Is an 8-week half marathon training schedule too short?

The average duration of half-marathon training plans ranges between 8 and 12 weeks. However, in practice, more and more runners are opting for the 8-week format to prepare for their half-marathon.

But is this relatively short duration optimal? Isn't it better to favor longer plans to achieve the set goal? Answer here! 

Let's be clear: it is perfectly possible to prepare for a half-marathon with an 8-week training plan. Indeed, this duration is often favored by runners. 

Not too long to avoid boredom, not too short to arrive prepared at the starting line. A good compromise in sum! It also allows less impact on the rest of your season. Thus, you can hope to multiply goals and specific preparations. 

However, if you are starting to know Campus, you might suspect our view on the matter. According to us, 8 weeks to prepare for a half-marathon is often too short. 

The half-marathon is the favorite distance of French runners. It is therefore not surprising to find a good number of beginners and recreational runners on the starting lines. 

If you fall into one of these categories, we do not recommend an 8-week half-marathon plan to reach your goal. 

According to data collected by RunRepeat, based on 28,000 races over the past 20 years, the average time for a half-marathon is 2 hours, 14 minutes and 59 seconds. Accessible then, you might say. But that forgets that while running speed seems relatively low, the duration is long.

The half requires being able to maintain a given pace for over 2 hours. And it doesn't come spontaneously: it requires long preparation. Thus, by opting for an 8-week half-marathon training plan, you take several major risks. 

Progressivity is one of the most important performance factors in running. This is particularly true for long distances, which require significant muscular, tendon, and bone adaptations. 

There's no secret: to allow your body to adapt, time is needed. This is especially true if you are starting out in running and aren't used to long distances. 

You will need to schedule several workouts per week. For a half-marathon, we recommend a minimum of 3 to reach the starting line ready to achieve your goal.

Among these workouts, some will include intensity. Others will require you to cover a significant mileage. In any case, you will need good recovery to properly assimilate the training. 

Unfortunately, in 8 weeks, you won't be able to do everything. Your half-marathon plan, no matter how well-thought-out, will hardly allow you to reconcile good progressivity, optimized recovery, and sufficient quantitative and qualitative training content. 

So if you are a beginner, first learn to take your time. 

But what do you risk if you lack progressivity? Poor quantification of mechanical stress. In other words, you do not give your body time to assimilate the strains and fully adapt to them. 

You will thus create more stress than it can handle. This is the surest path to overtraining and/or injury. Injury is indeed far too common in running. 

A Yale Medicine study estimates that about 50% of runners get injured each year. This figure increases when focusing on beginners as several studies establish that 80% of practitioners get injured in their first year. 

These figures regularly haunt the minds of novices who sometimes quit even before they start. However, injury is not inevitable!

Move forward slowly but surely, that's the best advice we can give you. And this is difficult to reconcile with an 8-week preparation for a half-marathon if you are new to the discipline. 

If we continue with statistics, another number stands out. The Running Clinic reported data on why beginner runners stop running. They come from a study conducted by Belgian researchers and the Belgian Athletics Federation with 2,209 people, both runners and non-runners, of all levels. It turned out that only 8% of them stopped because of an injury. 

On the other hand, 38% of beginner runners gave up running due to lack of motivation. While this may result from the absence of a specific goal, it can also be caused by an overly ambitious goal. 

In the case we're interested in, preparing for a half-marathon in 8 weeks can quickly seem insurmountable as the weeks go by. Given the scale of the task, you are more likely to get discouraged and quit than if you had opted for a longer preparation. 

The progressivity of long plans indeed allows you to feel progress without the step-up from one week to the next being too steep. Seeing your performance increase sustainably is the guarantee of a long-term running practice! 

Experience teaches us never to be categorical. At Campus, we will never tell you it's impossible. So, you can complete a half-marathon with an 8-week training plan. 

Even if you're a beginner, you may be able to run the distance before 2 months of preparation. But the benefits/risks ratio remains unfavorable. You risk regretting your choice before, during, and even after the race. 

So yes, some of you approach the half-marathon goal as a “one-shot”. But at Campus, we prefer to encourage you to make running a long-term practice. 

However, if you really want to embark on an 8-week half-marathon plan, we can give you some advice. 

It seems obvious and yet! Many beginner runners embark on the half-marathon adventure without having a time in mind. This is not a good idea. Even if your goal is simply to finish, you should have an idea of your target time, if only to determine your training paces. 

As a reminder, according to the 2024 RunRepeat study, the average time for women on the half-marathon is 2 hours, 24 minutes and 03 seconds. The average time for men is 1 hour, 59 minutes and 48 seconds over the distance.

To help you, here's a table that allows you to establish your target time based on your speed or average pace. 

An 8-week half-marathon training plan? Okay. But that plan must be adapted. 

As a reminder, a good training plan must contain key workouts. Long runs, specific pace runs, intensity workouts, jogs (etc.) We recommend starting with a minimum of 3 workouts per week to cover the range of paces and workouts. 

At Campus, we will not offer an 8-week half-marathon plan. Our shortest plan starts at 12 weeks. Why? Because we believe it's the necessary duration to arrive at the starting line fully ready for the challenge ahead. 

On your part, choose a complete, serious plan that takes your level and your goal into account. You should be able to follow this plan without experiencing over-fatigue, demotivation, or pain. 

As you can see, at Campus, we are not enthusiastic about the idea of opting for an 8-week half-marathon training plan. This is why we have chosen not to offer this option among our personalized programs.

Nevertheless, if you really want to try the adventure under these conditions, you can follow these tips to help you achieve your goal.
Remember that consistency across your training sessions is key, balancing challenging long run efforts with essential easy runs and dedicated rest days. Incorporate strength training and cross training to build resilience and gradually increase your pace and running mileage, minimizing the risk of injury. The most important thing is to listen to your body throughout this intense period. On race day, as you stand at the starting line, confident in your running shoes and prepared with good half-marathon pacing strategy, you'll be ready to cross the finish line of those 13.1 miles.