The 4 Week Half Marathon Training Plan

When you set your sights on a big “A Goal” race, you typically want to devote quite a few weeks—if not a few months—to training, particularly if it’s longer than 10K.

However, sometimes, really exciting race opportunities come up, which can convince you to jump into a race at the last minute.

For example, you might realize that there’s a half marathon taking place in the town you will be visiting on your vacation in a month, and you know it would be a great way to see the area on foot.

But can you train for a half marathon in a month? Is a 4 week half marathon training plan doable?

The short answer is: it depends. 

If you have been training consistently for quite a few months, hitting some good mileage, and feeling healthy and strong, a 4 week half marathon training plan can be just enough to help you tune up to be in race-ready shape.

In this guide, we will provide a 4 week half marathon training plan for advanced runners as well as tips for training for a half marathon in a month.

Can You Train for a Half Marathon In a Month?

Is a 4 week half marathon training plan feasible and realistic?

Not necessarily.

A four-week half-marathon training plan is likely insufficient for runners who have not been training consistently for at least six months or more, and especially if this is their first half marathon.

Additionally, if you are an injury-prone runner, training for a half marathon in 4 weeks is probably inadvisable. 

The very nature of a 4 week half marathon training plan having such a short time frame necessitates fairly aggressive training, which can increase the risk of injuries.

Finally, if you are looking to nail a half marathon PR, a 4 week half marathon training plan is most likely not the best route to help you achieve that goal. Generally speaking, you want to allow a minimum of 8 weeks to train for a half marathon, with 10 to 12 weeks being ideal.

On the other hand, training for a half marathon in a month can potentially be feasible for runners who have been getting in some good mileage and who have run a half marathon before.

Ideally, you should be running 4 to 5 days per week with a weekly long run of at least 8-9 miles, depending on your race goal.

If you just want to finish the race, you should be able to train for a half marathon in 4 weeks with that level of fitness, whereas if you are looking to run a competitive time, a current long run of 10+ miles is better.

Not sure this is the plan for you? – Then check out our other half-marathon training plans.

Training Tips For Our 4 Week Half Marathon Training Plan

#1: Be Honest About Your Fitness Level

We can’t overstate that your current fitness level is very important to evaluate before embarking on a 4 week half marathon training plan. 

You should have a solid base so that your body can handle the mileage in the plan as written. 

Otherwise, if you increase your mileage and intensity too quickly to meet the demands of the training plan, you will not only increase your risk of injury and overtraining, but your body will not have all the time it needs to adapt and respond to the training.

Physiological adaptations, such as increases in aerobic capacity, increases in mitochondrial and capillary density, and improvements in metabolic energy systems, take time.

You can’t just do one long run and the next day expect that your type I muscle fibers have become better fat oxidizers, for example.

It can take a couple of weeks for the positive physiological adaptations of your running workouts to manifest.

Therefore, if you jump into a 4 week half marathon training plan with limited fitness and hope to compress your training into just one month, your body won’t be able to adapt fully and may not be ready come race day.

Our 4 week half training plan is mostly just a tuneup to sharpen you for a good half marathon. Therefore, you should be running at least 25 miles per week with a long run of 10 miles or 30+ miles per week with a long run of 8-9 miles before starting it.

#2: Be Mindful Of Speed Work

Depending on your half marathon race goal, speed workouts may be more or less important.

If you are just looking to finish the race, speed workouts will not be as important, but if you are looking to run a decent time, you should try to incorporate pace work.

With that said, if you have not been doing any speed workouts recently, now is not the time to jump full throttle into the two weekly hard workouts we’ve included in this 4 week half marathon training plan.

If you have only been doing easy pace distance runs, pick one of the two speed workouts¹Burke, J., Thayer, R., & Belcamino, M. (1994). Comparison of effects of two interval-training programmes on lactate and ventilatory thresholds. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 28(1), 18–21. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.28.1.18 and run it as prescribed (to the best of your ability) and substitute a regular distance run for the other. 

For example, in the first week of the training schedule, you have an interval workout of 400 m repeats on the track and a threshold workout later in the week with 5 x 4 minutes at your tempo pace. Choose just one.

For the other workout, do an easy run roughly equivalent in distance to the typical daily mileage you’ve been averaging over the past 6 weeks.

#3: Think About Your Pace

Long runs should be run at an easy, conversational pace, at least a minute or so per mile slower than your goal pace.

You only have a month to train for a half marathon, so running your long runs too fast will be overly taxing for your body and can compromise your recovery and performance in the other specific training runs during the week.

The other distance runs on the training plan should also be run at a relaxed, conversational pace.

The threshold workouts and tempo runs are run at your tempo pace, which is approximately the pace you could sustain running at max effort for one hour.

Your strides should be extremely fast, accelerating throughout the duration of the stride until you reach your max speed at the end.

When you’re ready, you can check out our Half Marathon Pace Calculator to help plan your specific race pace based on your finish time goal.

#4: Take Recovery Seriously

Once you build in a taper,²Mujika, I., Padilla, S., Pyne, D., & Busso, T. (2004). Physiological Changes Associated with the Pre-Event Taper in Athletes. Sports Medicine, 34(13), 891–927. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434130-00003 four weeks is really not much time to prepare for a half marathon. For this reason, every workout counts, and every aspect of recovery counts.

Take this month to focus on being an athlete, and that means respecting your rest days.

Also, get enough sleep every night, eat a nutritious and balanced diet with adequate caloric intake to support your training and recovery, drink plenty of water, stretch after workouts, foam roll, and implement other recovery modalities as needed, such as icing, massage, etc.

#5: Strength Train

If you haven’t been strength training up until this point, now is not the time to start an aggressive strength training plan.

However, doing core work and basic bodyweight exercises a couple of times a week can be a great way to augment your training and help prevent injuries.

You just don’t want to jump into a structured resistance training plan with heavy weights when you have less than a month to go before your half marathon.

On the other hand, if you have been strength training, make sure to continue your workouts 2-3 days per week while following the 4 week half marathon training plan. 

Perform your strength training workouts on days when you have an easy run or cross-training workout scheduled.

Incorporate compound exercises like squats, lunges, step-ups, deadlifts, push-ups, pull-ups, rows, and core exercises.

#6: Listen to Your Body

Finally, and most importantly, it’s crucial to listen to your body. 

It’s more important to rest or modify workouts when you need to than to hit every single workout in this accelerated 4 week half marathon training plan as written.

Download The 4 Week Half Marathon Training Plan For Free:

• Open the Google Sheets version of this plan
  ( File > Make A Copy) to create your own version

• Open this plan as a PDF – miles version

• Open this plan as a PDF – km version

• Open the Guidance Notes that accompany this plan (PDF)

• Open the printable version of this plan

• Get the TrainingPeaks version of this plan, which you can sync with your device.

Download The Training Plan Here

Enter your email, and I’ll send you this free training plan now, in PDF and Google Sheets formats (completely customizable), in both miles and kilometers.  

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Previous visitor or not seeing where to sign up?

Head over to our half marathon training plan database for full access to all plans.

As mentioned, a 4 week half marathon training plan is not ideal. It can get an experienced runner to the finish line, but most likely won’t get them that PR.

If you want to work toward a better half-marathon time, take 10-12 weeks to prepare well.

Check out some of our longer half-marathon training programs, along with all of our half-marathon training resources, here.

Other Free Training Plans:

Beginner + Novice Training Plans

• Couch To Half Marathon Training Plan
• 5k To Half Marathon Training Plan
• Beginner 16 Week Half Marathon Training Plan
• 15 Week Beginner Half Marathon Training Plan
• 12 Week Half Marathon Training Plan

Intermediate + Advanced Half Marathon Training Plans

• 10k To Half Marathon Training Plan
• 10 Week Improver Half Marathon Training Plan
• 8 Week Half Marathon Training Plan
• 6 Week Half Marathon Training Plan
• 4 Week Half Marathon Training Plan

Time-based Half Marathon Training Plans

• Sub 2-Hour Half Marathon Training Plan
• 1:45 Half Marathon Training Plan
• 1:30 Half Marathon Training Plan – 12 Weeks
• 1:30 Half Marathon Training Plan – 8 Weeks

Check out the Half Marathon Training Plans page for more.

References

• 1
  Burke, J., Thayer, R., & Belcamino, M. (1994). Comparison of effects of two interval-training programmes on lactate and ventilatory thresholds. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 28(1), 18–21. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.28.1.18
• 2
  Mujika, I., Padilla, S., Pyne, D., & Busso, T. (2004). Physiological Changes Associated with the Pre-Event Taper in Athletes. Sports Medicine, 34(13), 891–927. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434130-00003