Half Marathon in 8 Weeks – Short Base
Magic Training
About the plan
An 8-week plan for people who run between 11 and 16 miles (18 and 25 km) per week and have a half marathon on the calendar. It is the most conservative version of the eight-week half marathon: a single quality workout per week, at threshold pace, and everything else at a comfortable pace — people with a short base improve more by adding minutes on their legs than by piling on intensity. There are four runs, on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, with three rest days. The long run starts at 60 minutes and reaches 100, which is enough to complete the 13.1 miles (21 km) safely. The stated goal is to run the entire race, not to chase a time. Week 4 is a recovery week, week 7 sharpens, and week 8 ends at the race. 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
- 8 weeks
- Runs per week
- 4
- Weekly volume
- 2h 20m → 3h 34m
- Longest run
- 1h 40m
Week 1 starts at 2h 20m and volume builds to 3h 34m in week 6, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 4 runs, and the longest session reaches 1h 40m (Long, week 6).
Over the final 2 weeks volume drops from 3h 34m to 1h 11m so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (13 mi) falls on Sunday of week 8; the week holds 1h 11m of running before it.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Threshold8 sessions across 8 weeks
- Long7 sessions across 7 weeks
Who it's for
Intermediate level. To start safely you should already be running about 2h 20m per week and be comfortable with a 1h session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
2h 20m this week
30 min
25 min
25 min
1h
Week 6 — the heaviest of the plan
3h 34m this week
40 min
42 min
32 min
1h 40m
Plan Structure
8 weeks · 32 workouts · 24 rest days
See the full plan
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