Your First Marathon Training Plan

About this plan

This plan is built for your first marathon, start to finish. It is shaped around the full 26.2 mile marathon, running 16 weeks at a lean 5 hours a week, so you know exactly what you are signing up for.

The load builds in three-week blocks and then backs off, so the work actually lands instead of burying you. The hard sessions are dosed the way the research says fitness is built, never piled on as junk volume, and your endurance, your pace and the durability to hold it late on all get their turn.

Do the work and you get to your first marathon fit, confident and knowing your day is in hand.

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Common questions

Who is this plan for?

Anyone with your first marathon on the calendar. It is written for the full 26.2 mile marathon, and it assumes you can train consistently at around 5 hours a week.

How much training does it involve?

Plan on 16 weeks and about 5 hours a week. It rises for a couple of weeks, then drops to let the work settle, rather than climbing endlessly until you break.

How is the plan delivered?

A single payment drops the whole plan into TrainingPeaks for you, laid out session by session in plain English so nothing is left to guesswork.

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