Running Plan Review Buena Vida Run Club's 16-Week Sub-1:45 Half Marathon (6 days)
Who’s behind this review? Buena Vida is a running app made by David Cole, a Seattle runner & triathlete who led design and research for Amazon’s Halo fitness band. This is one of Buena Vida’s own plans, so we have an obvious interest in how it compares. It’s scored on the same 30 measures as every plan we review, each tied to published research, and its weaknesses are published below. AI does the first scoring and draft, then every claim is checked against its studies. No plan author pays to be reviewed, and we run no ads. See a mistake? Email David at corrections@buenavida.run · How we score →
Plan at a Glance
Most runners chasing a sub-1:45 half can already run goal pace. What they can't do yet is hold it for 13.1 miles and have it still feel like theirs past mile 10. This plan is built to close that gap, and it works on two things at once.
Tuesdays teach the pace. You start with a few half-mile repeats, short enough that goal pace is a feel rather than a fight. The reps stretch to three-quarters of a mile, then to a full mile, and late in the build they join into long, unbroken runs at goal pace. Thursdays work a different gear: a threshold run, a notch quicker than goal pace, at the effort you could race for about an hour. The long build is what lets the ladder climb slowly. It comes in three blocks, and after each one comes a full week with both sessions gone. It can feel like lost ground, especially if your log is your proof. It's the week the three before it turn into fitness.
Everything else is easy, and easy is where most runners slip, not by skipping it but by running it a little too fast. Watch Wednesday morning. Tuesday's reps are still in your legs and Thursday's threshold is a day away. Run Wednesday at the pace you can talk at and the week works. Let it drift into moderate and the week holds three hard days instead of two.
Saturday is the long run, which climbs past race distance to 16 miles. Sunday is a medium-long on legs that still remember Saturday, where you learn to find a rhythm when you're already tired. Friday holds strength. You should already be running around 34 miles a week, and your week grows to about 60. Bring six days and both weekend mornings, and you'll reach the start line knowing the pace instead of hoping for it.
Below is the full Buena Vida review of the plan. We score every plan against our 30-point benchmark, which draws from peer-reviewed sports-science research and proven coaching best practices.
Similar plans
Our Review
With 6 days a week and a sub-1:45 half in your sights, the temptation is to make too many of those days hard. This excellent plan does the opposite, and its best trait is that restraint. It gives you two hard days a week, each with one clear job: goal-pace reps on Tuesday that lengthen into continuous runs, and a threshold run on Thursday that grows through the build. Everything else is easy, the hard days never touch, and weeks 4, 8 and 12 clear both sessions out to give your legs a break before the next block begins. The taper keeps goal pace in your legs while the miles fall away over the last 3 weeks.
The gaps are real but small. The weekend long runs go further than a half strictly needs, and week 6 stacks more new work at once than any other week (the fix is simple, and it's below). Neither changes the verdict. If sub-1:45 is the goal, this is a plan to run with confidence.
-
Structure
Does the plan build you up smartly?
Very nearly, though the build never changes its emphasis. Goal-pace reps on Tuesday and a threshold run on Thursday carry it from the first week to the last big one. Progress comes from length instead, as the reps stretch and the tempo grows. Every one of the 26 hard sessions comes with its warm-up, work and cool-down written out, plus a note on why it matters. The phases carry names on the calendar, so you can read the shape of the build from any week.
-
Prevention
Does the plan protect you from injury?
Trust it. About 83% of your miles are easy, Wednesday's easy run always sits between Tuesday's reps and Thursday's threshold, and even the 8 × 1 mile session has 2 easy miles at each end. The build runs on a steady rhythm of 3 weeks up and 1 week down, and in each down week the miles drop and the Tuesday and Thursday sessions vanish entirely. That can feel like giving fitness back. It isn't, because the lighter week keeps the load from piling up. Weekly volume grows from about 34 miles to about 60 in the peak week without big leaps, and steady mileage built up over time is generally linked to fewer injuries. Week 6 asks the most. Weekly miles still rise smoothly there, but the sessions all grow at once, soon after the first cutback: one more rep on Tuesday, a longer tempo on Thursday, and a bigger weekend. Keep Monday and Wednesday truly easy that week, and if an ache lingers after Saturday's 11.5 miles, cut back the following 7 days or so (clearly less running, not none).
-
Flexibility
What happens when you miss a day?
You lose very little. The plan marks Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as the sessions that matter most, with Monday, Wednesday and Sunday as support and Friday's strength after that. So if a day goes missing, protect the big three and let an easy run go. If you miss Tuesday, don't move it to Wednesday, because that puts it right against Thursday's threshold. Let it go and pick up the plan where it is. If you have to swap a run for the bike or the pool, swap an easy day and keep Thursday as a run, since most coaches keep threshold work on your feet. And with a cutback never more than a few weeks away, a lost week has a natural place to reset.
-
Readiness
Will the plan deliver race-day fitness?
This build rehearses race day thoroughly, and it does so on a big base. The peak week reaches about 60 miles, the long run reaches 16, and the race-specific work grows right into the peak weeks. Tuesday's goal-pace work starts at 4 × 0.5 mile in the first week, reaches 8 × 1 mile by week 9, and then turns continuous: 5 miles at goal pace, then 7 in the peak week. That same week the 16-mile long run carries 3 miles at goal pace in the middle, a proper dress rehearsal, and Sunday follows it with 11 more. The real long run here is the weekend, not just the Saturday. The taper cuts the miles hard (from about 60 at the peak to about 36 the week before race week) while keeping a smaller dose of goal pace and threshold. A drop like that tends to bring a better race than training straight through. The 16-miler sits 3 weeks before race week, which leaves time to recover from it before the start.
-
Variety
Are the workouts varied enough?
Wider than a two-session week suggests. You get easy runs, medium-long runs, long runs, intervals, tempo runs, continuous goal-pace runs and the race itself. Tuesday's format changes every few weeks, from half-mile reps to three-quarter-mile reps to mile reps, then to unbroken runs of 5 and 7 miles at goal pace before the mile reps return for one last full session. The same pace keeps getting asked a new question. Thursday stays a tempo that grows, which makes it a clean measure of progress. The peak-week long run adds a goal-pace block, and race week brings strides.
Workouts
Every Buena Vida training plan comes with detailed coaching notes and live workout guidance. Tap any workout to preview the notes for that day.
The runway to race day is 15 weeks long, and that length is the point of starting here. You have signed up for the version of the work that gets you to the line with margin instead of getting you there by the skin of your teeth. The opening week asks for very little beyond showing up and letting the rhythm of training find its place in your days. Treat it that way, and let the cycle begin where it begins.
M 4.5mi Easy Run
4.5 miles at conversational pace. This is the first run of the plan. Run this slower than your instinct says. Most of this week stays at an easy, conversational effort. Runners who hit a time like yours cleanly on race day usually got there by leaving the first Monday feeling like they had three more miles in the legs.
Tu Intervals: 4×0.5mi @ ½ Marathon
Warm up 2 miles, run 4 × 0.5 mile at half-marathon goal pace (7:57/mile) with 400 m of easy jogging between, and cool down 2 miles. The first harder session of the plan. Goal pace this week is a feel rather than a target. Reps should arrive controlled instead of fast. Many runners overshoot the first interval session by 8 to 12 seconds per mile and pay for it on Thursday. Repeats break hard running into pieces the body can absorb, building speed without breaking form.
W 4.5mi Easy Run
4.5 miles easy aerobic. The job today is to run easy enough that you don't undo what yesterday built. Conversational pace throughout. If breathing starts to climb, pull it back. Running easy today is what lets the harder sessions around it stay hard.
Th 4.5mi Tempo Run with 2.5mi @ Tempo
1 mile warmup, then 2.5 miles at threshold (10K effort), then 1 mile cooldown. First tempo of the plan. Threshold sits between half-marathon pace and 10K pace, the place where breathing tightens but speech is still possible. If you can shout a sentence to a friend, the pace is right. If you can only grunt, you have gone past it. Held efforts like this sit at the pace you can hold for about an hour. Comfortably hard means a few words at a time, never full sentences.
F Strength Training
Sa 8mi Long Run
8 miles at conversational pace. This is the first long run, the start of a climb from 8 to 16 miles by week 13. This distance is meant to feel manageable. If it does not, the easy days earlier in the week were too fast. Arrive home thinking the next mile would have been fine too. Most runners find the back half passes more easily than they feared.
Su 5.5mi Medium-Long Run
5.5 miles easy. The first medium-long the day after a long run is where the plan's back-to-back architecture announces itself. Legs will feel heavy in the first mile and settle by mile three. That settling is what the 6-day shape is built to teach.
Nothing about this week will feel dramatic, which is the right shape for it to take. The aerobic system responds to repetition more than it responds to depth, and stacking a second ordinary week on top of the first is doing more than the surface suggests. If anything feels heavier than expected, that is a clean signal rather than a problem. Stay patient with the easy days and let the engine do its work.
M 5mi Easy Run
5 miles easy. The legs should know what to do by now without being asked. The base under every faster day gets built one run like this at a time.
Tu Intervals: 5×0.5mi @ ½ Marathon
2-mile warm-up, then 5 × 0.5 mile at half-marathon goal pace with 400 m of easy jogging between, and a 2-mile cool-down. This is one rep more than the 4 × 0.5 mile session. The pace stays the same. Volume is what carries the gain. Hold the last rep at the same pace as the first. Do not finish faster. The rest between reps is what lets the work stay fast from first to last. The workout was perfect if the last rep matched the first in pace and form.
W 5mi Easy Run
The legs carry residual work from yesterday's intervals. A slight heaviness through the first mile is normal. Stay at conversation pace and it clears. The easy effort today is what makes the next harder session go the way it should.
Th 4.7mi Tempo Run with 2.7mi @ Tempo
1 mile warmup, then 2.7 miles at threshold, then 1 mile cooldown. Tempo distance creeps up by two-tenths of a mile from the 2.5-mile session. Hold the same effort. Let the distance be the difference. The body remembers Tuesday's reps and the legs may take a half-mile to find the rhythm. This session is steady, comfortably hard running, held without surging. Ease into the effort over the opening few minutes instead of starting at full pressure. The session was a success if the final stretch held pace without the form unraveling.
F Strength Training
Sa 8.5mi Long Run
8.5 miles long run at easy aerobic effort. The long run is half a mile longer than the 8-mile run. Run the first mile a beat slower than feels natural. The pace you finish on is the one to remember. That is where Sunday's medium-long picks up tomorrow.
Su 6mi Medium-Long Run
6 miles easy. The medium-long on tired legs teaches a pattern the body will return to all plan. If the first 10 minutes feel like resistance and the rest feel like running, the previous day was at the right pace. That shift from heavy to smooth is the body getting used to the work.
Members only
All 16 weeks in the app
Daily coaching notes, nutrition guidance, reschedule logic, and strength placement.
Plan Strengths
- Goal-pace reps that lengthen step by step into continuous runs, so the pace is familiar long before you race it.
- Two hard days with distinct jobs, goal pace on Tuesday and threshold on Thursday, always with an easy day between.
- Every fourth week removes both hard sessions entirely, so the load gets a real break before the next block starts.
- The taper keeps goal pace in your legs while the volume drops.
- Every hard session carries a full warm-up and cool-down.
Weaknesses & Gaps
- Week 6 asks for the steepest rise in load in the plan: longer Tuesday reps, a longer Thursday tempo and a bigger weekend, all soon after the first cutback.
- The simplest fix for week 6 is to repeat the previous week's 6 × 0.75 mile on Tuesday instead of jumping to 7 reps, and let the rest of the week stand.
- At the peak, Saturday's 16 miles and Sunday's 11 make a long weekend on your feet, more than a half strictly needs.
What's missing
The plan covers what a sub-1:45 half needs, and a few optional additions can round it out. Strides appear in the race-week shake-out. Adding 4 to 6 relaxed 20-second strides to the end of a Monday or Wednesday easy run once a week through the build is a cheap way to practice quick, relaxed running. There's no dedicated hill work, which matters only if your race has climbs. If it does, take some Sunday medium-long runs onto rolling routes and keep the effort easy on the way up. There's no tune-up race either. It's optional, but a 5K or 10K between the second and third cutback weeks can be useful pacing practice and a first look at race-morning nerves. If you race on a Saturday, make that week's Thursday an easy run, let the race stand in for the long run, and run Sunday's medium-long gently.
What the science supports
Shifting training emphasis beats unchanging training
The sixteen-week arc splits into three distinct build blocks (weeks 1 to 3, 5 to 7 and 9 to 11) separated by deload weeks that cut mileage by roughly a third. Each build progresses the long run and adds or extends harder sessions. Week 13 peaks with a 16-mile run plus race-pace work. Planned changes over time tend to beat training that never changes, and the turn to continuous goal-pace runs late in the build mirrors how top coaches move toward race work.
Filipas et al. 2021; Bradbury et al. 2020; Sandbakk et al. 2025
Keep easy days easy, hard days hard
About 83% of your weekly mileage runs at easy conversational pace. Tuesday and Thursday carry the week's harder work: intervals, tempo runs, and race-pace sessions that ask for effort. The remaining runs (Monday and Wednesday easy runs, the Saturday long run and the Sunday medium-long) stay mostly at easy effort, and Friday is a strength day. Trained runners tend to improve more with a clean split like this than with steady medium efforts, since easy days leave the hard sessions room to be hard.
Stöggl & Sperlich 2014; Casado et al. 2022; Kenneally et al. 2018
Threshold or race pace: neither proven better
The plan trains goal pace directly on Tuesdays, from half-mile reps through 8 repeats of 1 mile to a 7-mile continuous run. A 3-mile goal-pace stretch also sits inside the week 13 long run. Thursday's threshold run is a different kind of hard work. Race-pace and threshold training are both reasonable choices for recreational runners, and no study shows one beats the other. Here you get both in every building week.
Smyth & Muniz-Pumares 2020; Jones et al. 2021; Vickers & Vertosick 2016
A real taper sharpens you for race day
Week 15 drops volume to 36 miles from a peak of 60, and race week holds just over 18 miles of running before the half itself. Throughout both taper weeks, Tuesday and Thursday still carry focused work (goal-pace running and tempo runs) scaled shorter but unchanged in intensity. Cutting volume by about 40 percent while holding intensity improves race performance compared with not tapering.
Sharp running-load jumps raise injury risk
Weekly mileage climbs from about 34 to a 60-mile peak in week 13, in blocks split by cutback weeks. Each block opens only 11 to 15 percent above the last full week before its cutback. The long run grows by no more than 1.5 miles at a time. Injury risk tends to rise with big jumps in running load, above all a single run well past your longest of the past month. This build climbs in small steps instead.
Get the full plan in the app
Buena Vida Run Club members get access to this full 16 week plan, plus 250 more as part of their membership. Training with Buena Vida offers detailed daily workout notes, integrated nutrition, live voice coaching, weight loss plans, and easy calendar management for life's hiccups.
Try it FREE for 7 days!