Phase 1 of 5 · London Marathon, Saturday 24 April 2027
Eight weeks to rebuild the habit of four runs and one strength session a week, at a volume low enough to absorb. Almost all of it is easy. The only speed is short strides, and they start in week 3. The volume here sits below your current fitness on purpose. Running extra now is the most common way to lose phase 4.
| Session | Pace | How it should feel |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 7:00–7:30 | You can hold a conversation the whole way. |
| Long | 7:15–7:30 | The same as easy. Slower is fine, faster is not. |
| Strides | By feel | Build over five seconds to a pace you could hold for about a minute, hold it, then ease down. Roughly 4:30 a kilometre, but never run these to a watch. Fast and relaxed, never a sprint. |
| Strength | Not timed | 30 to 40 minutes. Single-leg work, glutes, calves and core. |
Every bar is a week, drawn against a 28 km scale. Click one to open it. Strength days carry no distance, so they do not appear in the bars.
Starting from nothing is the assumptionThese numbers are built for someone who has not been running lately, which is the case here. Weeks 1 to 4 will feel far too easy, and that is the point: the fitness comes back faster than the tendons, calves and connective tissue do, and running to how you feel in September is what costs you March. If four weeks in you are certain it is too light, add one kilometre to the Sunday run, not a fifth day.
Four runs, one strength session, two rest daysMonday and Friday are rest. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are easy. Sunday is the long run. Wednesday is strength. Move sessions around your week freely, but keep the strides run about two days clear of the long run, and never put strength the day before it.
Everything is easy7:00 to 7:30 a kilometre. If it feels slow, it is right. The point of this phase is weeks completed, not paces held.
Strides from week 3Four in weeks 3 and 4, five from week 5 to week 7, six in week 8. At the end of the Thursday run, on flat ground, walking 90 seconds between each. About 20 seconds each, run by feel rather than by the watch. They are not intervals.
Cutback in week 4Volume drops to 15 km on purpose. Do not add distance because you feel good. After that, weeks 5 to 8 build without a down week. If week 7 or 8 feels heavy rather than hard, repeat week 7 and push everything back seven days. Phase 2 should open with a cutback week rather than a rise.
The 10 km on 25 OctoberThe first long run back over an hour. Keep the Saturday before it very easy and run the whole thing at 7:15 to 7:30. The clocks go back that morning, which is when returning runners quietly stop. Sort the dark out in advance.
Week 7 steps the long run backNine kilometres, one less than the milestone, while weekly volume holds. That is how the 10 km gets absorbed instead of just survived.
No gels yetThe longest run in this phase is about 80 minutes, under the 90 minute mark where fuelling practice starts. That begins in phase 3. Starting early trains nothing.
Strength progressesTwo rounds at 30 minutes in week 1, three rounds at 40 minutes by week 8. Split squats from week 2, single-leg Romanian deadlifts from week 5, learned when nothing else is peaking. From week 5 the calf raises get heavier rather than longer. Light rounds in the cutback and in week 6.
When a week goes wrongMiss one run, drop it and carry on. Miss two or more, repeat the week rather than moving on. Come back from illness at the previous week's distances. If pain changes your stride, stop, take three days off, and restart at the last cutback week's volume.
Done looks like thisEight weeks finished with no run skipped for pain, a 23 km week that felt manageable, an 11 km long run at easy pace throughout, and eight strength sessions done. Phase 2 opens from there.