Transcription
This is what a 2-hour half marathon pace looks like. And this is what a 90-minute half marathon pace looks like.
In this video, I'll break down the fastest way to run a sub 90-minute half marathon, no matter your starting point. And then I'll give you examples of training weeks for beginners, intermediates, and advanced runners. So you know exactly what to do starting today.
My name is Nicholas. I have a bachelor's degree in sport science. I'm a certified physiotherapist and I'm a former professional triathlete.
So, first things first, how hard is it actually to run 90 minutes in the half marathon? According to a database of 35 million race results, the average half marathon time is 2 hours and 15 minutes for men and 2 hours and 24 minutes for women. Less than 5% of male runners and 1% of female runners ever finish a half marathon under 90 minutes. So, for every 100 people at the start line, you are aiming to beat at least 95 of them.
And here's the truth. While I believe that most runners could hit a sub 90-minute half marathon at some point in their lives if they commit fully, it's not equally realistic for everyone. Age, gender, genetics, lifestyle, and time to train still play a role. But if you want to maximize your chances, in this video I'm going to show you three of the key areas you need to master: your training, your weight management and nutrition, and your recovery. And I'll break it down for beginners, intermediates, and advanced runners.
So, let's look at how to actually train for a sub 90-minute half marathon. If you're new to structured training and have just started running, you're probably not ready for sub 90-minute training yet, unless you have a solid background in endurance, for example, as a cyclist or a swimmer. But even then, your joints aren't ready for the impact yet. So, it's better to start slow than risk an injury.
Now, being a beginner is not bad news. In fact, this is the one time in your life where you get to improve insanely fast when you start to build a consistent aerobic base. At this level, your goal is just to get up to running consistently, ideally four to five times per week and build mileage slowly over time. And most importantly, making running fun so you don't quit after 3 weeks like most people. Join a training group or sign up for a race, for example.
Speaking of which, your first half marathon should just be to learn. Don't even think about race times just yet. You need to learn about how your body responds to training, nutrition, pacing, what gear you like, and all of the small nuances that go into becoming a great runner. And you'll learn a lot more from your first race than I can ever teach you in a video. Then once you've got the first half marathon under your belt, you can start to set goals for your time. But consistency is the number one prerequisite for ever going sub 90. Nothing else I'll show you in this video will work if you're not consistent.
To be honest, in its simplest form, it's actually not that complicated to train to run faster in the beginning. You just need to train consistently. But then at some point, it won't be enough and you stop improving. And that's when you move into the intermediate level.
Once you're running consistently and have finished your first half marathon or even a couple of half marathons, you're ready to start training specifically for going sub 90 minutes. So, how much should you run? Well, a study from 2020 that looked at the characteristics of half marathon and marathon runners found that your finish time is determined by a combination of four things: your training volume, so how much and how hard you train; your training pace, so how fast you run in that training; the length of your longest run in your training; and the decline in pace during the event, so whether or not you run slower towards the back end of the half marathon, or you can keep your pace or even go faster.
Unsurprisingly, they found that a higher training volume makes you run faster. So does a faster training pace and a longer weekly run up to a point. So that begs the question, how much weekly training volume is enough and how long should the longest run be? As always, the annoying answer: it depends on the individual. But the study found that in half marathon runners, a high training volume of more than 32 km per week or 20 miles per week made runners around 7 to 10 minutes faster on average compared to those running less than 32 km or 20 miles per week. They also found that those who had a long training run of more than 21 kilometers or 13 miles were 12 to 15 minutes faster than those who didn't. But they still did not have an average finish time faster than just under 1 hour and 50 minutes. So that tells us that we probably need significantly more volume than 32 km or 20 miles per week. And we might even need a bit longer long run.
Lastly, they found that if you have an average pace of less than 5 minutes and 15 seconds per kilometer, or around 8 minutes and 27 seconds per mile in the last 2 to 6 weeks before the race, then on average, runners were more than 19 minutes faster than those running slower than that. But they still only ran an average time of around 1 hour and 40 minutes.
So, what can we take from all this? If we want to run a sub 90-minute half marathon, on average, most people need more than 32 km or 20 miles per week of training. And in my experience, probably closer to 50 to 60 km per week or 31 to 37 miles, and a longest run of more than 21 km or 13 miles. We can also use these results to make an educated guess on how close we are to being able to break sub 90. So, if your average pace across easy runs and hard runs within the last 2 to 6 weeks before your race is less than 5 minutes per kilometer or around 8 minutes per mile, you've got a real shot. If it's more, it'll probably be harder.
Remember, these numbers are based on averages and they are not set in stone. But in reality, just running like this is probably not enough to keep getting better. If you just run the same distance with the same break, with the same intensity over and over again, eventually your body stops adapting. Sure, you'll see some progress in the beginning because you're not used to running, but before long, your training won't be hard enough to give your body the stimulus to keep getting better. That's why we can no longer just rely on running. We need to expand our training to training with progressive overload.
You see, just like when you're lifting weights and need to lift more over time to build muscle, endurance training follows the same principle of progressive overload. But instead of adding weight to a barbell, we increase the distance, we increase the time, we push the pace, we decrease the breaks, and we up the training frequency. Just think of it as increasing some training parameter over time so your workouts become harder or longer. For example, if you want to increase your aerobic base, then it's much more effective to increase your miles every single week instead of just running the same five miles that you always do. Or if you run a 10-minute per mile pace in the first week, you might slowly bring that down to 9:30.
Now, at some point, you might not be able to run further or faster, and that's okay. We can still add progressive overload by training more days or reducing the rest between intervals. So, for example, if you run three times per week for 60 minutes, you could run four times per week for 50 minutes instead. Or if you do the classic 4x4 minutes hard effort with a 3-minute break in between, you might cut that break down to 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
But over the years, I've also found that sometimes progressive overload simply does not work. You see, over the years, I've discovered that to improve faster, we need to remove the bottleneck instead of focusing on everything at once. So let me explain. If you're training your V02 max, but V02 max is not the thing that's limiting you, then it does not matter. You simply won't get much faster. This is also known as the theory of constraints. Basically, we won't get faster until we remove the bottleneck. And that's why each and every person's training should be different. Because you see, the switch in mindset of working to improve the things that actually limit you right now instead of everything at once will help you improve so much faster. At least that's my experience.
Now, if you want to know what's holding you back specifically, I made a free running limiter test that shows you your biggest weakness and exactly how to fix it. It's my gift to you and you can get it completely for free in the description.
Now, if you're already training consistently and you have built up your volume and you still can't reach sub 90 minutes, then we can add another level of progression to our training plan and that is called periodization. This means you don't just ask what workout should I do or how should I progress them. You ask when should I do them. Basically, periodization breaks training into different training blocks where we go from least specific to most specific and we mix up the training intensity. Usually, it consists of four key blocks: a base phase where we build mileage, aerobic endurance, and efficiency; a build phase where we start to add some half marathon and marathon pace work, threshold intervals, and long runs with fast finishes; and a peak phase where it's super specific. We try to sharpen the fitness with specific half marathon pace workouts. And then finally, we finish it all with a taper where we drop back the volume so we arrive fresh at the start line. That's how you arrive on race day: not just fit, but what we call in peak shape.
Now, we know how to structure our training, which is what we do when we train. But the study of the characteristics of the half marathon runners from 2020 also found something else to be very important to faster finish times and that is your BMI or basically your weight. So how much does weight actually affect running performance? Well, in 1978, researchers tested exactly that. They strapped 5%, 10%, or 15% of extra body weight onto runners using a harness and then sent them out for a 12-minute all-out run. They found that for every extra 5% of body weight, runners slowed down by about 89 meters. That made them around 1.4 seconds per mile slower for every extra pound.
But here's the problem. Most people think that losing weight is all about the number on the scale. But for runners, that's only half the story because where that weight sits on your body can completely change how fast you run. And when you see the numbers, it's kind of insane. You see, running already costs a ton of energy. And a study from 1984 found that if you add four pounds around your waist, your effort goes up about 4%. But this is where it gets crazy. If you add those same four pounds around your ankles, effort jumps a ridiculous 24% extra. That's the difference between running comfortably and feeling like you're dragging sandbags with every stride.
So, why does this happen? It's because the farther weight sits from your center of mass, the more energy your muscles need to swing, lift, and stabilize it. It's like carrying a heavy backpack close to your chest versus holding it out at arm's length. And that's why before we even talk about fat loss, there are quicker wins. Take your socks and shoes for example. A study in Frontiers in Physiology found that adding just 100 grams per shoe reduced running economy significantly. So lighter shoes, lighter socks, even lighter running clothes can literally make you faster overnight. And let's be honest, it's way easier to lose a pound of shoe and clothes than it is to lose a pound of body fat.
But what if you do need to lose body fat to run faster? According to a 2025 meta-analysis, the three biggest levers to drop fat are the following: a sustained calorie deficit, strength training to protect muscle and signal to your body to burn fat instead of muscle, and protein. Aim for 1.8 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight or 1 gram per pound to recover, hold on to muscle, and manage your appetite. But it's important for me to note that especially for runners, there's a huge risk called relative energy deficiency in sports or RED-S. It means that when your body gets underfueled, it starts shutting things down and it's super common among runners. I've personally seen athletes train harder and actually get slower or even worse, get fractures because their bodies were stuck in survival mode. So when approaching fat loss as a runner, remember the goal is not to get as light as possible. The goal is to become as fast as possible.
And to do that, we need to make sure we pay as much attention to our recovery as we do to our training. Because how you recover will make or break your chances of hitting that sub 90-minute mark. So let's look at exactly how to maximize it.
So first of all, it's easy to get sucked into the hole of doing everything you possibly can imagine to get marginal gains in your recovery. But the truth is that for most people, unless you're an elite runner aiming to run in those low 60s, then you don't need to overthink it. If you feel great, are getting better, and are recovering fast between workouts, then you're doing just fine. But if you're not improving, or keep getting injured, there are three things that move the needle the most: sleep, nutrition, and what's known as allostatic load.
Now, you probably already know that you need to sleep more the harder you train, and that sleep is crucial for overall health. So, I won't go into details in this video. Just stay consistent with your sleep schedule and get 8 to 9 hours every night if it's possible. We've also talked about the nutrition part a bit, but to make things simple, we really just need to focus on eating whole foods, getting enough protein, getting enough leafy greens and vegetables, and getting enough calories to fuel your performance.
Allostatic load is a bit trickier. It's simply the sum of all the stress your body is under. So training, work, family, lack of sleep, everything. If it's too high for too long, recovery stops and performance suffers. So in practice, managing it comes down to balancing stress and recovery. If you're stressed at work, then it does not matter how perfect your training is, you simply won't get better. So even though we sometimes like to think that life and training are two separate things, they are really not. In fact, one of the key predictors of elite performance is simply well-being. So, if you have this goal of running a sub 90-minute half marathon, then make sure that you also look at the other stresses in your life. If life is throwing everything at you, it's better to take a day off than to go for a hard training. And if right now is super stressed, then it might not be the right time to aim for that sub 90 minutes.
Now, knowing the principles is one thing. Building them into a real plan is another. And this is more of an art than science. And multiple coaches will argue what's the best approach. So, let's just try to map out what training could actually look like over the course of a week for beginners, intermediates, and advanced runners. But don't follow these plans blindly, but just use them as inspiration to create your own.
For a beginner, the focus is simply to build aerobic base and consistency. We could just get out the door and try to get some more miles in. But here's another way to go about it. On Monday, we rest or do 30 minutes of cross-training like biking or swimming. On Tuesday, we do a 5-mile easy run with four to six strides. On Wednesday, we do a warm-up, then 3x 6 minutes at threshold pace, and a cool-down. On Thursday, we rest. Then on Friday, we do a warm-up, then four * 2 minutes V02 max intervals, so really hard, and then a cool-down. On Saturday, we rest. And on Sunday, we do a long run, building over weeks until we can hit at least 21 km or 13 miles. The focus is just to get the runs in. Consistency beats intensity. If one of the days feels too hard, it's better to just keep it easy if that's what it takes to stay consistent.
Then when you're consistent, we start to add some more intensity. So on Monday, we rest or we do 30 minutes of mobility and some core work. On Tuesday, we do V02 max intervals, like six times 1 kilometer with a 90-second jog in between. On Wednesday, we rest. And then on Thursday, we do medium-long runs, so 12 miles or 19 km with the last 4 miles at half marathon pace. On Friday, we do 6 miles or 10 km easy as a recovery run. On Saturday, we do a threshold run, something like two times four miles or six and a half kilometers at half marathon pace with a five-minute jog recovery in between. And then on Sunday, we do a long run, so 18 to 20 miles or 29 to 32 km, mostly easy, but with the last 3 miles at half marathon pace to train our form under fatigue.
At the advanced level, we start to do some periodized sharpening for that sub 90 minute. The goal is higher mileage and some more intensity. A week could look like this. On Monday, we do 10 miles or 16 km easy and some strength training. On Tuesday, we do V02 max intervals of 10 * 1 km with a 90-second jog in between. On Wednesday, we rest. On Thursday, we do an easy 12 miles or 19 km and some strength and mobility work. On Friday, we do a tempo session with 3 * 10 minutes threshold and a 1-minute recovery in between. On Saturday, we do 8 miles or 13 km easy, including some short 10-second hill sprints. And on Sunday, we do a long run with the last five miles at half marathon pace.
Now, I do want to say that I've seen people go sub 90 minutes with a lot less training and some who needed a lot more. Some need more intensity and some need less. This is why having a trainer can be so beneficial because we need to adapt the training to the individual. It will help you find out exactly what you need to run faster.
But here's the truth. Even with a perfect training block, there's one thing that could make running feel way harder than it should. And to learn exactly what that is and more importantly how to fix it, you should watch this video.