My 20-week half marathon training schedule

A five-month plan to get ready for 13.1 miles

Morning, friends! 👋

Last week, a subscriber reached out with a question about a race she has coming up this fall: did I have a 20-week half marathon training plan available? Her race is set for mid- to late October, about five months from now.

I didn’t, but I replied that I could put one together — and I thought I’d share it with you also. This plan eases you into training with light mileage in the first few weeks, then starts ramping up the weekly miles about six weeks in.

My thinking is, those easy first few weeks are especially good for summertime training, especially now that many of us are experiencing warmer — in some cases, much warmer — than average temperatures right now.

This schedule includes a week-by-week breakdown of the miles you need to run, the long run each week (in bold), all leading up to the taper a couple of weeks or so before your race day.

There’s also a downloadable PDF version at the end of the schedule, so you can print it out if you like.

Enjoy and feel free to reach out with any questions!

Week 1

• Monday — off

• Tuesday — 2-3 miles

• Wednesday — off

• Thursday — 3 miles

• Friday — off

• Saturday (long run) — 3 miles

• Sunday — 2 miles

Week 2

• Tuesday — 3 miles

• Thursday — 3 miles

• Saturday — 3 miles

• Sunday — 2 miles

Week 3

• Tuesday — 3 miles

• Thursday — 3-4 miles

• Saturday — 4 miles

• Sunday — 3 miles