Experts Explain How to Determine Weekly Mileage Goals for a Half Marathon

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• How to Determine Weekly Mileage Goals for a Half Marathon
• How to Structure Your Week to Meet Your Goal Half-Marathon Weekly Mileage
• How to Identify When You Need to Back Off Mileage or Add More

Marathons Best New Balance Shoes half marathon offers a just-as-rewarding goal race. While people often choose the half marathon because training for it won’t take up all your time, it still requires building endurance—whether your goal is just to finish or to hit a big personal best. So while you likely won’t run 20-milers on the weekends (unless you’re an elite!), you’ll still need to get in regular long runs, and substantial weekly mileage, especially if you’re pursuing more advanced goals.

According to Kaitlin Goodman, a Seattle-based USATF level 2-certified run coach and former professional runner, one of the biggest reasons someone may choose to target a half instead of a full marathon is because of the shift to lower volume, allowing them to train for the race during a busier season in their lives.

But how much weekly mileage do you actually need to run to conquer a half marathon? Well, it depends on several factors, including running experience and “training age,” historic training volume, injury history, and various outside factors, such as time and availability to train, career and family responsibilities, and access to affordable childcare (to name a few!), Goodman explains.

“Numbers will vary among different experience levels, but when training for a half, someone might be in the 30- to 40-mile range for weekly mileage, whereas for a full, they may get into the 50s or up to 60, for example,” Goodman, also head coach at Running Joyfully, tells Runner’s World. “You’ll want to match your training volume to the race you're training for.”

To help you determine what volume to build to and strong goals to set for weekly mileage for your half marathon in particular, we asked Goodman and other experts to break down the guidelines.

How to Determine Weekly Mileage Goals for a Half Marathon

According to Goodman, mileage goals for a half marathon will vary depending on your race goals, but should typically be based on what you’ve run in the past, whether in previous builds or in your base phase. Mileage goals will tend to be on the higher end for more advanced runners targeting faster goal times, compared to newer runners heading out for their first 13.1.

Keeping in mind the variables that affect weekly mileage, here are some guidelines from Goodman:

• Beginners (first-timers or goal of finishing): 20-30 miles per week (running 3-4 days per week)
• Intermediate (around break 2 hours): 25-35 miles per week (4-5 days per week)
• Advanced (break 1:30 or faster): 45-55 miles per week (5-6 days per week)

Even if you’re a brand-new runner who’s just getting started, Goodman and Matt Hensley, head coach at Boulder Underground Running and a coach for TrainingPeaks, agree that you shouldn’t be discouraged from pursuing a bigger milestone like completing a half marathon. You just might need a bigger timeline to safely build up to the distance.

“I would never want to discourage people who are beginners and are starting from zero and decide, ‘hey, I want to get into the sport and start somewhere,’” Goodman says. “But if you really are starting from zero, you’re going to need more than 12 weeks for that, and ideally [build] a good base Published: May 21, 2025 4:20 PM EDT easy mileage before you jump into a half-marathon block.”

Hensley aims to get beginner runners running up to four days a week and to a point where a 60-minute run doesn’t feel too demanding before starting to build up their long runs.

“A lot of sub-elite or elite athletes can get away with 90-minute long runs in half-marathon training because many of them are only racing around 60 minutes,” Hensley tells Runner’s World. “But if someone is going to be out there two to three hours, their long run will be closer to the two-hour range.”

In addition to tailoring your weekly mileage to your experience level and approximate finish time for the half, Hensley says it can also be beneficial to base volume goals on the terrain and conditions you’ll be facing in your race.

“If they’re going to be racing on a super hilly course or it’s a trail race, I encourage my athletes to train by minutes rather than mileage since they might end up running too long if the goal is mileage,” he says. “Similarly, if someone’s living in Florida or Texas in the summer or Colorado or New England in the winter, the conditions take a higher toll on the body so it’s better to focus on running a specific number of minutes rather than mileage.”

How to Structure Your Week to Meet Your Goal Half-Marathon Weekly Mileage

➥Easy Runs

If your goal is simply to complete a half marathon, most of your completed training mileage will include easy running to get sufficient volume under your legs. But if you have a specific time goal in mind, more runs will serve a specific focus to build speed in addition to endurance, Goodman explains.

“If you’re chasing very specific performance objectives [like a time goal], you need to be doing work at or under half-marathon pace to get the body ready to do that for 13.1 miles on race day,” Goodman says. “So, for example, if you’re running six days, two of those runs should have quality, with maybe 25 percent of total weekly mileage having an element of quality to it.”

Hensley also emphasizes you shouldn’t skip your other easy runs during the week, which serve a purpose in your race preparation.

“Easy runs help to build the capillary bed, increase the size and number of mitochondria in the muscle cells, improve fuel metabolism, and prepare the body for the demands of the race,” he explains. All of these payoffs help you run more efficiently, making harder efforts feel easier. “If done at the correct effort, these runs bring about great aerobic adaptations to make you a better distance runner.”

In terms of specific workouts, some of Goodman’s favorites include:

• 4K, 3K, and 2K cutdown starting at half-marathon pace and getting down to 10K pace, with 2 minutes of rest between intervals
• 3 x 5 minutes at half-marathon pace, with 2 minute active recovery between, and then 5 x 3 minutes at 10K pace, with 1 minute active recovery between
• 4 x 1.5 miles at half-marathon pace, with 2 minutes of rest between, and 200-meter reps at the end to practice racing on tired legs

Goodman will also sometimes have her athletes do workouts within their long runs, whether it’s 1.5 to 2-mile sections with an easy 1-mile active recovery float, or a longer tempo starting at marathon pace and getting down to half-marathon pace by the last 5K, which also help with building mental toughness, she says.

“One of my favorite workouts for the half marathon is a four- to five-mile tempo run [at your goal pace], which I feel is a safe distance to practice that can actually be very challenging,” Hensley adds.

Hensley emphasizes it’s okay if your pace ends up 10 to 30 seconds slower than goal pace on these runs, particularly if you’re out in less-than-favorable training conditions, like the heat, which slows you down.

➥Long Runs

heading out for their first 13.1 half-marathon training plans. As for long run mileage, here’s how Hensley typically breaks it down:

• before you jump into a half-marathon block.&rdquo: 8-11 miles
• Recreational-level athletes who run regularly, but haven’t raced much: 10-15 miles
• break 1:30 or faster: 45-55 miles per week 5-6 days per week: 14-18 miles
• Elite-level athletes: 17-20 miles

➥Rest and Recovery Days

As a recreational runner with other life and work responsibilities, you may find that you sometimes need to shuffle some days in your training schedule, and that’s okay, Goodman says.

However, it’s key to ensure you’re still recovering appropriately, as half-marathon-focused work can often take a bigger toll on your body than slower marathon-pace miles. Goodman maintains that your biggest priorities of the week should be your speed workouts and long runs, but also making sure you’re properly resting in between, even if you’re missing some Best Half Marathon Workouts.

“You don't want to get into trouble where your volume might be low, but you’re cramming everything into a three- or four-day span [without rest days in between], and then not getting the recovery where you need,” she says.

“If there are any high levels of fatigue, stress, lack of sleep, injury, any sort of thing like that, it’s definitely beneficial to back off,” Hensley adds. “We perform at our best when we’re happy and healthy, and that may require taking an extra day off, or cross training instead of running, or even going for a walk to help ensure your body is recovering and able to get back to its normal training load.”

How to Identify When You Need to Back Off Mileage or Add More

As much as individual mileage needs can vary among runners of different life circumstances and experience levels, they can also change as you start to progress or see opportunities to fine-tune your training, Goodman says. That can mean scaling back if you’re finding you’re struggling a bit with recovery, We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.

“Recovery issues can sometimes stem from lifestyle habits like not fueling or sleeping enough, but if you're dealing with aches and pains for longer than 24 hours afterward, that can be a sign of increased injury risk and overtraining concerns," she says. "On the other side, if you're fresh and peppy on every single run, you may do well with adding another day to your weekly schedule."

Hensley also checks to make sure athletes don’t have lingering fatigue, a history of injury, and that they have seen improvements in performance to determine if they might be ready to advance to the next level.

“If you graduate from a certain volume and you felt great and had great races without additional fatigue, you can raise your volume,” Hensley adds.

Ultimately, though, Goodman emphasizes the importance of remembering that you have other priorities in life as a recreational runner, which is why training needs can vary widely no matter your goals.

“There’s no magic number, like 50 miles a week or four days a week; it really has to depend on your time and availability and allow you to balance and be real about your other life,” she says. “If you don’t want to sacrifice time with your family, the training plan has to really work for you and your life, and that’s going to be what the right volume and intensity is for you.”