Weekly Periodisation for Half Marathon Training: How I Structure Your Training Week
When runners think about periodisation, they often think about the big picture.
You might have 12, 16, 20 or 24 weeks until your half marathon. Over that time, the emphasis of your training changes as you progress through different phases and move closer to race day.
That’s periodisation across your training programme.
But there’s another level of periodisation that’s just as important:
How do we arrange the individual workouts within each week?
Where should your quality session go?
When should you complete your long run?
Where does strength training fit?
Should you run the day after your long run?
How much recovery should there be between harder sessions?
And does someone running three times each week need the same weekly structure as somebody running six times?
These are questions of weekly periodisation.
The objective isn’t simply to fill seven days with workouts.
It’s to arrange training stress and recovery so the important sessions can be completed well, while giving your body enough opportunity to absorb the training.
And there’s another principle that sits behind everything I prescribe:
I don’t build training programmes to maximise how much training an athlete can complete.
I build them to minimise the amount of training required to achieve the athlete’s goal.
That’s an important distinction.
More training isn’t automatically better training.
What Is Weekly Periodisation?
Weekly periodisation is the deliberate organisation of your workouts across the week.
A half marathon programme contains several different training stimuli.
There are:
- Level II aerobic endurance runs.
- Long runs.
- Higher-intensity quality sessions.
- Strength training.
- Flexibility training.
- Recovery.
The challenge isn’t simply deciding which workouts to include.
We also need to decide where to put them.
If we stack too much demanding training together, the athlete may not recover sufficiently.
If we spread everything too far apart, we may struggle to fit the required training into the week.
If every run becomes moderately hard, we lose the distinction between easy aerobic development and deliberate quality training.
So I’m constantly balancing three things:
Training stimulus. Recovery. Practicality.
The ideal training week needs all three.
There Is No Perfect Monday-to-Sunday Schedule
Before I show you some of the weekly structures I commonly use, there’s an important point to make.
These are templates, not rigid rules.
An athlete’s training needs to fit their life.
Work rosters matter.
Family commitments matter.
Age matters.
Training history matters.
Injury history matters.
Other sports matter.
Recovery rates matter.
An athlete working shifts may have completely different training opportunities from somebody working Monday to Friday.
A parent might be unable to complete a long run on Saturday because that’s when their children play sport.
Someone else might work every weekend and have Wednesday as the best day for their long run.
That’s okay.
The underlying principles are more important than whether a particular workout happens on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.
Good periodisation gives us structure without unnecessary rigidity.
The Basic Rhythm of My Training Week
For many half marathon runners, there are three important components around which I build the week:
Quality running.
Level II aerobic running.
The long run.
Flexibility and strength training can then be positioned around those key running sessions.
I also want appropriate recovery between the more demanding training stimuli.
That’s why you’ll often see a rhythm where harder training is separated by easier running or flexibility work.
We’re not trying to make every day equally difficult.
Quite the opposite.
A Note About the Word “Quality”
Throughout this article I’ll refer to certain workouts as quality sessions.
In running terminology, quality normally refers to higher-intensity training such as tempo, threshold, hill repetitions or VO₂ max intervals.
That’s useful shorthand, but it can create the wrong impression.
Because if we define “quality” as the session that contributes most to improving half marathon performance, then your long run is arguably the highest-quality session of the week.
The half marathon is an endurance event.
Developing the aerobic endurance and durability to run strongly for 21.1 kilometres is fundamental to performance.
So when I use “quality session” throughout this article, understand that I’m referring to higher-intensity running, not suggesting that it is more important than your long run.
The long run remains one of the key sessions around which the entire week is organised.
The 80/20 Principle
One consideration when determining how much quality training an athlete receives is the relationship between easier and harder running.
I like to remain reasonably close to the 80/20 principle.
As a general concept, approximately 80% of an athlete’s running time should be easier aerobic training, predominantly Level II, with around 20% involving higher-intensity quality work.
That doesn’t mean I’m sitting down with a calculator every Sunday night and ensuring an athlete has completed exactly 80.0% easy running.
It’s a principle rather than a mathematical rule.
But it helps explain why I generally won’t prescribe two quality workouts to somebody running only three times per week.
If two of their three runs are higher intensity, an enormous proportion of their running week becomes quality training.
An athlete running five or six times per week has considerably more Level II running surrounding those quality sessions.
That gives us more scope to include a second quality workout while still maintaining an appropriate overall intensity distribution.
Three Runs Per Week
For an athlete running three times per week, a typical structure without strength training might look like this:
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Flexibility Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | — |
| Thursday | Level II Steady Run |
| Friday | Flexibility Training |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | — |
This is a simple but effective structure.
Tuesday provides our higher-intensity training stimulus.
Thursday provides aerobic endurance without excessive fatigue.
Friday’s flexibility session helps prepare the athlete for the weekend.
Then we complete the long run.
Monday’s flexibility session assists recovery from the previous weekend before we begin another training week.
For many recreational half marathon runners, three purposeful runs each week can achieve a great deal.
Remember:
The objective isn’t to add runs simply because there are empty days on the calendar.
Four Runs Per Week
With four runs available, I normally retain the same basic structure and add another Level II steady run.
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Flexibility Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | — |
| Thursday | Level II Steady Run |
| Friday | Flexibility Training |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | Level II Steady Run |
The Sunday run gives us another opportunity to develop aerobic endurance.
If Saturday contains the long run, Sunday’s Level II session also means the athlete is running with some residual fatigue in the legs.
But I don’t need them to make Sunday’s run harder because they’re tired.
It’s still Level II.
We’re accumulating appropriate aerobic training without unnecessarily increasing the intensity.
Five Runs Per Week
When an athlete is running five times per week, we have more options.
A typical structure could look like this:
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Flexibility Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | Level II Steady Run |
| Thursday | Level II Steady Run or Second Quality Run |
| Friday | Flexibility Training |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | Level II Steady Run |
Thursday is where things become interesting.
For some athletes, it remains another Level II run.
For others, it can become a second quality session.
That decision isn’t automatic.
It depends on the individual athlete.
Who Gets a Second Quality Session?
I don’t have a rule that says:
“Run five times per week and you automatically get two quality workouts.”
Several factors influence that decision.
These include:
- Training age and experience.
- Current ability.
- Chronological age.
- Ability to recover.
- Injury history.
- Performance goals.
- Current periodisation phase.
- The overall volume of Level II running.
- How the athlete is responding to their existing programme.
Performance level can also influence the decision.
An experienced athlete targeting a relatively high level of half marathon performance — perhaps around 1:40 or faster — may benefit from a second quality stimulus when they have sufficient running volume and recovery capacity to support it.
But there is no hard-and-fast finishing-time rule.
The athlete comes first.
Six Runs Per Week
For someone running six times per week, Friday’s flexibility session can be replaced by another Level II run.
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Flexibility Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | Level II Steady Run |
| Thursday | Level II Steady Run or Second Quality Run |
| Friday | Level II Steady Run |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | Level II Steady Run |
Again, the large amount of Level II running is important.
We’re not adding a second quality session simply because this athlete can tolerate more hard training.
We’re able to consider a second quality session partly because the athlete has more easy aerobic running surrounding it.
The overall week still needs balance.
The Weekly Structure Stays Similar — But the Quality Changes
This is where weekly periodisation connects directly with my overall half marathon periodisation philosophy.
My programmes progress through four phases:
Foundation & Injury Prevention (FI)
Early Quality (EQ)
Transition Quality (TQ)
Final Quality (FQ)
The weekly structure can remain broadly similar throughout those phases.
Tuesday might remain the quality day.
Thursday might remain the potential second quality day.
The long run remains positioned towards the end of the week.
But what happens inside those quality sessions changes.
That’s how the larger periodisation strategy and weekly periodisation work together.
Foundation & Injury Prevention (FI)
During Foundation & Injury Prevention, the overwhelming priority is establishing consistency, aerobic fitness and physical resilience.
That means plenty of Level II running.
Even the designated “quality” session can be predominantly Level II.
For example, I might prescribe a 60-minute run containing:
25min Level II
then:
10 × 20sec Level V / 40sec Level II
followed by:
25min Level II
Those 20-second stride outs provide a small neuromuscular and speed stimulus without turning the entire workout into a demanding interval session.
For another athlete, the total session might be only 40 or 45 minutes.
The principle is the same.
During FI, I’m unlikely to prescribe two substantial quality sessions.
We’re building the athlete’s ability to tolerate the training that will come later.
Early Quality (EQ)
During Early Quality, the primary quality workout will often involve hill repetitions.
Hill running allows us to develop running-specific strength, economy and higher-intensity aerobic fitness.
If an experienced athlete is completing a second quality workout during this phase, that second session might be tempo based.
Again, that isn’t automatic.
It depends on whether the athlete has the experience, training volume and recovery capacity to benefit from it.
Transition Quality (TQ)
During Transition Quality, threshold training becomes a major focus.
The primary quality workout will commonly be threshold based.
For an athlete completing two quality sessions, the second workout could also involve threshold training, or it might be a tempo session depending on the athlete and what we’re trying to develop.
The important point isn’t that Thursday must contain threshold.
It’s that the week’s quality training now reflects the physiological priorities of the Transition Quality phase.
Final Quality (FQ)
During Final Quality, the priority becomes increasingly specific to half marathon performance.
Tempo training therefore becomes particularly important.
For athletes completing a second quality workout, I may also include some Level V/VO₂ max training, typically using workouts towards the lower end of the Training Stress Score (TSS) scale.
This provides a different stimulus without creating the same training load we might see from some of the harder hill-repetition sessions used during Early Quality.
The structure of the week is familiar.
The stimulus inside it has evolved.
Where Does the Long Run Go?
When possible, I like the athlete’s long run to occur on the same day of the week as their goal race.
If your half marathon is on Sunday, there’s value in becoming accustomed to Sunday being your long-running day.
If the event is on Saturday, Saturday becomes the natural choice.
But this is a preference, not a requirement.
If your children’s sport occupies Saturday mornings, we’ll work around it.
If you’re a shift worker whose weekend falls on Tuesday and Wednesday, we can put the long run there.
Your body doesn’t know that the calendar says Saturday.
What matters is how the long run fits around the other training and recovery.
How Hard Should the Long Run Be?
For most athletes, most long runs are completed at Level II — Endurance/Conversational intensity.
That means you should be able to hold a conversation in complete sentences.
The objective is aerobic endurance.
As the programme develops, however, I may modify the long run for particular athletes.
One option is to include 4 × 20-second stride outs, spread approximately five minutes apart during the final 30 minutes, while leaving around 10 minutes of Level II running after the final stride.
For more performance-oriented athletes later in their programme, I may prescribe a progressive long run, where the intensity deliberately increases during portions of the session.
The key word is deliberately.
Don’t turn your Level II long run into an unplanned progression simply because you feel good.
If the programme calls for Level II, run Level II.
Adding Strength Training Changes the Puzzle
Strength training can complement half marathon preparation extremely well.
But once we’re combining running, strength and flexibility training within the same seven-day period, the positioning of each workout becomes increasingly important.
I generally want two strength sessions each week, separated as evenly as practical.
A Monday/Thursday arrangement works well.
So can Monday/Friday.
The goal is to create several days between strength stimuli rather than completing them on consecutive days.
But strength training also needs to be positioned around the key running sessions.
I don’t simply find two empty boxes in the calendar and put strength training into them.
Three Runs + Two Strength Sessions
A typical structure might be:
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Strength Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | Level II Steady Run |
| Thursday | Strength Training |
| Friday | Flexibility Training |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | — |
At first glance, this athlete has training scheduled on six consecutive days.
But those aren’t six days of the same physiological stress.
Monday and Thursday provide strength stimuli.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday provide running stimuli.
Friday is recovery-focused flexibility training.
We’re distributing different forms of training stress across the week rather than simply counting how many calendar days contain exercise.
Four Runs + Two Strength Sessions
A typical four-run structure could look like:
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Strength Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | Flexibility Training |
| Thursday | Quality or Level II Steady Run |
| Friday | Strength Training |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | Level II Steady Run |
Whether Thursday is quality or Level II again depends on the athlete, although with four runs per week I’m generally cautious about allowing too much of the week’s running to become high intensity.
Wednesday’s flexibility training functions as a recovery day even though something appears on the programme.
Recovery doesn’t necessarily mean doing absolutely nothing.
Five Runs + Two Strength Sessions
With five runs and two strength sessions, a common structure is:
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | Strength Training |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | Flexibility Training |
| Thursday | Quality or Level II Steady Run |
| Friday | AM: Strength Training / PM: Level II Steady Run |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | Level II Steady Run |
Depending on the athlete, we may occasionally double sessions to create additional recovery space elsewhere in the week.
But there’s an important rule governing how I do that.
I Don’t Recommend Strength and Quality Running on the Same Day
If we need to double a strength workout with a run, my preference is to pair strength with a Level II steady run.
I don’t recommend combining strength training with a high-intensity quality run on the same day.
Why?
Recovery.
A quality running session creates substantial training stress.
Strength training creates another significant training stimulus.
Putting both together increases fatigue and reduces the opportunity to recover adequately, potentially compromising training quality and increasing injury risk.
I’d rather separate those stimuli.
If we need to double, combine strength with the lower-intensity Level II running.
Six Runs + Two Strength Sessions
With six runs each week plus two strength sessions, doubling becomes difficult to avoid.
A typical structure might be:
| Day | Training |
|---|---|
| Monday | AM: Strength Training / PM: Level II Steady Run |
| Tuesday | Quality Run |
| Wednesday | Flexibility Training |
| Thursday | Quality or Level II Steady Run |
| Friday | AM: Strength Training / PM: Level II Steady Run |
| Saturday | Long Run |
| Sunday | Level II Steady Run |
The Monday and Friday doubles pair steady running with strength, rather than strength with the higher-intensity quality sessions.
Where possible, I’d prefer the athlete to strength train earlier in the day and run later. Maximising time between the strength training and a key workout the following day (either long run or a quality session).
I don’t prescribe an arbitrary minimum such as six or eight hours between sessions.
Real people have jobs, families and other commitments.
Sometimes the available gap will be substantial.
Sometimes the athlete may need to complete the sessions relatively close together.
My preference is simply:
Create as much recovery time between the two sessions as your day reasonably allows.
Flexibility Training Is Training Too
When you see Flexibility Training in one of my programmes, this isn’t simply a placeholder for a day where I couldn’t think of anything else to prescribe.
It’s there deliberately.
A typical flexibility session contains approximately 30 minutes of stretching, predominantly targeting the muscle groups involved in running while still providing an all-over-body stretching session.
Its purpose is recovery.
It doesn’t create the physical demand of a quality run or strength session.
That means a flexibility day effectively functions as a recovery day within the programme.
This is particularly useful when an athlete has training scheduled on most days of the week.
Not every session needs to create fatigue to have value.
What Happens During a Recovery Week?
Periodisation also means recognising when it’s time to absorb the training we’ve already completed.
During a recovery or down week, I generally retain the familiar weekly structure.
If you normally run five times, I don’t necessarily suddenly drop you to three runs.
Instead, we reduce the load within the sessions.
The long run might become shorter.
Steady runs might become shorter.
Quality sessions might contain less volume.
But the athlete retains their normal training frequency and weekly rhythm.
This gives us recovery without unnecessarily disrupting the habits and structure we’ve established.
Individualisation Always Comes First
All of the weekly structures I’ve shown here are starting points.
They’re not commandments.
I’ve coached athletes whose working week bears no resemblance to Monday-to-Friday office hours.
I’ve worked around family commitments, travel, other sports and countless other factors.
Two athletes preparing for the same half marathon with identical finishing-time goals might still receive different weekly structures.
One may recover exceptionally quickly.
Another may need more recovery.
One may have decades of running experience.
Another may have started running relatively recently.
One may be 25.
Another may be 65.
The physiological principles remain important, but the programme needs to work for the human being actually completing it.
The athlete doesn’t need to fit the training plan.
The training plan needs to fit the athlete.
Minimum Effective Training, Not Maximum Possible Training
This is perhaps the most important principle behind the way I structure training.
I’m not interested in discovering the maximum amount of training you can survive.
I want to determine the minimum amount of training required to achieve your goal.
If three well-structured runs each week can prepare you successfully for your target half marathon, why would I automatically prescribe five?
If one quality workout gives you the stimulus you currently need, why add another simply because elite runners complete two?
Every additional training session has a cost.
It requires time.
It requires recovery.
It adds physical load.
And, potentially, it adds injury risk.
That doesn’t mean doing less training is always better.
Higher-performing athletes generally require greater training loads to continue improving.
But additional training should earn its place in the programme.
We add training because you need it — not because there’s room on the calendar.
Weekly Periodisation and the Bigger Picture
Weekly periodisation is only one part of the system.
There are three interconnected levels to understand.
First, there’s the overall periodisation of your half marathon build-up:
Foundation & Injury Prevention → Early Quality → Transition Quality → Final Quality.
That determines what we’re trying to develop at each stage of preparation.
Then there’s weekly periodisation:
How do we arrange quality sessions, Level II running, long runs, strength and recovery across seven days?
Finally, there’s workout intensity:
Should today’s running be Level I, Level II, Level III, Level IV or Level V?
Together, those three layers answer three different questions:
What are we developing at this stage of the programme?
Where should the training sit within this week?
How hard should today’s workout be?
That’s what turns a collection of individual workouts into a coherent training programme.
The Best Training Week Is the One You Can Absorb
It’s tempting to judge a training week by how impressive it looks.
Six runs.
Two strength sessions.
Two quality workouts.
A huge long run.
Plenty of kilometres.
But none of those numbers tells us whether the programme is appropriate for you.
A successful training week provides enough stimulus to move your fitness forward while still allowing you to recover and repeat the process.
That’s why I deliberately separate demanding sessions where possible.
It’s why most running remains at Level II.
It’s why flexibility training has a place.
It’s why I don’t routinely pair strength with high-intensity running.
It’s why a three-runs per week athlete normally receives less quality training than a six-runs per week athlete.
And it’s why the long run remains protected as one of the most important sessions of the week.
Weekly periodisation isn’t about filling seven days with workouts.
It’s about arranging training stress and recovery so the important sessions can be completed well, while giving your body enough opportunity to absorb the training.
Do that consistently, week after week, and we don’t need to maximise your training.
We need to prescribe just enough of the right training, in the right order, to prepare you to run your best half marathon.
Put the Structure Into Your Half Marathon Training
Understanding how to organise a training week is useful.
But the right weekly structure still depends on how often you run, your experience, your recovery, your goal, your current training phase and everything else happening in your life.
That’s why NZ Half Marathon Hub+ provides structured half marathon programmes that bring together my Level I–V intensity system, FI → EQ → TQ → FQ periodisation, long-run progression and purposeful weekly training structure.
Instead of trying to piece individual workouts together yourself, you can follow a programme where each session has a reason for being where it is.
Train enough to achieve your goal — not simply as much as you can tolerate.
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