Periodization (How a Training Plan Is Structured)

Start from the goal race

Pick the one or two races that matter most this season and plan back from them. Everything else, tune-up races, trips and camps, is supporting: it fits around the plan and does not drive it. Start from the ideal plan and then fit in what your life requires. Knowing what you gave up lets you see why one area got less emphasis, and decide whether it matters.

Look back before you look ahead. Sort your last three or four years into stretches that went well and stretches that did not, and ask what the good ones had in common and what the bad ones lacked or overdid: a block of hard running, a month without strength work. For a runner with a few years of history, repeating what worked and fixing what was missing is often the cheapest gain available. Copying a plan that worked for someone else is not.

Plan in detail only as far as you can see. Write the next two to four weeks precisely, and write the weeks beyond that as general goals, such as building threshold work and lifting twice a week. Your recovery, your life and your last month of training change what the next month should be.

When the race is many months away, do not pour on hard training the whole time. Space the hard sessions out, for example two in ten days instead of two in seven, and spend the runway on easy volume and strength. Training hard for nine months wears out your enthusiasm before the race arrives.

The phases and what each is for

The arc is the same for every race, and the phase lengths are conventions, not laws. With less time before a race, shorten the base and the build.

The emphasis shifts with the race. Marathon training leans on aerobic volume and marathon-pace work, half marathon training on threshold work, and 5K and 10K training on VO2 max work and hills. Trail and ultra training leans on terrain, climbing and time on your feet, with fueling and gear practiced. See the guides on marathon training, half marathon training, 5K and 10K training and ultra training.

• Base (4 to 8 weeks, longer for a newer runner or one returning from a break): mostly easy running with strides, light hills and strength work. It builds aerobic capacity and conditions your tendons and bones for the harder training to come. See the guide on base building.
• Build (about 4 to 6 weeks): add race-relevant hard work on top of the base while easy volume keeps growing. Threshold work comes first, then faster intervals for the shorter races.
• Race-specific (about the last six weeks before the taper): the pace, the length of effort, the shoes and the food start to look like the race. See the guide on race-specific preparation.
• Taper (1 to 3 weeks, by race): cut volume, keep your run days and some hard sessions, and arrive fresh. See the guide on tapering.
• Recovery: about a day of easy activity for every mile raced, which is roughly three weeks after a marathon, two after a half marathon and a week after a hard 5K or 10K, before you start a new base.

Arranging the week

Most runners do best with no more than two hard sessions a week plus a long run, and everything else easy. A long run that carries pace work counts as a hard session. Do not put two hard workouts back to back, and surround every hard session with easy running.

Run the easy days easy. Running a little too hard too often is how most runners wear down: the aerobic base erodes, the workouts feel great and the races go badly. See the guide on easy and recovery runs.

Think in minutes and effort more than miles. Ten miles on a trail is a different stimulus from ten miles on a track, and a runner who thinks in distance rushes the long days.

Consistency beats hero workouts. On a day you struggle to get out the door, ten minutes counts. A session that fries you for days does not help, because the aim is the week you can repeat. For how much of your running should be hard, see the guide on polarized training.

Building volume

Add running in small steps and find a weekly volume you can repeat. Once your mileage plateaus, you recover faster and the quality days get better, and adding miles just to reach a round number does not help. Size each new long run to the running you do now: in 5,205 runners followed for 18 months, injuries were more common when a session was more than 10% longer than the longest run of the previous 30 days¹.

The usual rhythm is two or three weeks up and one week lighter. It is a habit and not a law. The plan for the phase stays, and how you are recovering decides whether a day is hard, easy or off.

In your first year or two of running, choose the option with the biggest reward and the least risk of missing tomorrow's run.

How the plan changes as you gain experience

A newer runner needs a bit of everything and mostly easy running. Hard sessions are short and bite-sized, such as a few minutes at a time, and the harder work waits until you need it. Executing big sessions takes years to get good at, and a newer runner may not be durable enough yet for really hard days.

An experienced runner has more history, and more history means a plateau. Early gains come fast because many things stack, and later gains come slowly. The lever you pull depends on what your history is missing. A runner with big volume and almost no hard running adds interval work over several months while keeping the volume. A runner who has done mostly hard sessions adds easy volume while keeping the top end sharp.

Do not copy elite workouts. Elite marathoners have spent ten or more years pushing volume to its limit, so what separates them is how much hard work they can do on top of it. Most recreational runners have not found their volume limit, and more easy running usually pays first.

After the season

Turn training down, not off. Keep a minimum: some running, some strength and one weakness you are working on, with total load cut by roughly a quarter. The mistakes are stopping completely, which makes the restart harder, and staying a little backed off for months, which wastes the winter.

Match the winter work to how different your race is from your usual running. The more different, the more time it needs: for a mountain race, that means hills, hiking and long days on your feet. Change one thing at a time, whether shoes, fueling or pacing, so you can tell what caused a change.

Related guides

For the long run, see the long run. For how much running should be easy, see polarized training. For how training matches the race, see training specificity.