A half marathon does not require 70 km weeks or a coach texting you at dawn. It requires four runs a week, done consistently, with two of those sessions doing most of the work. This plan is built for runners whose training has to share space with a 9-to-5, a commute, and a life. The weeks are short on volume and long on purpose: every session has a job, and nothing is there just to fill a spreadsheet.
Start With an Honest Baseline
Before week one, you should already be able to run 5 km three times a week and cover 8 km on a weekend without needing the rest of the day off. If that sounds like a stretch, spend three or four weeks building that base first, then start the twelve. Arriving at week one underprepared is the most common reason these plans fall apart in week five.
If you're returning from injury, managing a health condition, or you've been mostly sedentary, get the green light from a doctor or physiotherapist before you begin. General plans can't account for your history; a professional who knows it can.
The Four-Run Week That Does the Work
Four runs, spaced so your hardest days sit next to your easiest. A typical working week looks like this.
The long run (Saturday or Sunday)
Slow, conversational, and the single most important session in the plan. Start at 10 km and build. You should be able to talk in full sentences throughout. If you can't, you're running your long runs too fast — a mistake that shows up as a miserable final 5 km on race day.
The tempo run (Wednesday)
Twenty to forty minutes at a pace that feels comfortably hard: short sentences only, controlled breathing, no sprinting. Start with 15 minutes continuous and extend it by about five minutes every second week.
The interval session (Tuesday)
Shorter and sharper. After a 10-minute warm-up, try 6 x 400 m, or 5 x 1 km with 90 seconds of easy jogging between efforts. Keep the later reps as fast as the first — if they're not, you started too hard.
The easy run (Thursday or Friday)
Thirty to forty minutes at a pace that feels almost too slow. This run exists to add aerobic time without adding fatigue. Run it by feel, not by what your watch showed last Tuesday.
What the Twelve Weeks Look Like
The plan moves through four phases: base, build, peak, taper. Weekly volume rises gradually, peaks around 40–45 km, then drops sharply in the final fortnight. Every fourth week is a cutback, which is where a lot of the fitness actually sticks.
Here's the long run progression, the backbone of the whole thing:
- Week 1: 10 km
- Week 2: 11 km
- Week 3: 13 km
- Week 4: 10 km (cutback)
- Week 5: 14 km
- Week 6: 16 km
- Week 7: 17 km
- Week 8: 13 km (cutback)
- Week 9: 19 km
- Week 10: 20 km
- Week 11: 12 km
- Week 12: race day, 21.1 km
Your midweek runs follow the same rhythm: two hard weeks, one easier. Add roughly one interval rep every fortnight, and add five minutes to the tempo until you reach 40.
Cross-Training Without Wasting Time
Two short sessions a week is plenty. Thirty to forty minutes on a bike, in a pool, or on a rowing machine keeps your aerobic engine ticking while sparing your legs the pounding. Strength work matters more than most runners admit — twenty minutes twice a week is enough to build the hip and calf strength that holds up over 21 km.
- Split squats or step-ups: 3 sets of 8 per leg
- Calf raises off a step: 3 sets of 12
- Single-leg bridges: 3 sets of 10 per side
- Plank: 3 holds of 40 seconds
- Side plank: 2 holds of 30 seconds per side
Do this after an easy run or on a non-running day. Never before a quality session.
Recovery When Your Calendar Is Full
You don't need a recovery routine, you need sleep and food. Seven to nine hours a night is the most powerful training tool you own, and it's free. Eat protein within a couple of hours of your long run, drink enough that your urine stays pale, and take one full rest day a week without guilt.
Protect the easy days. Runners who get injured on a four-day plan almost always do it by turning easy runs into medium-hard ones. If a run feels harder than it should, that's information — back off rather than pushing through. Sharp pain, pain that changes your gait, or anything that lingers more than a few days deserves a physio's opinion, not a forum thread.
Making the Plan Survive a Real Week
Work will interfere. Travel, late meetings, sick children, and back-to-back deadlines all happen. Plan for it rather than hoping it won't.
- Swap days, not weeks. Missed Tuesday intervals can move to Wednesday if the tempo shifts to Friday.
- Two sessions minimum. In a genuinely brutal week, keep the long run and one quality session. Easy runs are the first to go.
- Run in the morning when you can. A 6:30 am session survives a bad day at work; a 7 pm one often doesn't.
- Lower the bar, don't skip. Twenty-five easy minutes beats zero minutes and keeps the habit alive.
- If you lose a whole week, repeat it. Don't jump back in where the calendar says you should be.
Lay your kit out the night before, plan routes you can start from your front door, and treat the long run as a fixed appointment rather than something you'll fit in later.
Race Week and the Finish Line
The final ten days are about arriving fresh, not fitter. Cut your midweek runs roughly in half, keep the intensity light, and resist the urge to squeeze in one last long effort — it will cost you more than it gains. Sleep well two nights before the race, since the night before is often restless for everyone.
On the day, start 10 to 15 seconds per kilometre slower than your goal pace for the first 3 km. The crowd and adrenaline will make that feel painfully slow. It won't be. Take water at the aid stations before you think you need it, and if the last 5 km hurt, that's the plan working exactly as intended.
Then eat something, put your feet up, and give yourself a week of easy jogging before you think about the next one.
Photo: Stewardesign / Pixabay
