A marathon training plan that respects the long run
Eighteen weeks, four days a week, and one rule above the others: the long run climbs at a rate you can absorb, with cutback weeks and a three-week taper. The paces come from the races you have already run.
Marathon · 18 weeks
4 runs a week
Long run climbs to 26.7 km · the plan's own projection for this runner is 4:29:21
Who it is for
A runner who can comfortably run a half marathon, or close to it, and has a recent race time. The sample is a 27-minute parkrunner running 35 km a week who wants to finish well rather than chase a time.
How the block is shaped
Base weeks settle the easy pace, which is the pace most marathon training is done at. The build climbs the long run step by step, with a shorter week every few, and adds a threshold session that teaches the legs to hold pace tired. The peak puts goal pace inside the longest runs. The taper is three weeks, each unloading further while keeping one quality session, because a marathon taper that is too short is the most common way a good block is wasted.
This is the plan the app builds for a 27:00 parkrunner running four days and about 35 km a week, with a longest comfortable run of 21 km. Your own block keeps the same shape; every distance and pace in it is priced from your times, not this runner's.
| Weeks | Phase | Weekly km | Long run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1–2 | Base | 38.5–41.1 | 17.5–18.5 km |
| Week 3 | Build | 42 | 19.5 km |
| Week 4 | Cutback | 33.6 | 13.6 km |
| Weeks 5–7 | Build | 46.1–50 | 20.6–21.6 km |
| Week 8 | Cutback | 36.9 | 15.1 km |
| Weeks 9–10 | Build | 48.4–52.6 | 23.6–24.7 km |
| Week 11 | Peak | 54.8 | 25.7 km |
| Week 12 | Cutback | 43.8 | 18 km |
| Weeks 13–14 | Peak | 54.6–55.3 | 23.5–26.7 km |
| Weeks 15–17 | Taper | 30.1–46.4 | 9.3–18.6 km |
| Week 18 | Race week | Race | — |
A real week from the plan
Not an illustration: this is week 9 of 18, a build week of 48.4 km, exactly as the plan engine wrote it for the runner above, with the paces it set. The coach reads each session's purpose to you before you start it and calls the pace as you run.
| Day | Session | Distance | Pace | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | INTERVALS | 6.5 km · 47 min | 5:18/km | 5 × 800m @ 5:18/km — 90s jog. |
| Thursday | AEROBIC | 8.2 km · 60 min | 7:48/km → 6:58/km | Progressive aerobic. Start at a comfortable easy pace and build effort steadily across the run to a brisk aerobic finish. Teaches pacing discipline and aerobic efficiency. Never push into tempo territory. |
| Saturday | AEROBIC | 10.1 km · 74 min | 7:18/km | Easy miles. Relaxed and rhythmic — finish feeling you could go again. |
| Sunday | LONG RUN | 23.6 km · 172 min | 7:18/km | Endurance build. Maintain a conversational pace. Focus on "time on feet" over speed. |
Where the paces come from
From the race time you give the app, through the Daniels & Gilbert VDOT model: easy, threshold and interval paces for your fitness, not a chart's. The same model runs on this site — the parkrun time calculator shows the three paces a plan would be built from, and the goal time calculator scores a target against the weeks you have.
What changes as you run
A new personal best re-prices every pace. The fortnightly consistency check scales the next two weeks to what you actually ran rather than what was planned. Rate the long runs too hard and the plan eases before it breaks you.
Common questions
How far is the longest run?
The sample runner's peak long run is on this page. The plan climbs toward it from your current longest comfortable run at a capped rate, which is why the goal time calculator asks for that distance before it says how many weeks you need.
Should I run the marathon distance in training?
No. The long run peaks in the low thirties of kilometres for most runners; the last ten come from the taper, the crowd and the day. Running 42 km in training costs more recovery than it returns.
Why is the taper three weeks?
Because the fatigue from a marathon block takes that long to leave the legs. Each taper week keeps a quality session and drops the dose further, so you arrive sharp and rested rather than flat.
I only have twelve weeks. Can I still do it?
If your longest comfortable run is already 25 km or more, possibly. The goal time calculator works out the minimum block from that distance. If the number comes back longer than you have, the honest options are a later race or the half.
parkrun® is a registered trade mark of parkrun Limited. Outrunr is not affiliated with or endorsed by parkrun. VDOT is a trade mark of its owner. Outrunr implements the published Daniels & Gilbert formula and is not affiliated with them.