Advanced Half Marathon in 12 Weeks – 3 Days per Week
Magic Training
About the plan
A 12-week plan for advanced runners who want to perform in the half marathon while training three days a week. There are three runs a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday — and all three count: one interval session, one threshold workout and the long run. There is no filler run, because someone with only three days cannot afford to waste one. The other four days are rest or the sport you already do. Intervals range from 800 m to 2000 m, threshold reaches three 3 km blocks, and two weeks bring long race-pace time trials of 10 km and 12 km. The long run goes from 7 to 11 miles (12 to 18 km) and weekly volume stays between 20 and 30 miles (32 and 48 km) — well below what advanced half marathon plans usually require, because the bottleneck here is schedule. Weeks 4 and 8 are recovery weeks, week 11 sharpens, and week 12 ends at the 13.1 miles (21 km). Paces come from your times in the Magic Calculator; update your reference time in your profile before starting so threshold, interval and race paces are calibrated.
The plan in numbers
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Runs per week
- 3
- Weekly volume
- 20 mi → 28 mi
- Longest run
- 11 mi
Week 1 starts at 20 mi and volume builds to 28 mi in week 7, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 3 runs, and the longest session reaches 11 mi (Long, week 10).
Over the final 5 weeks volume drops from 28 mi to 5.5 mi so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (18 mi) falls on Sunday of week 12; the week holds 5.5 mi of running before it.
There are 3 tune-up races on the way to the goal race.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Interval11 sessions across 11 weeks
- Long11 sessions across 11 weeks
- Threshold9 sessions across 9 weeks
- Repetition1 session across 1 week
Who it's for
Advanced level. To start safely you should already be running about 20 mi per week and be comfortable with a 7.5 mi session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
20 mi this week
7 mi
5.6 mi
7.5 mi
Week 7 — the heaviest of the plan
28 mi this week
7.5 mi
9.6 mi
11 mi
Plan Structure
12 weeks · 36 workouts · 48 rest days
See the full plan
Create your account to unlock every week, sync with your watch and get personalized paces.