Half Marathon Run-Walk-Run – 16 Weeks

About the plan

A 16-week plan for people who run 6 to 12 miles (10-20 km) per week and want to complete the half marathon. It is the safest path to a first half with a short base: sixteen weeks give the long run time to grow slowly, and the method protects your legs along the way. The method is Jeff Galloway's Run-Walk-Run: walk intervals planned from the very first workout, not as a sign of weakness but as a strategy. A short break before fatigue sets in preserves mechanics, cuts injury risk and lets you complete distances that continuous running cannot yet sustain. The ratio evolves throughout the plan — it starts with little running and a lot of walking, and ends with long running blocks. There are three workouts per week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The ratio evolves from 2 to 1 up to 6 to 1 and the Sunday long workout reaches 24 blocks, more than enough time for the half marathon distance. Weeks 4, 8 and 12 are recovery weeks, week 15 sharpens and week 16 ends with the race. Paces come from your times in the magic calculator; update your reference race time in your profile before you start so that threshold, interval and race pace are calibrated.