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 preferably 10 weeks. This will condition your legs to the pounding of daily running needed 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, and 6 to add the additional transition period weeks.
This plan is based on your RPE, or Rate of Perceived Exertion. Workout intensities are guided by how hard you are working based on your perception of effort (how hard the workout feels to you) rather than by heart rate. This is an adaption of the original plan for those who want to learn to calibrate their effort levels in their workouts. It's also a great option for those who don't have a smartwatch or prefer not to train using technology.
The volume of training is given in hours rather than in miles or kilometers to account for the wide variations in running paces.
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Happy Training,
The Uphill Athlete Team
Uphill Athlete exists to educate mountain athletes. We wrote the books on training for mountain sports. On our website, you'll find a wealth of science-based, mountain-proven resources, including articles, videos, and podcasts. From trekking to climbing Everest; from 10K to 200-milers, our expert coaches cover it all.
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