If you’re looking to train for your first half marathon over the next month, you’re in the right place because this article will provide you with a free 4 week half marathon training plan and help you avoid a lot of the potential disasters that beginner runners make and get you to the finish line.
This training plan is designed for beginner runners to complete over one and a half months. Beginner runners are runners are people who are completely new to running, previous runners who are returning to running, or athletes who want a minimalist half marathon training plan.
This half marathon program is adapted from the training plans in our app that are written by coaches who know exactly what it takes for amateur age group runners to overcome challenges and reach their endurance race goals.
To start this plan confidently you should at least be able to run continuously for at least 60-90 minutes, this plan will build up quickly so pay attention to niggles and soreness that lasts for several days after workouts because these warning signs may turn into injuries if you’re not careful.
If you’re starting from absolute scratch and can’t run yet check out this article that will help you learn to run, once you’ve completed that learn to run training program you can start following this schedule or any of our other training plans.
In this post you will learn:
- How long is a half marathon
- What’s an average finish time for a half marathon
- How to train for a half marathon as an beginner runner
- What’s a good half marathon finish time
- How long you should train for a half marathon
- What is your half marathon pace
- What is a 4 week beginner half marathon training program
To train for this half marathon you can absolutely use the training plan below. But if you really want a personalized training program that’s designed for your abilities, your goals, and your schedule, you should check out the MOTTIV training app. You can use it for free and it includes much more detailed and personalized plans than we can include in a blog post.
Training Tips to Successfully Train for a Half Marathon
Before diving into the training plan we need to provide some half marathon training tips that will help you prepare for the race successfully, while avoiding a lot of the pitfalls that runners encounter.
How Long is a Half Marathon: the first place to start is by answering the question, “How many miles is a half marathon?” and “How many kilometers is a half marathon?” for our metric friends around the world. A half marathon is 13.1 miles which is 21.1 kilometers. But what is an average half marathon finish time? Enter your age and gender into the calculator below to find out what’s a good finish time in the half marathon for your age group.
How Much Do You Need to Train for a Half Marathon: Knowing your weekly mileage (how many miles per week you should run in training) depends on your race distance, your athletic background, and your goals. It’ll take more training if you don’t have any endurance sports background and you want to win a marathon than if you’re previously an elite endurance athlete who just wants to finish a 5k. Use this calculator below to get a sense of our recommended training time and miles a week required to meet your goals.
What Gear Do You Need to Train for a Half Marathon: There are two items that we recommend all runners have to prepare for a half marathon: proper running shoes and a strap based heart rate monitor. Here’s a video about what to look for in running shoes, and here’s an article on everything you need to know about heart rate training zones and why we use them.
Heart Rate Training Zones for Running: Low intensity running should always be dictated by heart rate, and not pace. This may mean that your easy run training is quite slow, but that’s ok because it’ll mean that you’re building endurance without a lot of physical stress. Calculate your heart rate training zones with this calculator.
Half-Marathon Training Paces: Interval running workouts, also known as “speed work”, should be done using pace as opposed to heart rate. Pace is better than heart rate for intense runs because heart rate will lag by 60-120 seconds while your running pace is instant. Use this calculator to calculate your run training pace per mile and kilometer.
Low Intensity Running: Our training plans are based on the pyramidal model of training(similar to polarized training, 80/20 running, and the Maffetone Method, but with improvements) where 70-80% of the training is done at low intensity Zone 1 and 2. Studies have shown that all athletes will perform better when performing the bulk of their training at a low intensity, it may be difficult to run in Zone 2, but you’ll perform much better if you train at a low intensity.
What to Eat When Training for a Half Marathon: what you eat before running, during your training runs, during your half marathon, and what you take for hydration will make the workouts you perform so much more effective. Physiologists we’ve worked with believe that proper nutrition and hydration can generate the same race results with half the training. This article discusses what to eat before your runs, and this article explains what you should eat during running workouts and races.
Check out the example workout below from one of our marathon training plans. You can see that every workout in our app comes with personalized nutrition guidance for your pre and during workout nutrition to maximize the workout effectiveness.
Rest & Recovery: Your training plan will have complete rest days. Also, every third or fourth week will be a rest week with reduced training hours. It’s critical that you take these as days to truly rest and recover. If you do a pile of heavy yard work, or spend the recovery days on your feet walking around a mall, you won’t be resting and you won’t actually be improving from your training.
Remember that WORKOUTS + REST = PROGRESS, so take rest days seriously to make sure you avoid overtraining and actually progress in your training.
Taper Week: The training plan will have a taper period in the week prior to race day where training volumes will be reduced by roughly 50-60%, while some intense bursts of speed will be maintained. This process will allow your body to flush out all the training fatigue, and have lots of energy in the race. Take the taper process seriously, resting and sleeping as much as possible during taper week.
Half Marathon Race Pace: Workouts in a good training plan will have race pace intervals where you’ll develop the ability to run fast without getting tired. You can use the calculator below to calculate your approximate half marathon race pace for these intervals.
The Best Half Marathon Training Plan for Every Runner
Our run training plans are written by the excellent coaches at Run Free Training who know what it takes to help amateur athletes reach their goals. While the coaches are elite runners themselves, they have a great understanding of how to create training plans that are time efficient and overcome the obstacles most age group runners face in their training.
Beginner Half Marathon Training Plan Workouts
The beginner half marathon training plan has three days of running per week, and maxes out at just over five hours of training per week.
Beginner runners are athletes who are one of the following:
- Runners who have never run a race before
- Previous runners who are returning to running after a few years off
- Runners who want a training plan with as little training as possible that will still confidently to them across the finish line
Long Run (50 mins - 2:15 hrs): The most important run in a run training plan is the weekly long run that most runners do on the weekend when they have more time available. The long run is low intensity, building up gradually to eventually reach 2:15 hours for a half marathon training program. This run will build endurance and teach your body to produce the energy necessary to complete the distance of your race. You can learn all about the long run, how to execute it well, and what to eat before and during the long run in this article.
Here is an example of what a long run looks like from a half marathon training plan in our app.
Interval Run (40-80mins): The second most important run in a run training plan is a weekly interval run, which we call the “Intense Run” in our training plans. Most athletes do this run during the weekday. The interval run will build your top end speed and be based on your run pace determined in the calculator above. You can learn all about how to execute an interval run, and what to eat before and during the workout to get the most out of it in this article here.
Here is an example of what an interval run looks like from a half marathon training plan in our app.
Tempo Run (45mins - 2hrs): The weekly tempo run (which we call the steady run) bridges the gap between the endurance you’ll build in the long run, and the speed you build in the interval run, it teaches you how to run fast without getting tired. Tempo runs have been proven to be a key component of a successful run training plan. You can learn all about tempo runs in this article here.
Here is an example of what a tempo run looks like from our half marathon training plan.
4 Week Beginner Half Marathon Training Plan
- WEEK 1: Start Half Marathon Training And Running Pace Test. 2:30-3:10hrs.
- Monday. Rest Day
- Tuesday. Interval Run (40-60mins):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jog Zone 2 pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides at Zone 4 RPE.
- Main Set: 10x1min fast Zone 5 pace, 1min slow.
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 pace.
- Wednesday. Rest Day
- Thursday. Tempo Run (50-70mins):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jog Zone 2 pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides at Zone 4 RPE.
- Main Set: 3x8min at Zone 3 pace tempo effort, with 1min walk/jog between intervals.
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 pace.
- Friday: Rest Day.
- Saturday. Long Run (60mins):
- Warmup: 10min easy jog warm up
- 5mins of dynamic stretching and 5x50m strides building to Zone 4
- Running time trial: 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) as fast as possible. Enter this time into our pace calculator to get your training paces
- Run the remainder of the run in Zone 2 until you reach a 60min total run.
- Sunday. Rest Day
- WEEK 2: Build Endurance and Speed. 4:20-5:15hrs.
- Monday. Rest Day
- Tuesday. Interval Run (55-75mins):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 Pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides Zone 4 Effort.
- Main Set: 4-5x1 mile at 10k race pace, with 2-3min easy walk/jog recovery between intervals. End when you feel like the next interval is the last one you could possibly do at the same pace
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging
- Wednesday. Rest Day
- Thursday. Tempo Run (1:40-2:00hrs):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 Pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides Zone 4 Effort
- Main Set: 4x3 miles at the top of your Zone 3 pace, with 1-2min walk/jog between intervals
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging.
- Friday: Rest Day.
- Saturday. Long Run (1:45-2:00hrs):
- 105-120min long run with your heart rate in Zone 2
- Sunday. Rest Day
- WEEK 3: Peak Training Week. (4:15-5:10hrs)
- Monday. Rest Day
- Tuesday. Interval Run (60-80mins):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 Pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides Zone 4 Effort.
- Main Set: 10-12x1k at 10k race pace, with 2-3min easy walk/jog recovery between intervals. End when you feel like the next interval is the last one you could possibly do at the same pace
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging.
- Wednesday. Rest Day
- Thursday. Tempo Run (1:15-1:35hrs):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 Pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides Zone 4 Effort
- Main Set: 7-8 miles continuous at the top of your Zone 3 pace
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging.
- Friday. Rest Day
- Saturday. Long Run (2:00-2:15hrs):
- 120-135min long run with your heart rate in Zone 2
- Sunday. Rest Day
- WEEK 4: Taper to Rest up for Race Day. (1:50-2:10hrs)
- Monday. Rest Day take a complete day off where all you do is rest
- Tuesday. Interval Run (25mins):
- 25min easy run with heart rate in Zone 2 with 8x30sec fast pick ups at Zone 4 pace spread throughout.
- Wednesday. Rest Day
- Thursday. Tempo Run (60-80mins):
- Warmup: 10-20min easy jogging Zone 2 Pace, include running drills, and 5x15sec strides Zone 4 Effort
- Main Set: 3x1k at the top of your Zone 3 pace, with 2min jog between intervals
- Cooldown: 10-20min easy jogging.
- Friday. Run Primer (15mins):
- 15 minute run. Entire run is easy effort besides 3x1min at race effort, take whatever rest you need between efforts to feel totally recovered.
- Saturday. Easy Run (10mins):
- Just run easy for 10 minutes
- Sunday. Long Run: Race Day! You’re ready!
Wrap-Up
Once you've achieved your race goal, it might be time to move on and start training for your first full marathon, try a longer training plan, or try to go even faster with an intermediate half marathon training plan. We find that this training plan will set you up with the skills and confidence to tackle any running race you want.
If you're looking to set big personal goals, and you want the best for your body, check out our app with unlimited options for half marathon training. You can choose a training plan setup that's personalized specifically for you, and will get you training as well as you could possibly imagine.
You're ready to take on that big challenge, and when you train with MOTTIV, you're ready for race day!
