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Marathon Training Plan

A marathon is 42.195 km (26.2 miles), and the training for it is mostly patient, easy running with one long run a week. Pick the plan below that matches where you are today, not where you hope to be in four months. Every plan is free, works in kilometres or miles, and can be printed or saved as a PDF.

Health note. General plan, not medical advice. If you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness, an injury, are pregnant or are coming back after a long break, check with a doctor first. Stop and seek help if you feel unwell.

Which marathon plan should I pick?

Your starting point Plan Weeks Runs a week Longest run
You can run about 30 minutes (around 5 km) without stopping 16 week beginner marathon plan 16 4 30 km (18.5 mi)
You have run a half marathon and run about 30 km (19 mi) a week Half marathon to marathon 14 4 32 km (20 mi)
You already run about 40 km (25 mi) a week, long run 16–18 km 12 week marathon plan 12 4 32 km (20 mi)
You want to break 4 hours and already run about 40 km a week Sub-4 hour marathon plan 16 5 32 km (20 mi)
You are 50 or older and have run a half marathon Marathon training over 50 18 4 + 2 short strength sessions 30 km (18.5 mi)
The marathon is next year and you want a half first Half marathon training plan (on RunPerform) 12 4 19 km (12 mi)

The starting points are our own guide, not a medical rule. If two rows fit, choose the longer plan: extra weeks let you repeat a week when life gets in the way. Prefer a plan where every run already has a pace from your goal time? RunPerform has a goal-time beginner plan generator.

How every plan is built

All the plans follow a few principles that coaches and sports scientists broadly agree on.

  • Most running is easy. In studies of nationally and internationally competitive endurance athletes, about 80 % of training sessions were at low intensity (Seiler, 2010). In our plans most runs in a normal week are easy, and you should be able to talk in full sentences on them.
  • One long run a week. It grows slowly and is always run at easy pace. We stop at 32 km (20 miles) or about 3 hours, whichever comes first. That cap is our coaching choice, not a law of physiology: for most runners, extra time on their feet costs more recovery than it gives back.
  • One key session a week. Either threshold running ("comfortably hard", the effort you could hold for roughly an hour in a race) or a steady run with a block at goal marathon pace.
  • Easier weeks. Every fourth week (every third in the over-50 plan) has about a quarter less running so the body can absorb the work.
  • A taper. A meta-analysis of 27 studies found the best results with a taper of about two weeks, where training volume drops by 41–60 % while intensity stays the same (Bosquet et al., 2007). Our plans step down over the last two or three weeks and keep short bits of marathon pace until race week. More on that in RunPerform's marathon taper guide.

Training paces from your goal time

Paces come from the Daniels and Gilbert equations (Oxygen Power, 1979). Easy runs are 59–74 % of the VDOT that matches your goal time and threshold is 83–88 % (Daniels' Running Formula). Use the slow end of the easy range on most days.

Goal time Marathon pace /km /mile Easy /km Easy /mile Threshold /km Threshold /mile Half-way split
3:15:00 4:37 7:26 5:00–5:59 8:03–9:38 4:21–4:33 7:00–7:20 1:37:30
3:30:00 4:59 8:01 5:22–6:25 8:38–10:20 4:40–4:54 7:31–7:53 1:45:00
3:45:00 5:20 8:35 5:44–6:51 9:14–11:02 5:00–5:14 8:02–8:25 1:52:30
4:00:00 5:41 9:09 6:06–7:17 9:49–11:44 5:19–5:34 8:33–8:58 2:00:00
4:15:00 6:03 9:44 6:28–7:43 10:25–12:25 5:39–5:55 9:05–9:31 2:07:30
4:30:00 6:24 10:18 6:51–8:09 11:01–13:07 5:58–6:15 9:36–10:04 2:15:00
4:45:00 6:45 10:52 7:13–8:34 11:36–13:48 6:18–6:36 10:08–10:37 2:22:30
5:00:00 7:07 11:27 7:35–9:00 12:12–14:29 6:38–6:56 10:40–11:10 2:30:00

Not sure your goal is realistic? Put a recent 10K or half marathon into the marathon time predictor, then check the paces and 5 km splits in the marathon pace calculator. Curious what your VO₂ max says about your marathon? See VO₂ max and marathon time on vo2max.io.

The daily check: heart rate, sleep and recovery

A plan on paper does not know that you slept four hours or had a brutal week at work. Your body does. Before a key session or long run, take ten seconds for this check:

Check Green Amber Red
Sleep About your usual, most nights 7 hours or more One short night Several short nights in a row
Morning resting heart rate (or HRV) In your normal range Clearly outside your normal range Outside your normal range for several days
Legs and mood Fresh or normal Heavy, flat, short-tempered Sore in one spot, or pain that changes how you run
Life stress Normal A hard day A hard week, travel, illness in the family
  • All green: run the session as written.
  • One amber: do the run, but make it easy. Move the key session to later in the week, or skip it.
  • Two or more amber, or any red: rest, or walk, or jog very easily for a short time. Pain that changes how you run or signs of illness mean no running until it is sorted out.
  • Amber most days for a week: turn that week into an easier week, even if the plan says build.

Why these signals? Resting heart rate and heart-rate variability are among the most practical ways to follow how an athlete is handling training, as long as you compare against your own normal range (Buchheit, 2014). Adults aged 18 to 60 are advised to sleep 7 hours or more a night on a regular basis (Watson et al., 2015). And a joint consensus statement from the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine describes a drop in performance that does not recover despite weeks of rest, often with mood changes, as the hallmark of overtraining syndrome (Meeusen et al., 2013). Catching the early signs is the point of the check. The research behind HRV-guided training is explained on vo2max.io: recovery-guided marathon training.

This is also how Flemming, the coach behind this site, works with the runners and cyclists he coaches. He reviews every session they log himself, and when stress, sleep or the training itself show that a week is too much, the plan changes. He raced as an elite cyclist for many years and now races as a masters runner, mostly over 5,000 m and 10,000 m. If you would like that kind of follow-up on your marathon build, see personal coaching.

Fuel and drink on long runs

The long run is where you practise race day. The American College of Sports Medicine's joint position statement on nutrition suggests about 30–60 g of carbohydrate per hour for efforts of 1–2.5 hours, and up to 90 g per hour for efforts longer than 2.5 hours (Thomas et al., 2016). Try your gels, drinks or food on long runs so your stomach knows them on race day.

For fluids, the international consensus on exercise-associated hyponatremia advises drinking to thirst rather than to a fixed schedule, because drinking far more than you sweat can dilute the blood's sodium (Hew-Butler et al., 2015).

Print it or save it as a PDF

Each plan has a print view: the week-by-week table in kilometres or miles, the daily check above and the health note, on one or two A4 or US Letter pages. Stick it on the fridge and tick off the weeks.

Questions and answers

How many weeks do I need to train for a marathon?

Most plans run 12 to 20 weeks. If you are new to running, choose 16 weeks or more. If you already run about 40 km (25 miles) a week and have done a half marathon, 12 weeks can be enough.

How many days a week should I run?

Our plans use four runs a week, five in the sub-4 plan. Rest days are part of the plan, not a gap in it.

How long should my longest run be?

We stop at 32 km (20 miles) or about 3 hours, whichever comes first, three to four weeks before race day. That is our coaching choice. Most runners gain more from arriving fresh than from going longer.

What pace should my long runs be?

Easy pace, where you can talk in full sentences. For a 4:00:00 goal that is about 6:06–7:17 per km (9:49–11:44 per mile). Use the slow end on hilly or hot days.

What if I miss a week of training?

Do not try to catch up. Repeat the last week you finished comfortably, then carry on. If you miss more than two weeks close to race day, think about choosing a later race.

Should I follow heart rate or pace?

Both, for different jobs. Pace tells you what the session is. Heart rate, sleep and how your legs feel tell you whether today is the day to do it. The daily check puts them together. To set your zones, use the training pace and heart rate calculator.

Sources

  • Seiler, S. (2010). What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 5(3), 276–291. doi:10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276
  • Bosquet, L., Montpetit, J., Arvisais, D. & Mujika, I. (2007). Effects of tapering on performance: a meta-analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 39(8), 1358–1365. doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e31806010e0
  • Daniels, J. & Gilbert, J. (1979). Oxygen Power: Performance Tables for Distance Runners. Tempe, AZ: Daniels and Gilbert. Daniels, J. Daniels' Running Formula. Human Kinetics.
  • Buchheit, M. (2014). Monitoring training status with HR measures: do all roads lead to Rome? Frontiers in Physiology, 5, 73. doi:10.3389/fphys.2014.00073
  • Watson, N. F. et al. (2015). Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the AASM and SRS. Sleep, 38(6), 843–844 (Consensus Conference Panel; recommendation for adults aged 18–60). doi:10.5665/sleep.4716
  • Meeusen, R. et al. (2013). Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: joint consensus statement of the ECSS and the ACSM. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 45(1), 186–205. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e318279a10a
  • Thomas, D. T., Erdman, K. A. & Burke, L. M. (2016). American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement: Nutrition and athletic performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 48(3), 543–568. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000852
  • Hew-Butler, T. et al. (2015). Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, Carlsbad, California, 2015. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 25(4), 303–320. doi:10.1097/JSM.0000000000000221

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