Advanced Half Marathon Program
A training schedule for advanced runners who want to improve performance in the half marathon race distance.

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Related info:
Find 1/2 Marathon Training Programs | ActiveTrainer

Register for a Half Marathon | Active.com

Posted Monday, 8 September, 1997

First things first: bookmark this page so that you can check on your progress. You can also add daily run reminders to the Cool Running homepage as you roll through the weeks of this training program (to do this, edit your start page preferences).

This program contains some speed workouts. (For more information on the types of speed workouts, we lay it all out in "The Runner's Building Blocks"). A few quick notes on how speedwork is described here:

The distance in parentheses below fartlek runs includes a mile each of warmup and warmdown, in addition to your fartlek sessions. Don't know what a fartlek is? Check out our page about "The Runner's Building Blocks".
Whenever you see a pace denoted as 5K pace or 10K pace, this refers to the speed at which you estimate you could run a 5K or 10K on that given day.
When you read "4-5 hills," that means you should do 4-5 repeats at 5K pace on a hill about 150 or 200 yards long. Long hills should be 400-600 yards long. If you find it too tedious to run repeats on a single hill, you can also find a route that incorporates the same number of hills, as long as the route is not very long.
When you read the notation "4 x 880s," that means you should run four repeats of 880 yards each (two laps on the track). The pace below tells you how fast you should run them. For 880s, give yourself 2 minutes of rest between intervals; for 440s, give yourself 1-2 minutes.

All other workouts (including the long runs) should be run at an easy training pace -- emphasis on "easy." Hold yourself back to a pace about 90 seconds or 2 minutes per mile slower than your current 10K pace.

Finally, the pre-training schedule. You should be able to run this schedule for four to five weeks without much discomfort before starting the half marathon program. If not, give yourself some time to build up to that level gradually, or you may risk injury.

	Mon.	Tue.	Wed.	Thu.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.
Pre- Train	3M	6M	4M	6M	4M	3M	8M

The schedule

The schedule peaks at about 45 miles per week. If you prefer metric distances, use our distance-conversion calculator to convert to kilometers.

Week	Mon.	Tue.	Wed.	Thu.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.
1	3M	Fartlek (6M)	4M	6M	4M	3M	10M
2	3M	Fartlek (6M)	4M	7M	4M	3M	10M
3	3M	6-7 Hills 5K-10K pace	4M	7M	4M	3M	12M
4	3M	6-7 Long Hills 5K-10K pace	4M	10M	4M	3M	10M
5	3M	8 x 880s 5K-10K pace	4M	8M	4M	3M	12M
6	Off	4 x Mile 5K-10K pace	4M	10M	6M	3M	10M
7	3M	10 x 880 5K-10K pace	4M	9M	5M	3M	14M
8	Off	5 x Mile 5K-10K pace	5M	10M	7M	3M	10K Race (or 12M run)
9	3M	10 x 880s 5K-10K pace	4M	9M	6M	3M	15M
10	Off	10 x 880s 5K-10K pace	5M	10M	7M	3M	15M
11	3M	8M	4M	8M	6M	3M	10M
12	Off	6M	5M	8M	5M	3M	RACE DAY

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Advanced Half Marathon ProgramA training schedule for advanced runners who want to improve performance in the half marathon race distance.

Advanced Half Marathon Program
A training schedule for advanced runners who want to improve performance in the half marathon race distance.