WHICH TRAINING PLAN IS RIGHT FOR ME?
Our Marathon and Half Marathon Training Plans assume that you have some base level of general fitness, you might not be a seasoned runner, and that’s okay, but we recommend that you are generally fit and healthy, either through running, other sports or natural ability.
At a minimum, you need to be able to comfortably run Week 1 of any program. If Week 1 looks achievable, then we’d love to have you on board. If Week 1 looks too hard, you may want to consider a different goal time, a different distance (e.g. marathon vs half marathon) or a beginner program (Couch to 5K plan coming soon).
If you feel comfortable with Week 1, the next question to ask yourself is — is this goal time achievable? If you have never run a half marathon or marathon before, the easiest way to answer this question is to run a 5km race or hard effort on a flat road surface, either by yourself, with friends or a local parkrun.
Alternatively, you may have run a half marathon or marathon already and are looking to improve your time, or you may be in tune with your level of fitness and abilities, and you can select the time based on that.
If you go for the 5km method, take your recent 5km time and see where you sit on this table:
| 5km time | Estimated 10km time | Estimated half marathon time | Estimated marathon time |
| 34:00 | 1:10:50 | 2:35:25 | 5:29:49 |
| 30:50 | 1:05:10 | 2:21:21 | 4:59:35 |
| 27:45 | 57:50 | 2:06:56 | 4:29:21 |
| 24:40 | 51:30 | 1:52:52 | 3:59:48 |
| 21:35 | 45:00 | 1:38:48 | 3:29:34 |
| 19:15 | 38:30 | 1:24:44 | 2:59:20 |
If you are in between time brackets you have a tricky choice on which direction to go in choosing a training plan – faster or slower. Both options can work but you may need some personal adjustment once you receive your program. Generally, we would recommend choosing the faster program and adjusting some of your paces slower to fit your training to the appropriate time bracket of your ability, due to the law of diminishing returns.
Please note these times are estimates, based on a results dataset and algorithm, and may not perfectly fit you individually. Running a quick 5km is a very different experience to a half marathon or marathon and there are many other factors to consider, such as your existing fitness level, natural running ability, lifestyle and many other individual circumstances – plus, of course, doing the training!
You know you best, so trust your gut and get ready to smash your goals. We hope to be part of your running journey. Let’s go!