Half Marathon in 8 Weeks – Beginner
Magic Training
About the plan
An 8-week plan for people who already run about 16 miles (25 km) per week, finish a 10K with room to spare and have a half marathon scheduled two months from now. Eight weeks do not build a base from scratch — they turn the base you already have into the ability to complete 13.1 miles (21 km), and that is what this plan is for. There are four runs a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, with three rest days. There is just one quality workout a week, at threshold pace, and it grows from 12 to 24 accumulated minutes. The long run is the heart of the plan: it starts at 70 minutes and reaches 110, always at a comfortable pace, because finishing the distance matters more than the stopwatch in a first half marathon. 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 45m → 4h 3m
- Longest run
- 1h 50m
Week 1 starts at 2h 45m and volume builds to 4h 3m in week 6, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 4 runs, and the longest session reaches 1h 50m (Long, week 6).
Over the final 2 weeks volume drops from 4h 3m to 1h 20m so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (13 mi) falls on Sunday of week 8; the week holds 1h 20m 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
Beginner level. To start safely you should already be running about 2h 45m per week and be comfortable with a 1h 10m session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
2h 45m this week
35 min
30 min
30 min
1h 10m
Week 6 — the heaviest of the plan
4h 3m this week
45 min
48 min
40 min
1h 50m
Plan Structure
8 weeks · 32 workouts · 24 rest days
See the full plan
Create your account to unlock every week, sync with your watch and get personalized paces.