Coogan Marathon – 16 Weeks
Mark Coogan
About the plan
16-week plan for the advanced runner who already runs six days a week and wants to arrive at the marathon sharp. It is the schedule Mark Coogan — Olympic marathoner in Atlanta and coach of New Balance Boston — published in the book Personal Best Running, written with Scott Douglas. The structure is the same one he uses with professional athletes, anchored on a volume that climbs from 38 miles (61 km) in the first week to a peak of 59 miles (95 km) in week 13. Wednesday is a fixed rest day, and the other six days are split into two quality workouts — Tuesday and Friday — two easy runs finishing with 100-meter strides, and the Sunday long run, which goes from 10 miles (16 km) to 22 miles (35 km). The hallmark of the method is the amount of work at marathon pace: thirteen sessions with goal-pace blocks, starting at 8 continuous miles (13 km) and progressing to long repeats of 2 to 3 miles (3 to 5 km). Fridays alternate between short 400 m intervals, 800 m repeats and mixed workouts that stitch intervals, marathon pace and threshold together in the same session. The last three weeks bring the volume down without cutting the intensity, and week 16 ends with the race. All paces come from your times in the magic calculator; adjust the reference race in your profile before you start so that threshold, interval and race paces are calibrated.
The plan in numbers
- Duration
- 16 weeks
- Runs per week
- 6
- Weekly volume
- 38 mi → 60 mi
- Longest run
- 22 mi
Week 1 starts at 38 mi and volume builds to 60 mi in week 13, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 6 runs, and the longest session reaches 22 mi (Long, week 12).
Over the final 3 weeks volume drops from 60 mi to 22 mi so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (26 mi) falls on Sunday of week 16; the week holds 22 mi of running before it.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Repetition23 sessions across 13 weeks
- Long14 sessions across 14 weeks
- Interval12 sessions across 12 weeks
- Marathon11 sessions across 9 weeks
Who it's for
Advanced level. To start safely you should already be running about 38 mi per week and be comfortable with a 10 mi session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
38 mi this week
6 mi
6 mi
6 mi
6 mi
4 mi
10 mi
Week 13 — the heaviest of the plan
60 mi this week
8.5 mi
12 mi
8.4 mi
8.9 mi
4 mi
18 mi
Plan Structure
16 weeks · 94 workouts · 18 rest days
See the full plan
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