Marathon on 4 Days a Week Training Plan

About this plan

The whole plan points at one thing: your marathon. Across 16 weeks and roughly 5 hours a week, it builds you toward the full 26.2 mile marathon with nothing in there that does not earn its place.

Every target is set as a percentage of your own threshold pace and heart rate, so it fits you and not some average athlete. The weeks climb and then ease in three-week blocks, and across them your endurance, your pace and the durability to hold it late on are trained in balance.

Follow it as written and you will arrive at your marathon genuinely ready, not just hopeful.

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Common questions

Who is this plan for?

The rider or athlete targeting your marathon. It suits the full 26.2 mile marathon, for someone who can give it a fairly steady 5 hours most weeks.

How much training does it involve?

You are looking at 16 weeks and a lean 5 hours a week, arranged in three-week blocks that push and then recover so the fitness actually sticks.

How is the plan delivered?

You buy it once and it lands in your TrainingPeaks account, every session spelled out in plain words with the reason it is there, ready to start straight away.

Want it built around your life instead of off the shelf? See Plan Only.