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Marathon Training Plan

Marathon Training Plan

16-week progressive training schedule to prepare for running a full marathon

Health & Fitness

Template Items (16)

  • Initial fitness assessment

    +1 day after start

    #1

  • Purchase proper running shoes and gear

    +2 days after start

    #2

  • Create nutrition plan for training

    +4 days after start

    #3

  • Week 1: Base building runs (3-5 miles, 4x)

    +7 days after start

    #4

  • Week 2: First long run (6 miles)

    +14 days after start

    #5

  • Week 3: Introduce tempo runs

    +21 days after start

    #6

  • Week 4: Increase long run (8 miles)

    +28 days after start

    #7

  • Week 5: Add strength training routine

    +35 days after start

    #8

  • Week 6: First 10-mile long run

    +42 days after start

    #9

  • Week 8: Half-marathon distance test

    +56 days after start

    #10

  • Week 10: Hill training introduction

    +70 days after start

    #11

  • Week 12: 16-mile long run

    +84 days after start

    #12

  • Week 14: 20-mile long run

    +98 days after start

    #13

  • Week 15: Begin tapering

    +105 days after start

    #14

  • Week 16: Final preparation

    +112 days after start

    #15

  • Marathon day preparation

    +115 days after start

    #16

Using this template will create a new list with all the items shown above. You can rename the list, and optionally add due dates counted from a start date you choose.

Who this is for

A 16-week progressive build to a full marathon, structured around a weekly long run, easier supporting mileage, and a taper. It assumes you can already run comfortably for around 30 minutes. If you're starting from less than that, spend a couple of months building a base first — 16 weeks from zero is how people arrive at the start line injured.

Most of your running should feel easy

The single most common mistake in marathon preparation is running the easy days too hard, which leaves you too tired to run the hard days hard enough. If you can't hold a conversation on an easy run, you're going too fast. This feels wrong for weeks and then stops feeling wrong.

The long run is the session that matters

Everything else supports it. Build it gradually — a rough ceiling of about 10% growth per week, with a step-back week every third or fourth — and practise on it: the shoes, the socks, the fuel, the early alarm. Nothing on race day should be new.

Practise eating while running

Most people can't absorb enough during a marathon without training the gut to tolerate it. Take your planned race fuelling on the long runs, at the intervals you'll use, and find out early which products disagree with you.

Trust the taper

The final weeks reduce volume sharply and it will feel like losing fitness. It isn't; it's letting accumulated fatigue clear so the work shows up on the day. Nothing you do in the last fortnight makes you fitter, and plenty of it can make you slower.

Timing

Turn on due dates and set the start date exactly 16 weeks before race day.

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