeks
Tell me about your running background and your 5K goal.
2. Add me as your coach
Set up a free FinalSurge account and add me as your coach.
3. Train with a coach watching
5K Coaching
12 weeks online coaching
$
599
/one-time
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Training is delivered on FinalSurge
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Custom training built around you
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Plan adjustments as needed
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Weekly coach review
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Coach feedback on every run
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Race planning and strategy
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WhatsApp replies within 12 hours
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Three 30-minute coaching calls
Start 5K Coaching
Injured before week 6?
Move to another race.
Move to another race.
All coaching and communication is handled directly by me, Sandro Sket. I don’t outsource coaching or delegate athlete management to assistants. My approach is based on the belief that training decisions and performance oversight require direct involvement to maintain quality and consistency.
To ensure that level of attention, remote coaching is intentionally limited to a small number of athletes.
If injury stops your training before week 6, you carry the block to any race within 12 months at no extra cost. Tell me in WhatsApp when it happens and we sort out the timing together.
Yes, I coach runners at different performance levels, but the common thread is intent. This block is built for runners who train consistently, want feedback, and have a 5K race on the calendar they care about.
Coaching starts with understanding your current fitness, training history, and your goal race. I build your training around that context and adjust it continuously based on how you respond to the training stimuli.
Your training is reviewed regularly using your training log data and your feedback in the comment section. Based on that, I update sessions week to week to manage load, progression, and recovery so training remains productive and sustainable as fitness develops. All workouts include clear instructions and can be uploaded to your watch for execution.
Over the 12 weeks your training moves through four phases, and each one is built on what you actually completed in the last.
Training is delivered through FinalSurge by default. TrainingPeaks is available for athletes who prefer to stay on that platform. I initiate coach-led email reviews each Sunday. You can also reach me on WhatsApp whenever questions come up during the week.
That depends on where you’re starting. A runner with three years of training and no structure has more to gain than someone already doing the right work at the right volume. What I can tell you is where the gains come from: raising your ceiling early, then spending 6 weeks building what you can hold beneath it.
I don’t promise a time. Any coach who does is guessing at your genetics, your consistency, and race day weather. What I promise is that every session has a reason, and that the plan changes when your training says it should.
Sign up for the 12 week block. I’ll email you to ask about your running background, your goal race, and where your training stands now.
From there you set up a free FinalSurge account and add me as your coach. Your plan is built around your paces and your training days, and week one starts as soon as it’s in.
If you have questions before you commit, write me at sandro@runningfront.com
Serious About Your Next 5K?
Who this is for
- Runners targeting qualification standards or time goals
- Runners who value structured, data-driven progression
- Runners who strategically train for a peak performance
- Runners who have outgrown generic training plans
Not for
- Runners without a goal race on the calendar
- Runners unwilling to train consistently 4–7 days per week
- Runners who frequently skip sessions without adjustment
- Runners who don't want feedback on their training
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