Classic Half-Marathon Schedules

These schedules run for 10 weeks and cover three broad bands of runners.

• Band one: Sub-1:25
  This band covers serious athletes. The schedule will take you up to over 50 miles a week, which is about as much training as is compatible with a lifestyle that involves a job and a family. The main ingredients of the programme are repetition and interval running, but with an emphasis on continuous, fast-paced runs to build up your speed endurance. Thus, much of your steady running should be at around threshold pace, which is reckoned to be the speed of your best 10 miles; this is slightly above half-marathon pace, but it is the best pace to train at.
• Band Two: 1:25-1:50
  This time range takes you up to a regular 40 miles a week, though many runners would still be able to do themselves justice by substituting one easy run for a rest day and running closer to 35 miles a week. The key here is to get used to good-quality sessions, particularly repetition runs, where you are running fast (at about 10K pace) for several minutes at a stretch.
• Band three: 1:50+
  This band covers beginners and those who have been over the distance once before, in around two hours, and would now like to try for something a little faster. The schedules assume that you have already got into the running habit and are doing two or three miles at a time, about three times a week. The important thing in this programme is to build up your endurance. The pattern is to keep most of the runs to 20 or 30 minutes, which can easily be fitted into the day, but to do one long run a week. This run gradually increases in distance over the weeks. The training volume levels out at about 22 miles a week, spread over four runs.