Half Marathon Plan Advanced - L4

While training for a sub 20 minute 5K last summer I purchased this plan with the goal of running 1:30 half marathon in early 2025. I was able to PB with 19:48 in a 5K race last October. I also ran my first 10K at 42:30 a month later in November. I signed up for the Oakland Half Marathon with the plan to start the first week of January. As life tends to go not as planned I got really sick traveling back home at the start of the year and had to really rest for a couple weeks. I slowly ramped up mileage with easy runs for another couple weeks so not really starting training until week 5 of the plan. With only the last 7 weeks of the training plan until the half I decided to adjust my half marathon goal to 1:35. Fortunately my legs were able to handle the jump in weekly mileage and I was able to not miss a single day of training, scheduling around full-time work and family time. I felt confident and rested coming into the race and stuck with the 1:35 pacer up through mile 11. Our overall pace was so much faster he had to slow down but I kept the faster pace for the last 2 miles. Official finish time 1:32:54 and couldn’t have done it without the plan. If I do a complete 12 week plan with consistent strength training and better sleep I am confident I can achieve my next goal of 1:25 for the San Francisco Half Marathon at the end of July. Also I plan on purchasing the marathon training aiming for 2026.

Great plan, massive 7 minute PB! Couldn’t even run one km at target pace to start but stuck with it! was a little worried the most I ran at target pace was 8k but with taper (which landed me in training status of performance) managed to hold it for the HM at Cambridge (despite the heat)

Really great plan! I would like to see a post race week added for recovery etc. before resuming

I purchased this plan with the intent of dropping 10 minutes off my half marathon PB of 1:39. I felt like it was a little ambitious, but I wanted to push myself. Nevertheless, as things go, I got sick a couple weeks into training and ended up having to miss a few other runs here and there due to familial obligations. I still hit about 80% of training, but I was supremely anxious about the race. I knew I could take time off that older PB, but that 1:29 goal really loomed large come race day. On that morning, I missed my start corral due to traffic, and spent the first 5k weaving in and out of the crowd passing a couple thousand people. Eventually I caught some runners more at my pace, locked in and told myself, "just hold this for as long as you can" and managed to bring it home in 1:29:52.

With as many things that didn't go right in my race prep, the fact that I managed to still hit my time goal is a huge confidence boost for future races. I can't thank Ben enough for putting together this plan. It's concise, easy to follow, and forgiving enough if you have to miss some time here and there. It'll push you, but in the best way.

I'm going to lower that goal to 1:25 for my next half, and I don't think I'd have been able to do it without this plan. Buy it and support a guy giving so much to our lovely sport.

"I haven't started the program yet. I've decided to use it for my training for the CPH Half Marathon. I've looked through the program and am really excited to start it.

Thank you for such a well thought out and easy to follow plan. I followed the L4 plan almost to the letter based on pacing for a 1.25-1.26 performance and ran 1.24.53. Previous pb was 1.33.01. I started the training plan thinking I’ll make my goal pace 4.05-4.10 per km but by the second half of the plan was comfortably holding goal pace km’s closer to 4mins per km. By race day I was confident to set off an about this pace and held it - quite comfortably to the end. Training plan was easy to follow and manageable despite having a busy job and two young kids. Already bought your marathon plan for next year. Thanks again- training plan was a bargain.

Ran my last PB over the half marathon distance in June 2023, with an official time of 1:44:35. This year I wanted at least to dip under 1:40 to prepare for a marathon in April 2025. I chose the half marathon advanced plan to also see how my body would react to the extra mileage, considering marathontraining in the beginning of 2025. I wanted to challenge myself and had some extra time in the summer holiday to do some serious training.

Physically I had no problems to run this higher mileage. I had some pain in the achilles in weeks 7 untill 10 of the plan, but this went away and didn't become a serious injury. The strength work didn't take up much time and this was fine, since we all love running more.

I tried to stay as consistent as possible with the sessions, this is key for the great results. I only skipped two sessions over the 12 weeks and tried to run the paces advised for a half marathon time of 90 minutes.

For the shorter interval sessions these paces were achievable. However, for the longer runs in the weekend with tempo blocks, it was impossible to reach these advised paces. These longer runs are definitely the harder runs in the program.

On raceday I was hoping for a sub-90 half marathon, but I had no idea if my body had recovered enough and if I even had this speed in my legs. I was surprised of how well the race went and extremely happy with the results! I crushed all my PB's during the race from 2 miles up to the half marathon distance!

This plan was wonderful! I ran my first half in 1:39 and was super happy with that but I wanted that sub 1:30.
I just finished my race and ran a 1:27 half! The plan has a mix of runs which makes the workouts more enjoyable. There is no thinking, everything is given to you including pace charts, distances, etc.
Thank you!

This is the first training plan that I've used for a Half Marathon as I know I'm comfortable running the distance and I've never really tried to achieve a specific time before.

I completed my last Half Marathon prior to this in 1:32:01, so I wanted to aim for 1:30:00 in this year's Big Half.

I found the plan and the strength and conditioning exercises really well structured and easy to follow.

It was a bit warmer than I was expecting (and would have liked) on race day. Even a few miles in I was having doubts as I didn't think I'd be able to maintain my target pace. As it was, the training meant that I was able to pretty much run every mile at or below my target pace.

I couldn't believe that I managed to finish the race in 1:29:38 and I couldn't be happier that I did!

Thanks for creating such an effective plan!

Really enjoyed the program and got great results.Helped me achieve my Target of 1hr30min half marathon and got me more then fit enough in time with only been running for just over one year and my second ever half marathon.

I purchased this plan to prepare my self for my first half marathon.
I still can't believe I achieved 1:26.....thanks Ben!!!!!