Marathon Training Schedule Planner
Build a race-date marathon schedule from your current base with capped progression, cutbacks and taper weeks plus clear training guardrails.{{ summaryTitle }}
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The chart renderer is unavailable. Phase counts remain available in the weekly schedule.
{{ calendarIcs }}A marathon covers 42.195 km, but training for that distance is not simply a sequence of ever-longer runs. A usable schedule has to distribute running across the week, build from work the runner already tolerates, create recovery opportunities, and reduce training before race day.
| Phase | Purpose | Common planning error |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Raise long-run and total weekly distance | Increasing faster than the runner can recover |
| Cutback | Temporarily reduce load | Treating every week as a harder week |
| Peak | Reach the highest planned training load | Forcing a target that the available weeks cannot reach |
| Taper | Reduce volume before the race | Adding missed training late in the plan |
| Race | Place the 42.195 km event on its actual date | Reading calendar placement as proof of readiness |
The current comfortable long run and current weekly distance describe the starting base. Their relationship matters: when one long run makes up most of the week, the remaining runs may provide too little supporting volume. Adding days or distance abruptly can also create a schedule that looks complete on paper but is poorly matched to recent training.
Cutbacks and tapering are planned reductions, not lost fitness. They give accumulated work a chance to be absorbed. The appropriate length and depth vary with experience, total load, recovery, illness, travel, and the demands of the event, so a generic calendar remains a draft for review.
Distance is only one measure of training stress. Pace, hills, heat, surface, strength work, sleep, nutrition, and pain can make equal distances very different. No schedule formula can assess injury, diagnose symptoms, prescribe rehabilitation, or guarantee race readiness.
Runners who are new to endurance training, returning from injury, managing a health condition, or experiencing persistent pain should seek qualified medical or coaching guidance before following a demanding plan. Stop or modify training when symptoms or recovery no longer match the schedule.
How to Use This Tool:
Enter a base that reflects recent repeatable training, not a one-off best week, then let the race date define the calendar.
- Choose the Training profile, race date, plan length, and schedule unit. Plans accept 8–30 weeks; many conventional cycles use 12–20, but the guardrails judge the chosen runway.
- Enter the Current comfortable long run, Current weekly distance, runs per week, and preferred long-run day. Mixed kilometre and mile inputs are converted to one physical distance before planning.
- Set a conservative Peak long run and a 3%–15% Hard-build increase cap. A lower cap may prevent a short plan from reaching the requested peak.
- Choose a cutback cadence and 2–4 taper weeks. Keep cutbacks enabled unless a reviewed training approach gives a clear reason to remove them.
- Review Training guardrails, the weekly rows, and real calendar conflicts. Revise the inputs when the peak is not reached, long-run share is high, frequency is too low, or the available runway is short.
Interpreting Results:
Use the schedule as a review draft. On track means one stored planning check is inside its preferred band, Review marks a caution, and Adjust marks a stronger mismatch. None of these labels is medical clearance or a prediction of finishing time.
- Compare Achieved peak long run with the requested target. The cap and available hard-build weeks can leave the achieved value lower.
- Check Base long-run share and Peak long-run share. A large share means one run carries much of the week, even if the weekly total itself looks reasonable.
- Read cutback and taper drops as intentional. An isolated decrease is not an error when the phase is Cutback or Taper.
- Move sessions around recovery and availability only after checking that the weekly spacing still makes sense. Verify imported calendar dates and local times before relying on them.
Technical Details:
The schedule works backward from the race date in seven-day blocks. All distances are normalized to kilometres, then build, cutback, peak, taper, and race rules generate the weekly totals. The model is a repository-authored heuristic rather than an official training prescription.
Formula Core
Miles are converted with the exact international conversion used throughout the plan:
Each profile begins with a supported long-run share: 44% for First marathon finish, 41% for Steady base builder, and 38% for Intermediate with workouts. The share decreases by 2.5 percentage points for every run per week above four and increases by the same amount below four, then is limited to 32%–50%.
Q is weekly distance, L is long-run distance, and s is the supported share as a decimal. On each hard-build week after the first, both long-run and weekly distance are capped against the previous hard week:
r is the selected 3%–15% hard-build cap. Full precision is retained through the calculation; displayed distances are converted to the selected unit and rounded only for presentation.
Transformation Core
Build weeks equal plan weeks minus taper weeks. Every third or fourth build week becomes a cutback when that cadence is selected, except the first two weeks and the final peak week. Cutback long runs use the greater of 85% of the starting long run or 76% of the previous hard long run; cutback weekly totals use the greater of 85% of the starting week or 78% of the previous hard week.
| Selected taper | Pre-race taper factors applied in order |
|---|---|
| 2 weeks | 62% |
| 3 weeks | 72%, then 48% |
| 4 weeks | 82%, then 64%, then 42% |
Taper long runs cannot fall below 75% of the starting long run. Taper weekly totals cannot fall below 65% of the starting week, and no weekly total is allowed below 110% of that week’s long run. Race week inserts 42.195 km on the actual race date and adds a small supporting-distance heuristic.
Non-long-run distance is divided across the selected 3–6 weekly run slots. Ordinary runs use weight 1, the Intermediate profile’s build-phase quality run uses 1.2, and the shakeout uses 0.8. Calendar durations are estimates: ordinary runs use about 7 min/km, long runs 7.5 min/km, with lower and upper bounds; race duration uses at least 180 minutes. These event lengths are calendar placeholders, not pace prescriptions.
Rule Core
| Guardrail | On track | Review | Adjust |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan runway | ≥ 14 weeks | 12–13 weeks | < 12 weeks |
| Base long-run share | ≤ 43% | > 43% and ≤ 52% | > 52% |
| Peak long-run share | ≤ 42% | > 42% and ≤ 48% | > 48% |
| Frequency | ≥ 4 runs/week | 3 runs/week and peak ≤ 29 km | 3 runs/week and peak > 29 km |
| Recovery | Cutbacks enabled | Cutbacks disabled | — |
Progression is On track only when the achieved peak long run reaches at least 98% of its target and the largest hard-week increase stays within the selected cap plus 0.01 percentage point. A short build, a target not reached, concentrated starting distance, low frequency with a peak over 29 km, or disabled cutbacks also produces a specific warning.
Safety Notes:
The schedule cannot account for pain, injury history, illness, heat, terrain, sleep, travel, nutrition, medication, or individual recovery. It is not medical advice, rehabilitation guidance, or proof of race readiness.
- Use recent repeatable training as the base; do not inflate it to make a target appear reachable.
- Do not make up missed distance by compressing several hard weeks together.
- Seek appropriate professional guidance for persistent pain, symptoms, return from injury, or uncertainty about exercise safety.
Worked Examples:
A short capped build
An 8-week First marathon finish plan starting from a 10 km long run and 30 km week, with an 18 km target, 10% cap, every-third-week cutback, and 2-week taper, reaches about 14.641 km for its training peak. The requested 18 km is not forced into the short runway, so progression remains Review and the plan reports that the peak was not reached.
References:
- Marathon: 42.195 km road-running event, World Athletics.
- Become a Better Runner and Avoid Injury, Mayo Clinic Health System.
- How Tapering Maximizes Your Potential on Marathon Day, Mayo Clinic News Network.