An 8-week half-marathon plan on three sessions a week to break 1:45 when the base is already there: quality, easy, long run to 20 km.
If one of these is not true, a longer plan will take you further than a short one followed halfway.
Ill, exhausted or in pain, do not run: a plan absorbs a missed session, it does not absorb an injury. Drop the easy run first — it is the least specific. If it is the quality session or the long run that goes, do not move it to another day of the same week; pick the next week up where the plan is, never where you stopped.
| Pace | min/km | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 5:56 – 6:23 | The pace most of this plan is run at. If you cannot hold a conversation, it is too fast. |
| Long run | 6:02 | In the firm third of the easy band, never outside it. However long it is, a long run is never run quicker than this. |
| Half-marathon pace | 4:54 | Half-marathon pace: race day if that is your distance, otherwise the marker just above race-day pace. |
| Threshold pace | 4:45 | The pace you could hold for about an hour in a race. |
| 5 km pace | 4:30 | 5 km race pace: strong, never maximal. |
The long run is 51 % of the heaviest week, against 30 to 35 % in a plan built on five or six runs. On few sessions that is arithmetic: what protects you is not the share but the duration, and no long run in this plan reaches three hours.
Straight into it: 800 m repetitions in week one, because the base is assumed. The midweek easy run closes with a few strides, no watch and no target pace.
Aerobic power58 min
5 × 800 m at 5 km pace, 2 min recovery.
Easy run54 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk. Finish with 4 strides.
Long run14 km
14 comfortable km from start to finish. If it feels hard, it is too fast.
Continuous threshold, twenty minutes. The long run reaches 16 km.
Threshold50 min
20 continuous minutes at Threshold pace.
Easy run50 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Long run16 km
16 comfortable km from start to finish. If it feels hard, it is too fast.
Repetitions move to 1,000 m at 5 km pace. The long run stays entirely easy: on three sessions, the first block's heaviest week carries only one that costs.
Aerobic power65 min
5 × 1000 m at 5 km pace, 150 s recovery.
Easy run50 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Long run17 km
17 comfortable km from start to finish. If it feels hard, it is too fast.
The only lighter week in the plan. It is not optional.
Half-marathon pace50 min
20 continuous minutes at Half-marathon pace.
Easy run45 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Long run13 km
13 comfortable km from start to finish. If it feels hard, it is too fast.
Specific block: no more short repetitions. Threshold, in two fifteen-minute blocks, prepares half-marathon pace. This week and the next each carry two sessions that cost out of three — the price of a specific block held in two weeks, and the reason the easy run between them has to stay genuinely easy.
Threshold blocks68 min
2 × 15 minutes at Threshold pace, 4 min recovery.
Easy run45 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Long run19 km
19 km, the last 6 at Half-marathon pace.
The peak, and it is specific: 3 × 2 km at goal pace, then twenty kilometres with six at that same pace.
Half-marathon pace68 min
3 × 2 km at Half-marathon pace, 3 min recovery.
Easy run45 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Long run20 km
20 km, the last 6 at Half-marathon pace.
Taper, one week only. Fifteen minutes at goal pace, nothing more.
Half-marathon pace45 min
15 continuous minutes at Half-marathon pace.
Easy run35 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Long run11 km
11 comfortable km from start to finish. If it feels hard, it is too fast.
Race week. You maintain; you no longer build.
Half-marathon pace45 min
3 × 3 minutes at Half-marathon pace, 2 min recovery.
Easy run30 min
Conversational pace: you should be able to talk.
Half marathon21.0975 km
Race day.
Stibia exports this plan to your watch, on the days you run, with your long session on the day you choose, and the plan ending on your race date.
Create a free accountThis plan is general training material and does not replace medical advice. If it hurts, stop and see someone.