24WK Beginner Marathon Plan (road or flat trail)
Author
Uphill Athlete by Steve House and Scott Johnston
All plans by this CoachLength
24 Weeks
Typical Week
6 Run, 1 Other, 1 Day Off
Longest Workout
4:00 hrs
Plan Specs
running marathon beginner
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Summary
This 24 week plan is for a road or (flatter) trail marathon length (30-40km) race. It assumes a fairly low level of running fitness (under 10 miles/week) to begin with. If you have not trained for or run a race of 10-15km before or in the last 6 months then we strongly recommend that you extend the first 6 week transition period to at least 8 and preferable 10 weeks as this will condition your legs to the pounding of daily running that you will need to sustain the high workloads in the middle weeks of the plan. Do this by repeating Week 2 and Week 5 to make an 8 week Transition Period. To make this 10 weeks if you are very new to running, repeat Weeks 2, 3, 5, 6 to add the additional Transition period weeks.
The volume of training is given in hours rather than in miles or kilometers to account for the wide variations in running paces. Some runs are of a recommended maximum distance and time in the later parts of the plan.
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Stats
Sample Day 1
If you are careful and diligent you can do your own test using Training Peaks Premium edition.
Thats what we are going to explain now. Read this article to understand this test better.
https://www.uphillathlete.com/heart-rate-drift/
This test can be done on either on a treadmill, stair machine or a flat to very gentle loop course outdoors. It can not be done on an uphill/downhill out and back course.
1) TREADMILL: Set treadmill to 10% and begin hiking slowly. If training for flatter runs set treadmill to 3% and run. Gradually build speed over the first 10-15 min until HR stabilizes at what you FEEL is an easy aerobic effort. If you have a good idea of what your Aerobic Threshold HR is then target that HR for the beginning of the test. NOW YOU ARE RADY TO BEGIN THE TEST.
NOTE: If hiking you may need to use a steeper grade (10%+) in order to get you HR up sufficiently.
VERY IMPORTANT
Once that speed and grade is dialed in do not adjust speed or grade again during the test. Run or hike continuously for 60 min at this speed. Record HR and upload to TP
TREADMILL CALCULATION: Since GPS does not work indoors the pace part of the Pa:Hr will not be accurate so you can not use the TP Pa:Hr metric on a treadmill. That's why is so important that you hold the pace and grade constant once you start this test on treadmill. It is very likely that you will see an upward trend in the HR over the course of the hour. To calculate HR drift you need to select the first half of the test in the graph of HR/Pace?elevation. Note the avg HR for each half. Compare those to see if avg HR rose more than 5%
2) OUTDOORS: Run, preferably on a flat (or very gently rolling) course, at what feels like an easy aerobic pace. Once your HR stabilizes start the recording feature on your GPS enabled HR monitor watch. Record for one hour while you do your best to keep the HR as close to that initial HR number. Upload the data to TP.
If the Pa:Hr is greater than 5% your initial HR/pace was above your Aerobic Threshold and you should do the test again at a lower HR. This may take several attempts to find a Pa:Hr decoupling of less that 5%.
Once you determine your AeT HR set that as the top of your Zone 2 in your Training Peaks Zones. Subtract 10% from this and set that as the top of your Zone 1.
Sample Day 2
You can do more than 30min if you have a consistent training history of more than 6 hours of running per week for more than 4 weeks.
Sample Day 3
You can do more than 30min if you have a consistent training history of more than 6 hours of running per week for more than 4 weeks.
Sample Day 4
You can do more than 30min if you have a consistent training history of more than 6 hours of running per week for more than 4 weeks.
Sample Day 5
You can do more than 30min if you have a consistent training history of more than 6 hours of running per week for more than 4 weeks.
Sample Day 6
You can do more than 30min if you have a consistent training history of more than 6 hours of running per week for more than 4 weeks.
Sample Day 8
You can do more than 30min if you have a consistent training history of more than 6 hours of running per week for more than 4 weeks.