This half marathon training plan is four runs a week for six weeks: an easy 10km on Tuesday, 1km reps at race pace on Thursday, a 10km run that turns into a 5km tempo, and a 20km long run at the weekend. It builds towards about 50km a week, and the last week is a taper. It is the build Niels Post, Kracey’s founder (1:16 half marathon, 2:45 marathon), sets for a runner chasing sub-90.
Six weeks is short: most of the plans that rank for this search run 12 to 16 weeks. That works here for one reason only: the runner it is written for can already cover the distance. As Niels puts it, you want to be confident at the start line “that the distance is not the issue. The speed is going to be the issue.” Everything below is built on that sentence, so read the first section before you start week one.
Key Takeaways
- A six-week half marathon plan only works if you can already run 20km easy; it trains speed, not distance.
- Sub-90 means 21.1km at 4:15 per kilometre or slightly quicker (6:51 per mile or quicker).
- Weeks 1 to 5 have the same four runs: a 10km in Zone 2, 1km reps at race pace, a 5km Zone 2 plus 5km tempo run, and a 20km long run.
- The Thursday reps build from 6 to 8 to 10 x 1km at race pace, with 2 minutes rest between them.
- The long run stays easy: “the hard part is the length. It’s not the pace.”
Who a Six-Week Half Marathon Training Plan Is For
A six-week half marathon training plan is for a runner who already has the distance and needs the speed. If you can run 20km at an easy, conversational effort today, and you run about four times a week, six weeks is enough to sharpen your pace for race day. If 20km is still a long way off, you need a longer plan, because six weeks cannot build distance and speed at once.
Check your pace as honestly as your distance. A 5:30 per kilometre run that feels easy tells you where your easy pace is; it is not evidence that you can hold 4:15 for 21.1km. Run a recent 10K or half through the race time predictor first. If the prediction sits a long way from your target, the goal needs more than six weeks.
The Four Runs in a Build Week
Weeks 1 to 5 have the same four runs, and only the Thursday session changes from week to week; week 6 is the taper. Two runs are easy, one is fast and one is mixed, which keeps most of your running at low intensity and puts the race-pace work where it counts.
Tuesday: 10km in Zone 2
An easy 10km at a pace where you can hold a full conversation. You can push it a little, but if talking turns into short answers, slow down. This run builds the base that the fast sessions stand on.
Thursday: 1km Reps at Race Pace
The key session. Run 1km at your goal half marathon pace, rest 2 minutes, and repeat: 6 reps in the first fortnight, then 8, then 10. Warm up and cool down with easy running. At sub-90 pace, each rep takes about 4:15.
The Tempo Run: Half Zone 2, Half Tempo
A 10km run in two halves: the first 5km easy in Zone 2, the second 5km at tempo, a controlled hard effort. Keep an easy day between it and the Thursday reps.
The Weekend Long Run: 20km Easy
A 20km run, all of it easy. In Niels’s words: “Long run is like, is easy … the hard part is the length. It’s not the pace.” This is the run that makes the distance a non-issue on race day, so resist the urge to race it.
The Six Weeks, Laid Out
Here is the full six-week half marathon training plan for a sub-90 target. The rep count steps up every two weeks, the other three runs hold steady, and week 6 is the taper.
| Week | Tuesday | Thursday | Tempo run | Weekend long run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10km Zone 2 | 6 x 1km at race pace, 2 min rest | 5km Zone 2 + 5km tempo | 20km easy |
| 2 | 10km Zone 2 | 6 x 1km at race pace, 2 min rest | 5km Zone 2 + 5km tempo | 20km easy |
| 3 | 10km Zone 2 | 8 x 1km at race pace, 2 min rest | 5km Zone 2 + 5km tempo | 20km easy |
| 4 | 10km Zone 2 | 8 x 1km at race pace, 2 min rest | 5km Zone 2 + 5km tempo | 20km easy |
| 5 | 10km Zone 2 | 10 x 1km at race pace, 2 min rest | 5km Zone 2 + 5km tempo | 20km easy |
| 6 (taper) | Short easy run | A few 1km reps at race pace | Rest or a short easy run | Race day |
Four runs like these come to about 50km a week, and Niels’s own condition on that number is “if your legs allow it”. If your legs say no in week 3, run fewer kilometres and keep the race. The taper week will feel strange; why you feel worse during a taper explains why that is normal.
You do not have to stop lifting. With four runs a week, Niels’s view is that “you should have the space to do strength as well.” Keep the heavy leg work away from the day before the Thursday reps, and see strength exercises for runners for what to keep in.
Half Marathon Pace for Your Target Time
Your race pace is your target time divided by 21.0975km, and it is the pace for every Thursday rep. The table holds the paces for common half marathon targets, worked from the full distance.
| Target time | Pace per kilometre | Pace per mile |
|---|---|---|
| 2:00:00 | 5:41 | 9:09 |
| 1:50:00 | 5:13 | 8:23 |
| 1:45:00 | 4:59 | 8:01 |
| 1:40:00 | 4:44 | 7:38 |
| 1:35:00 | 4:30 | 7:15 |
| 1:30:00 | 4:16 | 6:52 |
Notice the last row: 4:16 is the pace for exactly 1:30:00, so sub-90 means 4:15 or a touch quicker, every kilometre. The structure of this plan works for the other targets too, with the reps run at your own row. For splits at any other target, use the race pace conversion chart .
Zone 2, the Base Under the Pace
Zone 2 is easy aerobic running, the effort you can hold while talking in full sentences, and in this plan it carries two of the four runs plus half of a third. Niels explains it as a pyramid: if you want a high peak, a fast Zone 4 and Zone 5, “you need to also have like a wide base. And the way to build a wide base is zone 2.”
That matches how endurance athletes actually train. In Stephen Seiler’s 2010 review of training intensity, competitive endurance athletes did about 80% of their sessions at low intensity and about 20% at high intensity.
Zone 2 is a heart-rate range, so it has to be your range, not a formula’s. Find yours with the training zone calculator . A chest strap reads heart rate more accurately than a watch on the wrist; the wrist has some errors, but for easy running it is generally good enough.
How Long a Half Marathon Training Plan Should Be
A half marathon training plan should be as long as it takes to make the distance easy before the race. With a 20km base already in place, six weeks is enough to sharpen speed. Without one, plan for longer: the plans that rank for this search mostly run 12 to 16 weeks, because they build the distance first.
A longer build has phases: base, then build, then a peak and a taper before the race date. A six-week build compresses that: base and build combine into one block, and the last week is the taper. The same logic runs through the 10K training plan and, at double the distance, through marathon long runs .
Where a Fixed Plan Breaks
A fixed half marathon training plan breaks the first time your week stops matching the table. The table cannot see that the reps fell apart, that you slept badly, or that the Tuesday run had to move. Following it anyway is how the last two weeks of a short build go wrong.
Take Daniel, whose half marathon PB is 1:34 and who wants sub-90. In week 3 his Thursday asks for 8 x 1km at 4:15. Reps one to five land between 4:13 and 4:16. Reps six, seven and eight come in at 4:24, 4:27 and 4:31. The plan on his fridge says week 5 is 10 reps at the same pace, and it will say that whatever Thursday looked like.
A Coach That Reads the Reps
The PDF cannot see your Tuesday. Your coach can. Kracey is an AI running coach that lives in Telegram and reads your training through intervals.icu, which syncs from Garmin, COROS, Polar, Suunto, WHOOP and Oura. Your coach counts reps from the lap splits and never judges a session’s intensity from its average, so a fade in the last three reps is what it sees. It plans a week or two ahead inside a season that runs to your race date, rather than printing every session in advance. Tell your coach a day is out and the plan moves; if it disagrees, you get one short reason, and then it makes the change.
That is the method on this page, with someone reading the sessions. Meet your running coach : 14 free days, no card, and the days start when your coach can see your first synced run. There is nothing to install.
FAQ
Yes, if you can already run about 20km at an easy effort. Six weeks is enough to sharpen your race pace with weekly 1km reps and a tempo run. It is not enough to build the distance from scratch at the same time.
4:15 per kilometre or slightly quicker, which is 6:51 per mile or quicker. Exactly 1:30:00 over 21.0975km works out at 4:16 per kilometre, so any slower and you miss.
This plan works towards about 50km a week over four runs: 10km easy, the Thursday reps, a 10km tempo run and a 20km long run. Treat the number as a direction. If your legs cannot take it, run less rather than push through.
Six weeks if you can already run the distance comfortably. If you cannot, look at a longer plan: the ones that rank for this search mostly run 12 to 16 weeks. The longer plans spend their first weeks building distance; a six-week plan assumes that work is done.
Yes. With four runs a week there is room for strength sessions. Keep heavy leg work away from the day before your hardest run.
No. The whole plan is on this page, and a PDF is exactly what we do not sell: it cannot see how your sessions actually went. If you want the plan to change when your week does, that is what the coach is for.