Building your marathon plan begins with establishing the key components of the Triphasic Training Model—Base, Support, and Specific training. Each phase has a clear purpose and timeline. Follow the steps below to set up your plan correctly and ensure you train with progression, structure, and confidence.
Before you begin, make sure you can comfortably run at least 40 km per week and run 4 or more days per week.
Everything starts with understanding how many weeks you have until race day.
For a standard marathon build (4.5+ months), the phases typically look like this:
Base Phase: The remaining weeks before you reach 12 weeks from race day (minimum 6 weeks)
Support Phase: 6 weeks
Specific Phase: 6 weeks
Taper: 1 week
If you don’t yet know your race date, stay in Base Training until you are approximately 12 weeks out from your race. You can remain in the Base Phase for a long time and still run PRs—it is the safest and most productive phase for long-term development.
Your training follows a simple 7-day cycle:
Tuesday: Speed workout (intervals, strides, etc.)
Thursday: Endurance workout (tempo, pace work)
Sunday: Long run
Everything else is easy running or rest days.
This predictable weekly rhythm helps you organize life around training and makes progression easy to plan.
Running frequency is one of the strongest predictors of improvement.
If you currently run 3–4 days per week, increasing to 5–6 days will produce significant gains.
If you already run 6 days, you may introduce occasional double runs to increase frequency without extending total time on your feet.
Most runners benefit from one rest day per week, though it is not mandatory for everyone.
More frequent running spreads load more evenly, reduces injury risk, and improves aerobic development.
For many runners, the marathon is more than just a finish-line achievement—it's about performing to the best of your ability. Choosing a realistic goal time is the foundation of effective marathon training. Every workout, pace zone, and progression in your plan depends on anchoring your training to a target that reflects your current physiological capabilities, not simply the time you wish to run.
Your goal time must match the physiological realities of your current fitness.
When your target aligns with your true ability, training becomes productive, sustainable, and far more rewarding.
To determine an appropriate marathon goal, we begin with the concept of Equivalent Performance—predicting your marathon potential based on a recent race at another distance.
Ideally, you should use:
A race completed within the last 2–4 months
A half marathon or marathon result (best case), though 5K and 10K races can also work
This approach avoids the common mistake of selecting a time based purely on aspiration. The goal isn’t to guess—it’s to estimate your marathon capacity using objective data.
If this is your first marathon:
Treat it as a learning opportunity
Focus on completion, pacing awareness, and understanding race-day dynamics
For a first marathon, the priority is often simply finishing strong, not chasing an aggressive time.
Look back at your last year of training and identify:
Your highest 4-week average mileage
The weekly number that felt challenging but sustainable
Example:
If you ran 160 km in a month, that’s an average of 40 km per week.
This becomes your starting mileage for your marathon cycle.
Maintain this mileage for 4 full weeks before increasing it.
This ensures your body adapts to the load and lowers injury risk.
If you are returning from injury, start with the mileage you can complete pain-free, focusing first on rebuilding frequency before increasing volume.
Your peak mileage should be:
High enough to give you confidence for race day, and
A number you can realistically sustain for 4–6 weeks in the Specific Phase
Avoid choosing an arbitrarily high number—mileage is not the strongest predictor of performance. Choose a number that is only moderately higher than your starting mileage.
Examples:
A 40 km/week runner might build toward 55–70 km/week
A 60 km/week runner might aim for 70–85 km/week
High-volume runners may target 90–110 km/week, depending on experience.
The key is sustainability, not impressive peaks.
Once you know your starting point and your peak, your goal is to bridge the gap gradually.
General rules:
Stay at your starting mileage for 4 weeks
Increase in small steps
Reach peak mileage by the end of the Support Phase
During the Specific Phase, mileage remains stable so you can focus on race-specific workouts rather than further increasing volume.