Marathon Training for Beginners

Congratulations on your decision to train for your first marathon! For most people, the decision to run a marathon is a personal challenge, but you may have been talked into it by a friend or want to help raise awareness for a charity. Whatever your reason, make sure that it’s your decision and not someone else’s. Marathon training, and the race itself will test you emotionally, physically and mentally, so the commitment needs to come from you. When you feel like quitting (and you will), you’re going to need some good reasons to keep going.

Choosing your first marathon

The familiarity of a course, experience, scenery, climate and the number of participants can all affect your performance. If you haven’t raced before, try a shorter race first before settling on a marathon. This will give you valuable race experience, and help you decide what kind of marathon might suit you. It’s a good idea to check the entry requirements for the event beforehand. There may be age restrictions, and you may have to provide times from another race. You don’t want to miss the registration deadline either.

Healthy to run

Being fit and being healthy are not the same thing. If you have certain signs and symptoms, you should seek medical clearance before upping your training load. These include a history of chest pain, shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, unexplained dizziness, a heart murmur or high blood pressure. A family history of heart disease is also a risk factor that may warrant a stress test under lab conditions before you test yourself on the open road.

Beginning training

If you can run 10km, you can run a marathon. This 20-week training program is suitable for someone who has been running for at least six months, and whose major goal is finishing a full marathon.

You should be able to fit this program into a moderately busy lifestyle. If you do have to miss a training session, cut back on easy runs or do shorter sessions but make sure you keep in the long runs and rest on your rest days. Don’t worry about your times or comparing yourself with anyone else. Crossing that finish line is an enormous achievement in itself.

Training plan for your first marathon

This program assumes the marathon is on a Sunday, but adjust it accordingly if it’s on a different day.

Key - and tips

REST: Don’t underestimate the importance of rest days

EZ: Easy running at a relaxed pace.

XT: An activity other than running, such as swimming or cycling.

T: Tempo runs are comfortably hard, so you’re pushing a bit harder than usual but not so much that you can’t finish the run.

H: Hills are runs on undulating terrain.

NS: Negative splits are runs where you run the second half of your workout slightly faster than the first half.

MP: Marathon pace is slightly faster than your LSD runs

LSD: Long, slow distance runs are the most important part of your training.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	REST	EZ 8km	30 min XT	EZ 6km	EZ 9km	REST	LSD 10km
2	REST	EZ 8km	30 min XT	EZ 7km	EZ 9km	REST	LSD 13km
3	REST	EZ 8km	40 min XT	EZ 8km	EZ 9km	REST	LSD 15km
4	REST	EZ 9km	40 min XT	EZ 9km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 18km
5	REST	EZ 8km	45 min XT	EZ 10km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 14km
6	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	T 8km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 19km
7	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	T&H 8km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 21km
8	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	NS 8km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 17km
9	REST	EZ 11km	50 min XT	T 9km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 22km
10	REST	EZ 9km	50 min XT	NS 9km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 26km
11	REST	EZ 11km	50 min XT	T&H 9km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 29km
12	REST	EZ 11km	50 min XT	NS 10km	EZ 11km	REST	LSD 23km
13	REST	EZ 11km	50 min XT	T&H 10km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 30km
14	REST	EZ 11km	50 min XT	T 10km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 34km
15	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	EZ&H 11km	EZ 9km	REST	LSD 38km
16	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	T 5km,	EZ 10km	REST	LSD 33km
17	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	MP 9km	EZ 11km	REST	LSD 25km
18	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	MP 11km	EZ 8km	REST	LSD 19km
19	REST	EZ 9km	45 min XT	MP 9km	EZ 5km	REST	LSD 13km
20	REST	EZ 6km	REST	MP 25min	REST	MP 25 min	Race day!