Running Plan Review Greg McMillan Half Marathon: Advanced (Combo)

Does it build you up smartly?

McMillan's lighter weeks lighten the easy days, but they keep some of the plan's most demanding running. The book calls for a down week every fourth week, and weeks 4 and 8 deliver much of one. Monday and Friday become optional, the easy runs shrink to 30 to 50 minutes, and Tuesday's hard session turns into an easy run with optional strides. Week 4 also trims the long run to 90 to 105 minutes.

But Thursday keeps a long session at goal pace in both weeks: 3 repeats of 3 miles in week 4, the plan's first real stretch at goal pace, and 2 repeats of 4 miles in week 8. Week 8 also ends with a long run of 14 to 18 miles. So week 4's total running barely drops, and week 8 drops less than its easy days suggest. Lighter weeks are when training turns into fitness: runners who ease off every few weeks absorb their work better and stay healthier than runners who keep adding. Nine miles at goal pace is a good workout, but it's an odd one to place in the week meant for absorbing the month before it.

The larger shape is sound. Training that moves through distinct blocks races better than training that holds one load throughout, and this plan moves: fartlek and hills first, then mile repeats and progression runs, then goal pace inside the long runs, then a taper. But the schedule doesn't name those blocks or say why any run is there. Each session is a single line, like "Fartlek: 8 to 10 times 2 minutes, with a 1-minute jog." Its purpose is explained in another chapter, so knowing why you're running Tuesday's session means looking it up.

Does it protect you from injury?

Mostly, yes, if you arrive ready. Week 5 is where the plan bites.

It's the biggest step of the 12 weeks. You run about a quarter more than in week 4, the progression run appears for the first time, and the week holds 3 hard days: the progression run on Tuesday, 6 to 8 repeats of 1600 meters on Thursday, and a long run of up to 2 hours on Sunday that ends with 15 to 25 minutes at tempo effort. That step is smaller than the jumps most closely tied to injury. Still, sharp rises in running do raise the risk, and many injuries show up suddenly, set off by the week before. A runner who started week 1 already at the plan's load will likely take week 5 in stride. A runner who arrived light, and has spent a month stretching to keep up, meets it tired.

Strength is missing from the calendar. McMillan includes a sample routine in the book and puts the full program online, but no session appears on the schedule. Two sessions a week on non-consecutive days is enough for most runners, and with 3 hard days in some weeks, finding two slots that don't land the day before a key session takes some planning. The planning pays off: strength training cuts sport injuries substantially, more than stretching does.

The rest of the plan looks after you. A hard day is never followed by another one. Friday is always open to cross-training or rest. And the book gives real guidance on warning signs and recovery. Use it. A niggle, the small ache that hangs around between runs, can be an early sign of an injury that stops you running. Taking the short end of the range for a few days when one appears costs you very little.

What happens when you miss a day?

Say you're sick for most of week 9, with its mile repeats and its long run of 14 to 16 miles. The schedule has nothing to say about it. It doesn't tell you whether to repeat the week, drop it, or save one session and let the rest go. The book suggests the long run and the key sessions matter most, but it doesn't rank them, so in a short week you decide which hard day to keep.

The smaller decisions are better covered. Every easy run is a range, so on a heavy-legged day 50 minutes is a full day's work. Friday is open. The book lets you skip or move a key workout on a bad day, and because hard sessions are written as efforts, a tired day changes how fast you go, not what you do. The tune-up races offered in weeks 7, 9 and 11 let you check your goal partway through and adjust it if you've gotten fitter.

The book also teaches its four training zones and how to read the day by how you feel. Over 12 weeks, you get better at making these calls yourself. They're still yours to make.

Will it get you ready for race day?

Yes. Getting you to the start line ready is what this plan does best.

Your threshold is the hardest effort you could hold for about an hour of racing, and for most runners, half marathon pace sits close to it. That makes the half a good race for goal-pace practice. Race-pace work earns its keep when race pace lands near a threshold, and threshold gains are specific to the pace you train them at.

Goal pace grows toward the race. It starts as 3 repeats of 3 miles in week 4, becomes 2 repeats of 4 miles in week 8, and runs 6 to 8 miles unbroken in week 10. In between, it moves to the end of the long runs. Picture Sunday of week 9: Thursday held mile repeats, and now you're running 14 to 16 miles with the last 2 to 4 at goal pace. The pace that felt controlled on fresh legs now takes concentration. Holding it anyway teaches you what the last miles of the race will ask.

The last 2 weeks cut the running back, with a short set of 1000-meter repeats midweek in race week to keep you sharp. A taper of 1 to 3 weeks improves race times by a few percent.

Are the workouts varied enough?

Yes. The hard days change shape almost every week, and the easy days stay easy.

Mixing easy running with clearly hard sessions builds endurance better than a steady diet of medium-hard running, and keeping the two apart lets each one do its job. This plan does both. Around 86 percent of the running is easy, and the hard days range from 1-minute fartlek surges to 6 to 8 miles unbroken at goal pace, with hill repeats, mile repeats and progression runs in between.

One easy addition is up to you: strides. They appear only as an option in weeks 4 and 8 and as a short session in race week. A handful of short, relaxed bursts at the end of an easy run takes a few minutes, and strides tend to make runners more efficient, using less energy at the same pace. That's a good place to spend a few minutes, because in trained runners, efficiency seems to respond to training more than aerobic capacity does.