Curated by Virgin Active
2023 Marathon Training Guides
Professor Ross Tucker and the team from Virgin Active have curated key training programmes for you. They’re packed with marathon tips and cross training advice from their experts.
Have your heart set on finishing Sub-4 or Sub-4:30? Maybe you just want to cross the finish line with your knees intact. First-timer or a seasoned runner, we’ve got the plan for you.
Three Marathon Training Programmes
Sub-4:00 Marathon Programme
This is the programme for you if you have previously run a marathon and finished in a time of anything between 4:00 and 4:30, and you now want to make a bigger time and energy investment into running faster.
If you’ve never run a marathon, but fancy going sub-4 in your first race, then you too can do this plan, but we’d recommend that you have a couple of half marathons under your belt, and that your half marathon time is between 1:50 and 2:00, with some room for improvement. Your 10km time would be in the range of 50 minutes for a realistic marathon target of 4 hours.
Sub-4:30 Marathon Programme
If you’ve never run a marathon, but fancy going sub-4:30 in your first race, then you too can do this programme, but we’d recommend that you have a couple of half marathons under your belt, and that your half marathon time is between 2:00 and 2:15, with some room for improvement. Your 10km time would be in the range of 55 to 60 minutes for a realistic
marathon target of 4:30, and you’d need to be running at least 3 days a week to start with.
Fill in your current training schedule by clicking on “Detailed Plan” below and Professor Ross Tucker will email the Sub-4:30 Training Programme to match.
Novice Marathon Programme
Running a marathon is all about managing the body. Managing the physiology that gets you from start to finish, and that includes the mind! This is as true for the athlete who
lines up want to win, to smash a previous personal best, to break a barrier, or for the first-time marathon runner.
The whole point is not that you break through the fatigue barrier, but rather that you respect that barrier enough to never bash into it! And that’s what this first-time marathon programme is all about – teaching you how best to manage your physiology, your body, and your mind, so that you get from start to finish in control of every step.
Fill in your current training schedule by clicking on “Detailed Plan” below and Professor Ross Tucker will email the Novice Training Programme to match.