Advanced Marathon – 3 Days per Week
Magic Training
About the plan
A 16-week plan for advanced runners who want a good marathon while training three days a week. There are three runs a week and all of them count: one interval session, one threshold workout and the long run. There is no filler run — the other four days are rest or the sport you already do (bike, swimming, rowing, strength). It follows the FIRST school's design, the same one behind the catalog's Furman Institute half marathon and marathon plans, applied for the first time to an advanced runner. Marathon pace is rehearsed six times over the course of the plan, in blocks that grow from 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km) inside a midweek workout — this is the work that defines race-day results. The long run goes from 11 to 20 miles (18 to 32 km), with three recovery weeks (4, 8 and 12) and a taper over the last two. All paces come from your times in the Magic Calculator; adjust your reference time in your profile before starting so threshold, interval and race paces are calibrated.
The plan in numbers
- Duration
- 16 weeks
- Runs per week
- 3
- Weekly volume
- 25 mi → 43 mi
- Longest run
- 20 mi
Week 1 starts at 25 mi and volume builds to 43 mi in week 13, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 3 runs, and the longest session reaches 20 mi (Long, week 11).
Over the final 3 weeks volume drops from 43 mi to 10 mi so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (26 mi) falls on Sunday of week 16; the week holds 10 mi of running before it.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Interval15 sessions across 15 weeks
- Long15 sessions across 15 weeks
- Threshold9 sessions across 9 weeks
- Marathon7 sessions across 7 weeks
Who it's for
Advanced level. To start safely you should already be running about 25 mi per week and be comfortable with a 11 mi session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
25 mi this week
7.6 mi
6.2 mi
11 mi
Week 13 — the heaviest of the plan
43 mi this week
9.9 mi
14 mi
20 mi
Plan Structure
16 weeks · 48 workouts · 64 rest days
See the full plan
Create your account to unlock every week, sync with your watch and get personalized paces.