Marathon Training Plan For Beginners – 24 Week Plan

24 week training plan for a novice marathoner.

Choosing a specific marathon training plan for your first marathon will depend to a large extent on your

• overall level of fitness
• your capacity to test the limits of your comfort zone
• the available time you have
• your determination
• your goals and
• ability not to push too hard when the body is already stressed.

The plan below is the training plan recommended by the Virgin London Marathon website for a beginner to develop the strength and endurance to complete your first 26.2 mile marathon.

This plan includes a fair amount of running and walking which conserves energy for the later stages of the event and rests the popularly used muscles which can tend to get sore as the miles mount. Walking is a great way to build a race-plan into blocks of walk/run ratios, 5: 1 is a well tried strategy.

As the schedule builds from month to month there is a race at a half marathon distance recommended at the end of week 12. This will help develop confidence and test your muscles under real conditions. This will also help you get some ideas about hydration and refuelling during the race.

The longest run in this plan is 2.5 hours long. Determine how far you can run in this time to give you some idea of the overall time you can expect to realise if this plan suits your ability and capacity.

This plan is download-able as a pdf from the Virgin London Marathon website

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