Most half marathon plans are written for somebody who is not you. They assume a nine-minute mile, a body that absorbs speedwork without complaint, and a Tuesday evening that is reliably free. Somewhere around week six there is a session called 8 x 800m at threshold, no explanation of what threshold is, and a quiet assumption that you already know.
This plan is different in exactly one way. It does not care how fast you are. Thirteen miles is thirteen miles whether you cover them in one hour fifty or three hours twenty, and the training that gets you there is broadly the same shape. It just takes longer per session. That is the only real adjustment slower runners need — and it is the one almost nobody makes for them.
Before you start
You need to be able to run for around thirty minutes without stopping, or run-walk for thirty minutes without wanting to lie down in a hedge. That is the entry requirement for essentially every beginner half marathon plan going, and this one is no exception. If you are not there yet, spend six weeks getting there and come back. Nothing is lost. The half will still be thirteen miles.
Three runs a week, fourteen weeks. That is the whole deal. Three is enough. Most beginner plans in circulation use three runs plus a cross-training session, and the cross-training is the first thing everyone drops, so we have simply been honest about it from the start.
The plan
Weekday runs are given in minutes, not miles. This is deliberate. Thirty minutes is thirty minutes for everybody. Three miles is twenty-four minutes for one runner and forty-two for another, and the second runner is doing considerably more work for the same tidy number in the training log. Minutes are honest. Miles flatter the quick.
Long runs stay in miles, because the race is in miles and at some point you have to make peace with the distance.
| Week | Run 1 | Run 2 | Long run |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 min easy | 25 min easy | 3 miles |
| 2 | 25 min easy | 30 min easy | 4 miles |
| 3 | 30 min easy | 30 min easy | 5 miles |
| 4 | 25 min easy | 30 min easy | 3 miles (cutback) |
| 5 | 30 min easy | 35 min easy | 6 miles |
| 6 | 30 min easy | 35 min easy | 7 miles |
| 7 | 30 min easy | 30 min easy | 5 miles (cutback) |
| 8 | 35 min easy | 35 min easy | 8 miles |
| 9 | 35 min easy | 40 min easy | 9 miles |
| 10 | 30 min easy | 35 min easy | 6 miles (cutback) |
| 11 | 35 min easy | 40 min easy | 10 miles |
| 12 | 35 min easy | 40 min easy | 11 miles |
| 13 | 30 min easy | 30 min easy | 6 miles |
| 14 | 25 min easy | 20 min easy | RACE DAY |
Why the peak long run is eleven miles and not thirteen
Because you do not need to run the race before the race. The last two miles are covered by the crowd, the medal, the sunk cost of the entry fee and a stubbornness you did not know you had. Every sensible plan stops short of the full distance, and for slower runners it matters more, not less: eleven miles at a twelve-minute mile is already well over two hours on your feet, which is more time and more impact than a quicker runner gets from thirteen.
The cutback weeks are load-bearing
Weeks 4, 7 and 10 go backwards on purpose. This is where the fitness actually arrives — not in the big week, but in the recovery after it. Skipping a cutback week to keep the graph pointing upwards is the single most common way ordinary runners end up injured in week eleven, staring at a race they have already paid for.
Run the long one slower than feels dignified
The standard guidance is to run your long run sixty to ninety seconds per mile slower than goal race pace, at a conversational effort. For slower runners that maths produces a number that looks embarrassing written down. Run it anyway. The long run builds endurance, not speed, and the only thing running it hard achieves is that you arrive at Sunday evening too wrecked to do Tuesday.
We have written about this at length in how slow easy runs should actually be, and the answer has never once made anybody happy.
One rule specific to being slow: cap the long run by time as well as distance. If a session is heading past about two and a half hours, stop where you are and walk home. The distance on the plan is a target, not a contract.
Walk breaks are a tactic, not a white flag
Jeff Galloway has spent decades arguing that planned walk breaks make people faster, not slower, and the numbers his coaching reports are startling: runners switching to a well-chosen run-walk ratio have come back with half marathon times several minutes quicker than their non-stop efforts. For anyone new to running, or moving slower than roughly seven minutes per kilometre, the suggested starting ratios are simple — thirty seconds running to thirty seconds walking, or a minute to a minute.
The important word is planned. A walk break you decided on before you left the house is a strategy. A walk break you take at mile nine because your legs have filed a formal complaint is a different thing entirely, and it tends to be followed by three more.
Kit, when you are out there for three hours
Time on feet is the variable nobody accounts for. A ninety-minute half marathoner and a three-hour half marathoner are running the same race, but one of them is being rubbed by the same seam for twice as long. Everything that is mildly annoying at forty minutes is a genuine problem at two hours.
So: Blister running socks earn their place on the long run more than on any other session, because friction is a function of time and you are buying more of it. Suffer running shorts with a liner that actually stays put will save you a conversation with a pharmacist. And the Agony running tee exists partly so that the fabric is not part of the problem and partly so that the people overtaking you know exactly what you think of the whole enterprise. The rest of The Kit is there when you inevitably want a second set, because week nine is when you discover that laundry is also part of training.
Common questions
Am I too slow to run a half marathon?
Almost certainly not. Most UK half marathons either have no formal cut-off or set one generous enough to accommodate a steady walk-run, and organisers are far more relaxed about back-of-the-pack finishers than the internet suggests. Check the specific race before you enter rather than assuming, and if in doubt pick an event known for a long course window.
Do I have to run thirteen miles in training?
No. This plan peaks at eleven and that is deliberate. Race day supplies the extra two through a combination of adrenaline, other people and the fact that stopping at mile eleven would mean walking to the finish anyway.
What happens if I miss a week?
Nothing. Pick the plan back up where you left off rather than trying to catch up, and if you have missed two or more weeks, repeat the last week you completed before moving on. Fourteen weeks is a suggestion, not a countdown clock.
Should I be doing intervals and hill sessions?
Not on three runs a week, not for a first half, and not if the goal is to reach the start line uninjured. Speedwork is what you add once the distance is comfortable. Adding it while you are still building the long run is how a training block turns into a physiotherapy block.
Can I follow this plan if I run and walk the whole way?
Yes, and the plan does not change. Run-walk the weekday sessions by time exactly as written and run-walk the long runs by distance, keeping the same ratio you intend to use in the race. Practising the ratio in training is the entire point of it.
Related reading
If you are still choosing an event, the best UK half marathons for ordinary runners is the place to start, and UK races with the most generous cut-off times covers the entry-form anxiety directly. For the week itself, what to eat before a morning run will spare you at least one long run spent thinking about a bush.
Fourteen weeks from now you will have done something faintly ridiculous for no medal that anyone at work will care about. Suffer every mile. Still no medals.