What’s the Minimum Weekly Mileage You Need to Train for a Marathon?
When it comes to shorter-distance races like 5Ks, 10Ks, and in some cases, even half marathons, you will often make it to the finish line still standing and smiling, even if you don’t execute the training as planned. But when it comes to a full marathon, whether it’s your first or 15th, 26.2 is a whole different beast. It takes a steady increase in weekly mileage to cross the finish line in one piece.
Volume requirements can vary depending on your goals, whether you want to cross the distance off your bucket list or if you’re a seasoned runner chasing bigger milestones, such as qualifying for the Boston Marathon. But even with this longer distance to tackle, life can still get in the way and derail the best-laid plans about hitting all your miles.
So what mileage minimum do you definitely need to hit? We spoke to two coaches to find out.
If you’re brand-new to running or marathons…
Aim to peak at 30 to 35 miles
Most coaches universally agree that brand-new runners should start with training for a shorter event distance, like a 5K, and gradually build up to complete a half marathon before committing to 26.2 miles. However, you can run a marathon as your first big race, says Roberto Mandje, a former Olympic middle-distance athlete and New York City-based coach who works with everyone from beginner amateur runners to Olympic Marathon Trials hopefuls.
But even in these cases, it’s important to not go from zero to 60 (or, in this case, 26.2) when it comes to your preparation.
For the first month, which he considers a base period, Mandje will typically have beginners start by tracking minutes rather than miles, such as with run/walks of five minutes running and two minutes walking, and gradually building from there to establish their comfortable aerobic paces. Weekly base mileage typically starts around nine and climbs to 14 miles per week with this method.
Then, Mandje transitions to a goal of building up to a target of at least 20 to 25 miles over a minimum of three to four days per week, with a weekly long run of about 10 miles. This long run will continue to build to the necessary marathon-training long runs of 15 miles, working up to at least two 18-mile runs.
Building up to these long runs requires a training plan that spans at least 16 weeks, but may stretch up to 20 weeks or more. (A longer plan allows for a more gradual progression and hitting higher mileage goals.)
Mandje aims for runners to build up to a peak week of 30 to 35 miles to be able to prescribe long runs that won’t make up the bulk of their weekly volume. “This is important so that the long run doesn’t represent [much] more than 50 percent of their weekly mileage and introduce a bigger risk of injury,” says Mandje.
“Overall, it’s more important to create consistency over time than to show off flashy numbers [like higher mileage],” Mandje tells Runner’s World.
Kim Conley, a two-time U.S. Olympian in the 5,000 meters and a Flagstaff-based running coach, will also have her beginner runners consistently running four days a week to get ready for race day, but she sticks to prescribing time-based long runs that she caps at three hours rather than focusing on specific mileage.
“I tend to think in terms of ‘time on feet,’ so if runners that are running around 11 to 12 minutes per mile, they’re going to be doing lower mileage,” Conley tells Runner’s World. “This is because I can’t have them doing the super long runs and spending four hours on time on feet in the long run and getting into high mileage because that will put them at a greater risk of injury.”
If you have a time goal and run consistently…
Aim to build up to 45 to 60 miles, but understand that your mileage may vary
As runners progress and get more training cycles under their belts and have some race experience, both Mandje and Conley take time to analyze their injury and performance history to prescribe volume and mileage targets that complement their work, personal, and family lives. This means they both tend to start on the conservative end when prescribing weekly and long run mileage and add more or scale back as needed.
Mandje typically suggests a 16-week marathon block for this group, which will include a handful of 16- to 20-mile long runs, in addition to the typical components of solid training, such as midweek easy runs, speed workouts, and tempo runs, and possibly a longer midweek run of eight to 12 miles. This results in a peak target of 45 to 60 miles, depending on injury history and experience level.
But this is a moving target: “My approach is ‘let’s educate you along the training cycle to get you as fit and healthy as possible, and at some point over the course of a few months, we’re going to start to see your fitness improve to where we can tweak the mileage to get to the goal you have,’” Mandje says.
For Conley’s athletes, those running in the 3:30 to three-hour range, she believes the sweet spot is peaking at around 50 to 60 miles a week, with five to six days of running, and at least two 18- to 20-mile runs, one of which will include race-pace miles in the middle. That weekly makeup still depends on injury history, as well as what the runner thinks they can handle and how it’s going to make sense in their daily lives outside of running, she says.
For those running over 3:30 but under four hours, long runs may also peak around 18 to 20 miles, running a minimum of four days per week, and weekly mileage may be slightly lower.
Increasing frequency of run days can help build up that mileage. “If someone’s had success on five days a week, but feels like they want more, then we’ll move to six days a week,” says Conley. “Sometimes we’ll do that in phases where I’ll usually still build in a down week every few weeks where we go back to five days a week.”
If you’re looking to run a 2:30 marathon or faster…
Aim to peak at 70 to 80 miles a week
While Mandje is famously known for having coached YouTube personality Casey Neistat to his longtime goal of running a sub-three-hour marathon (which he achieved after 24 marathons and a handful of close calls over the course of 17 years), he has also coached runners with the goal to run a 2:30.
For this group, he will usually aim to have them peak at 70 to 80 miles over a minimum 12-week plan, depending on their injury history and if they’ve responded well to higher mileage in the past or throughout the build. (Keep in mind, this means you’ll need a strong base before starting a training plan, as most advanced runners do.)
If an athlete can handle lower-end mileage only, Mandje works to maximize those miles and get the most out of them. That means integrating quality workouts, including interval sessions, threshold efforts, and/or race-pace miles, along with easy runs and long runs.
Conley has coached women to the Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying standard of 2:37. And for her runners at the 2:30 level, their training plans will typically include at least two 20-mile long runs, as well as one run of up to 22 miles.
The bottom line: Long run minimum mileage doesn’t change drastically between groups, but minimum weekly mileage does climb higher with more aggressive time goals. Overall, it’s important to maintain a steady, gradual increase in volume, with mostly easy miles, while supplementing with quality work. But more than a specific number, consistency is key, so making sure it all fits within your busy life schedule matters most.
Emilia Benton is a Houston-based freelance writer and editor. In addition to Runner's World, she has contributed health, fitness and wellness content to Women's Health, SELF, Prevention, Healthline, and the Houston Chronicle, among other publications. She is also an 11-time marathoner, a USATF Level 1-certified running coach, and an avid traveler.