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Intermediate Half Marathon Training Plan
Written by Andrew Taylor. USATF Level 1 Coach. Coaching runners since 2010.
Make your next half marathon faster than your last.
You’ve already proven you can finish, now it’s time to find out how fast you can actually race. This 12-week plan is built to shave minutes off your personal best by swapping empty mileage for structured, athletic intent.
With 5 runs a week, every session serves a clear purpose: teaching your body exactly how to lock into race pace and hold it when the fatigue kicks in.
To keep you fresh, two dedicated cutback weeks interrupt the mileage build while easy days protect your highest-intensity workouts.
By safely extending your longest run to 14 miles in training, you will arrive at the starting line knowing that the 13.1-mile race distance is shorter, faster, and completely under your control.
- 12 week plan
- 5 runs per week
- 26 to 43 miles a week
- Longest run 14 miles
- 60 coached runs
One-time purchase, yours for life. Delivered through Final Surge.
Is This You?
If you are building toward a first finish, I would put you in the Beginner Half. With a 6th day available, take the Advanced Half.
A free 15-minute call will help answer your questions and choose a plan.
Faster Running Sessions Are Not The Missing Piece
It is a common trap to think that faster intervals lead to a faster race. That is why we include exactly one VO2 max session in Week 1 to wake up your fast-twitch muscles, and then we never touch it again. You aren’t training for a 5K, so chasing blistering track sprints is a waste of your energy.
From week 2 on, hard training focuses entirely on the specific demands of the half marathon:
- Threshold Work: Teaches your mind and body to stay completely controlled when the physical pressure starts to build.
- Steady-State Running: Extends your aerobic engine, delaying the point where that heavy-legged fatigue takes over.
- Race Rhythm Sessions: Makes your target pace feel like second nature, even when your legs are already carrying deep fatigue.
You do not need to win a short interval in training to win your race day goals. Your missing piece is endurance at speed. This plan teaches you to recognize the right effort early, hold it patiently, and still be racing when everyone else is just trying to survive the final miles.
What Makes A Sunrise Running Plan Different
Most plans tell you how far to run. This one tells you how it should feel, and what to do when it doesn’t.
More on why this Sunrise Running plan runs on effort instead of pace.
A Real Week From The Plan
Read across Week 7 to see what each day protects and prepares you to handle.
| Day | Session | What It Asks For |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rest Day | No running. Let the previous week settle before Tuesday's threshold work. |
| Tuesday | Cruise Intervals, 8 miles | 5 x 8 minutes at threshold effort, RPE 6 to 7, with 90 seconds easy between. Plus 35 minutes strength and mobility. |
| Wednesday | Easy Run + Strides, 6 miles | Relaxed conversational effort, RPE 3 to 4, then 4 x 20-second strides. Keep the easy miles controlled before Thursday. |
| Thursday | Steady State Progression Run, 8 miles | 40 minutes steady, RPE 5 to 6, progressing over the final 10 minutes. Plus 35 minutes strength and mobility. |
| Friday | Rest and Mobility | Give your legs room to recover before the longest run of the week. |
| Saturday | Long Run, 12 miles | Easy, RPE 3 to 4, with a steady finish over the final 25 minutes. |
| Sunday | Recovery Run, 5 miles | Slower than easy. It follows the long run, so keep it there. |
| Week total | 39 miles | The final build week before a cutback and the 2-week peak block. |
Two days a week carry no running at all. They are there so Tuesday and Thursday are still worth doing in Week 10.
Every Week Opens With A Note Like This One
This is the guidance you read before starting Week 7.
This is the peak of your plan, with a continuous threshold run and your longest run of the 12 weeks together. Trust everything that got you here.
Thursday’s race rhythm progression finishes at half marathon effort. Two race-specific sessions plus a 14-mile long run is as much as this plan asks.
Focus this week on:
- Pacing Tuesday from the first mile. A continuous threshold run punishes an early mistake.
- Running Thursday’s finish at exactly the pace you intend to race.
- Keeping Saturday’s 14 miles easy. It is volume, not a session.
Everything comes down from here. The taper starts next week.
You get 12 weekly notes like this, plus a separate coaching note on every run.
The 12 Weeks, Phase By Phase
| Weeks | Phase | Mileage | What It Does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | Foundation | 26 to 32 miles | Five runs a week with 2 quality sessions, Tuesday and Thursday, 48 hours apart. The long run grows from 7 to 9 miles and Week 4 steps back to absorb it. |
| 5 to 8 | Build | 31 to 39 miles | Tuesday moves to threshold work and Thursday's steady state run lengthens. The long run reaches 12 miles and Week 8 steps back a second time, which is what makes the peak absorbable. |
| 9 to 10 | Peak | 41 to 43 miles | The biggest 2 weeks of the plan. Week 10 pairs a continuous threshold run with race rhythm work on Thursday and a 14-mile long run, the longest of the plan. |
| 11 | Taper | 29 miles | Volume drops 14 miles but both quality sessions stay, so the legs keep the pace while the fatigue from the peak weeks clears. The fitness is banked, not built here. |
| 12 | Race Week | 16 miles + race | Race rhythm intervals Tuesday, 2 short easy runs, and a 2-mile shakeout Saturday. Enough sharpening to keep the legs awake, not enough volume to cost anything on Sunday. |
What You Get Inside Training Plan
- 60 coached runs that develop threshold strength, extend your race effort and prepare you for the final miles of 13.1.
- 23 strength and mobility sessions placed on Tuesday and Thursday, keeping added work away from your recovery days.
- Run by effort, not pace. Every session on an RPE 1 to 10 scale. No paces, no heart rate, no zones.
- A coach's note on every run: how it should feel, one cue to hold onto, and how to shorten it when today is not the day.
- One-time purchase, yours for life. Printable PDF, syncs to your watch, delivered through Final Surge.
How It Works
Final Surge is free to use — you’re paying for the plan, not a subscription.
Frequently Asked Questions
You are ready if 26 miles across 5 runs is a manageable starting point based on your current training. You should be comfortable with a 7-mile long run and able to handle 2 quality sessions in the same week. You also need enough room in your schedule for 5 runs, including a Saturday long run.
No, not when you arrive with the right base and follow the build that leads to it. You reach 43 miles once, in Week 10, after cutbacks in Weeks 4 and 8. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday remain easy, and the volume drops to 29 miles in Week 11 so the peak work can settle.
The Beginner Half is built to get you to a first 13.1-mile finish on 3 running days a week. This plan starts from a different place: you already run 5 days a week and want those miles to make you faster. You begin with 2 quality sessions in Week 1, and the long run eventually reaches 14 miles.
No, there are no track sessions anywhere in the 12 weeks. Your Tuesday and Thursday workouts are written by time and effort, so you can complete them on roads, paths or a treadmill. A flatter route helps when you want steady feedback, but measured laps and exact splits are not part of the plan.
Skip the missed run and continue with the next scheduled session. Do not stack runs, squeeze a long run into the wrong place, or turn a recovery week into a make-up week. Consistency across the 12 weeks of the plan beats being perfect for 2.
No. Every session is written on an RPE 1 to 10 effort scale. That means the plan works on hills, in heat, on tired legs and at any fitness level, and it keeps working as you get faster.
Pick your race, set your start date, and the plan builds backward from it. If the race moves, the plan moves. You keep it for life, which means the next build starts from something you already know works.
Move to the Advanced Half if you want another half marathon build and can give training a 6th running day. If you are ready to take the endurance in a different direction, move up to the marathon. The better choice depends on whether you want to keep sharpening 13.1 or start preparing for more distance.
Founder & Head Coach, Sunrise Running Company
Andrew is a USATF Level 1 certified running coach in Modesto, California, with 35+ years of running and 8 finishes at the 100-mile distance. He holds a BS in Exercise Science Education and an MA in Sports Management from Ohio State, and he writes every Sunrise Running plan himself.
12 Weeks To A Faster 13.1
Pick your race, set your start date, and the plan builds backward from it. If the race moves, the plan moves. You keep it for life, which means the next build starts from something you already know works.
One-time purchase, lifetime access. Delivered instantly through Final Surge.