16-week half marathon training plan for beginners

Beginner here means a first half marathon, not a first run. Week 1 is 12 miles over three runs, with a 6.2-mile long run, so the plan assumes you can already run about 5–6.2 miles without stopping and do it a few times a week.

If 6.2 miles is still a stretch, start with the 8-week beginner 10K plan: it opens with a 4.3-mile long run and finishes at 6.2 miles, which is where this plan begins.

Choose it if you have the time, or if you are coming off a low base or an injury. Smaller steps and 3 cutback weeks make it the most forgiving version; the cost is a longer stretch of discipline, not a harder one. The other lengths are the 10-week beginner half marathon plan and 12-week beginner half marathon plan.

16 weeks split into four building blocks separated by cutback weeks, one peak week, two taper weeks and race week. Every number below is the plan in the table above.

Weeks 1-3, base. Long runs of 6.2, 6.8 and 7.5 miles, in weeks of 12, 12 and 13 miles. This is where the routine gets built: every run is easy except one steady effort, and none of it should feel like a test. Easy means you could still speak in full sentences; how to breathe while running explains the talk test.

Week 4, cutback. The long run drops to 5 miles from 7.5 miles and the week to 9.3 miles. Run it as written. The easier week is where the previous three turn into fitness, and it is the week beginners most often skip.

Week 5, base. A 8.1-mile long run in a 15 miles week. The climb resumes from where the last full week left off, not from the cutback.

Weeks 6-7, build. Long runs of 8.7 and 9.3 miles, in weeks of 16 and 17 miles. The long run carries the progression; the weekday runs grow in proportion to it.

Week 8, cutback. The long run drops to 6.8 miles from 9.3 miles and the week to 12 miles. Same job as the first cutback: absorb the block before the next one.

Weeks 9-11, build. Long runs of 9.9, 11 and 11 miles, in weeks of 18, 19 and 20 miles.

Week 12, cutback. The long run drops to 8.1 miles from 11 miles and the week to 15 miles.

Week 13, peak. The hardest week of the plan: 22 miles, with a 12-mile long run.

Weeks 14-15, taper. Volume comes down to 13 and 9.3 miles and the long run to 7.5 and 5 miles. You keep the frequency and lose the fatigue; fitness does not fade in two or three weeks, tiredness does.

Week 16, race week. Tue 3.1 miles easy and Thu 1.9 miles shakeout, then the race on Sunday. That is all the running in the six days before the start line.

Every length starts from the same 12 miles week 1 and reaches the same 22 miles peak week and 12-mile long run. The length decides how gradually you get there, not where you end up: the 10-week plan reaches its longest run in week 7, the 16-week plan in week 13, with 3 cutback weeks instead of 1.

Cutback weeks. Weeks 4, 8 and 12 drop the long run to 5, 6.8 and 8.1 miles, about 70% of the last full week's. Adaptation happens in the easier week, not the hard one.

Steps are capped at 20%. No long run is more than a fifth longer than the last full week's. The biggest single step in this plan is +0.6 miles, from week 1 to week 2. Where a shorter plan cannot reach the usual peak inside that limit, it settles for a lower peak instead of taking an unsafe step.

A real taper. The two weeks before race week come down to 13 and 9.3 miles, and race week carries 5 miles of running before the start line.

Pace comes from your goal. The table gives distances, not paces: if you are aiming for a time, 2-hour half marathon pace is 9:09 per mile, and the half marathon pace calculator works out any other goal.