The Best 20-Week Marathon Training Plan for First-Time Runners

Officially, you’re a marathoner when you cross the finish line of your first 26.2-mile race. But in reality, becoming a marathoner is a transformation that happens over months or even years, one mile at a time. An important step in those early days? Choosing the right training plan.A program tailored to your fitness level, running history, schedule, and goals will help you build the endurance and durability needed to conquer 26.2 miles. It will also help you dial in your goal pace for race day.As a first-timer, your plan should incorporate enough recovery to keep you healthy and injury-free and gradually build your mileage and intensity.When choosing a plan, start by looking at its first few weeks to see the workouts match the running you’re already doing. You should have the base fitness to comfortably meet the plan’s starting mileage without making a sudden jump in your running frequency or volume.Even after you’ve considered all of this, it can still be hard to know which of the hundreds of plans out there best fits your needs and schedule. Enter: This 20-week plan, specifically designed for those looking to make their marathon debut.Download PlanWhat to Know About This PlanIdeally, before you kick off the plan, you will have been running regularly for at least one year or running at least four times per week for three months.Over 20 weeks, you’ll incorporate easy runs, rest days, long runs, and marathon-pace efforts. Here’s a quick definition of what those sessions look like and how they benefit your fitness so you run stronger on race day:How to Make This Plan Work for YouThe goal of the plan is to slowly build mileage, starting at 12 miles per week in Week 1 and climbing to 44 miles by Week 15, which you’ll hit again in Week 17. You’ll do this with four to five days of running per week, with the option to substitute one midweek easy run for a cross-training session. To cross-train, do an activity like cycling or swimming for about the same amount of time you’d spend doing your easy run.Throughout the plan, you will have sufficient opportunities for the rest and recovery your body needs. You will always have the option to take at least two rest days per week. However, the majority of this plan offers three weekly rest days—with the exception of Weeks 5 through 11.“Some general fatigue and soreness can be a part of marathon training, but it shouldn’t be the overall theme,” says Elizabeth Corkum, a.k.a. Coach Corky, an RRCA-, UESCA-, and USATF-certified run coach who trains runners in every distance from the 5K through ultramarathon. Some red flags to watch for are chronic fatigue or soreness, frequently struggling through workouts, or regularly dreading your daily runs, she adds.“The marathon is a big undertaking and the confidence for it only comes by doing,” says Corkum. “We’re going to have good days, and we’re going to have days where we question our abilities. But you’ll be ready on race day as long as you stay consistent in doing the training.”How Do I Set My Marathon Goal Pace? Your first marathon-pace (MP) workouts start in Week 6 in this plan, but as a first-timer, it’s okay if you don’t have an exact marathon pace in mind. In fact, many runners won’t.“Marathon pace is going to evolve over time,” explains Corkum. “I tell first-time marathoners and veterans alike that at 16, 12, or even eight weeks out from the race, your marathon goal pace is really just a vibe.” By “vibe,” Corkum means that you aren’t locking in on a number just yet—you’re going by feel. The best way to do this is to simply focus on effort and use rate of perceived exertion (RPE).“Think of marathon pace as an RPE of 5 to 7 out of 10. It’s not super comfortable, but you also shouldn’t feel tanked at the end of a marathon-pace workout. If I told you to keep going for two more miles, you might be annoyed, but you should be able to do it,” Corkum says. If not, that’s an indicator your marathon pace was too fast. In general, your breathing should feel controlled, steady, and even for the majority of the workout, she adds.As you progress through the plan, you’ll start to see what paces usually align with your marathon-pace efforts. From there, you can begin narrowing down a range for race day. Just keep in mind that weather, elevation, and terrain can all affect your pace from day to day—so don’t get too attached to specific numbers.“We might be running 15, 20, or 30 seconds per mile slower on a day when it’s hot and humid than on a day when it’s cool and crisp,” Corkum explains. For that reason, she says runners should focus more on effort and building an awareness around how different paces feel during runs and workouts. Honing this skill is crucial for marathoners, she adds, because it’s how you learn to race within your own effort and not get swept up in the excitement on race day.Incorporate Strides Strides are an excellent tool for first-time marathoners to start adding some intensity and faster paces to their training, Corkum says. “They help get that neuromuscular connection going between your brain and your legs and start reinforcing what a faster cadence and different stride length feel like compared to when you’re running easy miles,” she explains.Each stride should last about 30 seconds. To do strides, start by running very easy for 10 seconds. Focus on taking short, quick steps while keeping your torso tall and relaxed. Gradually increase your speed for about 15 seconds. Then decelerate for about 5 seconds until you slow to a walk.Take as much time as you need to recover between strides before starting the next one. You’ll know you’re recovered when you’ve fully caught your breath, can easily talk in complete sentences, and your heart rate has fallen closer to your baseline.According to Corkum, strides should be faster than your marathon pace, but they should still feel relaxed. Remember, this is not a sprint workout; your main focus should be maintaining good form, quickening your turnover, and accelerating and decelerating smoothly.Corkum recommends doing strides once or twice a week. You can tack them onto the end of an easy run, or you can do them within your marathon-pace efforts. For example, take a day that you have five miles easy with three miles at marathon pace: You could do four to six strides after those first two miles before you cruise into the marathon effort. Alternatively, do those same four to six reps at the end of an easy four-miler.Practice Fueling Fueling—especially when the long runs start increasing in distance—has a major effect on how we recover, perform, and stay resistant to injuries, Corkum says. “A lot of runners get so focused on the training itself that they neglect the nutrition component. But that piece is truly as important as the miles,” she says. “Staying well-fueled is like bonus fitness: It helps you feel better without working any harder.”The best time to practice fueling is during your long runs, and during this training plan, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so.Experiment with different types and amounts of fuel (the general recommendation is 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour), how you might carry your gels on race day, and fine-tune how much water and electrolytes you’ll need to replace, based on how much you sweat. Corkum recommends that runners start by ingesting between 400 and 600 milligrams of sodium per hour during their long runs, and then increase or decrease that amount based on how they feel.“By problem-solving week after week after week during your long runs, you develop the skills and ability to trust your decision-making regardless of what comes your way on race day,” she explains.LEARN MORE ABOUT MARATHON FUELINGTrack Your ProgressKeeping a journal or log during marathon training—whether it’s on your phone, in a Google Doc, or with classic pen and paper—helps you notice trends, learn from mistakes, and make improvements, says Corkum. It’s where you can note things like which gels worked best for fueling your long runs, which shorts you wore and whether they were comfortable enough for race day, and how you felt at different paces over 20 weeks of training.Most importantly, tracking the details of your runs and workouts can provide a huge psychological benefit. “We tend to remember the really epic days and the really crappy days in training. The rest of them can fade into the background,” Corkum says. But it’s by stacking all those average days that we build the bulk of our marathon fitness. So after a workout that might leave you wrecked, overwhelmed, or questioning your abilities, it can be reaffirming to look back on all the hard work.“Bad days are part of the process. They make us human,” Corkum says, but they don’t define your training. It’s the hundreds of miles, literally, that you’ve put in from Day 1 to Day 140 of this plan that have prepared you to race an unforgettable first marathon.Morgan is a gear editor who has been with Runner’s World since 2017. She started as an intern ghostwriting The Warmup, a bygone version of the daily RW newsletter. Now, she tests and reviews anything you might find on runners’ feet-from crew socks and compression boots to carbon-plated super shoes. A lifelong runner and shoe geek, Morgan has been chasing the perfect pair of kicks since she joined her grade school cross-country team. Since then, she ran as a Division I walk-on for the cross-country and track & field teams at the University of Delaware, where she studied English and Biology. She has one full marathon under her belt, and has raced more halfs and 5Ks than she can count.