Half Marathon in 8 Weeks – Intermediate
Magic Training
About the plan
An 8-week plan for people who already run about 22 miles (35 km) per week, have already completed a half marathon and want to improve their time in two months. There are four runs a week — intervals on Monday, a recovery run on Wednesday, a threshold workout on Thursday and the long run on Sunday — with three rest days. Intervals progress from 3-minute blocks to 5 minutes at VO2max pace, and threshold goes from 20 to 30 sustained minutes. In week 6 a 35-minute race-pace time trial comes in, which is where you find out whether your target is calibrated. The long run goes from 80 to 120 minutes. 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
- 3h 30m → 4h 26m
- Longest run
- 2h
Week 1 starts at 3h 30m and volume builds to 4h 26m in week 5, the heaviest of the plan.
A typical week has 4 runs, and the longest session reaches 2h (Long, week 6).
Over the final 3 weeks volume drops from 4h 26m to 1h 8m so you arrive at the race rested.
Race day (13 mi · 25 min) falls on Sunday of week 8; the week holds 1h 8m of running before it.
There are 2 tune-up races on the way to the goal race.
Key workouts
The quality sessions that come up most in this plan:
- Interval8 sessions across 8 weeks
- Long7 sessions across 7 weeks
- Threshold6 sessions across 6 weeks
Who it's for
Intermediate level. To start safely you should already be running about 3h 30m per week and be comfortable with a 1h 20m session — that is what week 1 asks for.
Week 1 — workout preview
3h 30m this week
50 min
40 min
40 min
1h 20m
Week 5 — the heaviest of the plan
4h 26m this week
1h 1m
45 min
50 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.