Individual Half-Marathon Plan Builder
Get Your Jack Daniels' VDOT Training Plan in 30 Seconds
100% free · no sign-up · no credit card
Built by Juraj Zigo — Founder, PaceForm, half-ironman and marathon finisher who built PaceForm on Jack Daniels' VDOT system after his own overtraining mistakes. Read the story →
Not just a distance and pace
Every session comes with a plain-English why
💡 Comfortably hard — trains your body to clear lactate faster, so your half-marathon pace feels sustainable, not desperate, in the final few kilometers.
Example from a 12-week half-marathon plan, goal 1:45:00
Build my own plan ↑Building your plan…
Strength, speed & taper phases included
Missed a week? Rebalance your plan ▸
Select the week you missed and we'll redistribute the load across the remaining weeks. Re-download the PDF after adapting.
What's in your full plan? ▸
Sample speed phase week · 4 runs
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rest — | Easy 3 mi | Speed 4 mi | Rest — | Easy 3 mi | Long 9 mi | Rest — |
Fine-tune
Adjust your plan.
Changes update the live preview above instantly.
Included, free
Everything. No paywall.
- ✓Full 10-week personalised plan
- ✓VDOT zones from your race history
- ✓Every session explained in plain English
- ✓Race Week Strategy, pacing plan & fuelling guide
- ✓Unlimited plan adaptations
- ✓PDF · km or miles
Questions? email us
Free · No sign-up
What could you run in a half-marathon?
Enter any race result — predicted finish time, personalised training paces, and a plan preview in seconds.
Why free plans fall short
✗Assumes 5–6 days a week — impossible for busy runners
✓3–6 runs/week · built around your schedule, not an ideal one
✗Just numbers — no explanation of why
✓Every session has a plain-English reason you'll actually remember
✗Same plan for every runner regardless of fitness
✓Jack Daniels VDOT paces calibrated to your goal time and race history
The science behind it
Science-backed. Coach-calibrated.
Every PaceForm plan is built on Jack Daniels' VDOT system — the gold standard in distance running science. Your finish time from any race distance maps to a personal fitness index. From that single number we derive your easy, tempo, long, and speed paces with scientific precision. No generic pace charts. No one-size-fits-all schedules. Every session targets the exact physiological adaptation that moves you forward.
Finish time prediction via Riegel formula · Paces calibrated to VDOT tables
Read the full methodology and references →Other plans give you paces.
This one tells you why.
Designed around real life
Plans for runners who miss sessions sometimes.
Every training plan assumes perfect compliance. Parents, managers, and people with full lives don't get perfect weeks. PaceForm plans are built around that reality — the rules for when life gets in the way are printed right in your PDF.
📅
Missed an easy run?
Skip it and move on. Easy runs support the quality sessions — weekly consistency over 12 weeks matters more than any individual day.
⚡
Missed a tempo or intervals?
Reschedule within 48 hours, or drop it. Never stack two quality sessions back-to-back to compensate — that's where injuries happen.
🗓️
Off sick for a week?
Drop back one week in the plan and continue. Don't try to catch up — your goal is still achievable.
These rules are printed in your PDF — no app needed to find them at 6am before a run.
Early access
Newly launched — and we want your story.
No inflated download counts, no invented reviews. Run your race, reply to your delivery email with your time, and we'll feature you here.
Share your race result →Free training guides
Half Marathon Training Plan: Complete Guide
How to structure a half marathon training plan from scratch. Covers weekly mileage, run types, the four training phases, the 10% rule, and how to taper correctly.
Read guide →
How to Run a Sub-2-Hour Half Marathon
What pace you need, what fitness level is required, and the three key workouts that will get you under 2 hours in a half marathon. Includes a sample training week.
Read guide →
Half Marathon Training on 3 Days a Week
Can you train for a half marathon on just 3 days a week? Yes — if you structure those three runs correctly. Here's how, with a sample schedule.
Read guide →
Half Marathon Training for Beginners: Start Here
A complete guide to half marathon training for beginners. How long to train, what pace to run, what a realistic finish time looks like, and how to stay injury-free. Includes a sample 12-week plan.
Read guide →
Half Marathon Race Day Strategy: Stop Going Out Too Fast
How to pace a half marathon correctly from the start. Why runners blow up at km 15, how to handle the first 3 km, what to eat and drink, and how to run a negative split.
Read guide →
Why You Need to Run Slower to Get Faster
Why most runners run their easy days too hard and their hard days too soft. How to find your easy pace, what zone 2 training does, and why embarrassingly slow runs build the engine that race pace runs from.
Read guide →
Missed a Training Run? Here's Exactly What to Do
Missed one run, one week, or two weeks of half marathon training? Here is exactly what to do — whether to restart, skip, or adapt. Includes guidance for illness, injury, and travel.
Read guide →
Half Marathon Training for Busy People
How to train for a half marathon when you have a full-time job, kids, and limited time. A realistic guide to 3–4 day training weeks, what to cut when life intervenes, and how to still hit your goal.
Read guide →
Half Marathon Nutrition Plan: What to Eat and When
A practical half marathon nutrition guide covering carb-loading, race-morning meals, mid-race fuelling, and recovery eating. Based on sports science, written in plain English.
Read guide →
10K to Half Marathon: The Training Bridge
How to go from 10K to half marathon training. Covers the fitness gap, weekly mileage increase, the long run progression, and why 10K runners often struggle with the jump.
Read guide →
Half Marathon Taper: What to Do in the Final Two Weeks
A practical guide to tapering for a half marathon. How much to cut volume, what sessions to keep, what taper madness feels like, and how to handle the final 48 hours.
Read guide →
Running Pace Zones Explained: Easy, Tempo, Speed, and Long Run
What easy, tempo, speed, and long run pace zones actually mean, how they're calculated from your race times, and why running in the wrong zone explains most training plateaus.
Read guide →
5K Training Plan: Complete Guide
How to structure a 5K training plan — weekly mileage, why speed work matters more than distance, how long to train, and a sample week. For beginners and runners chasing a specific 5K time.
Read guide →
10K Training Plan: Complete Guide
How to structure a 10K training plan — weekly mileage, the right blend of tempo and speed work, how long to train, and a sample week. Covers beginners through runners chasing a specific 10K time.
Read guide →
Marathon Training Plan: Complete Guide
How to structure a marathon training plan from scratch — weekly mileage, the long run progression, how long to train, tapering, and a sample week. For first-time and time-goal marathoners.
Read guide →
VO₂max and Running Performance: What It Is and Why It Matters
What VO₂max actually measures, why race pace sits at a different percentage of VO₂max depending on distance, how VDOT converts it into training paces, and what actually raises it.
Read guide →
Marathon Fueling and Carb-Loading: The Science
Why the marathon requires fueling that shorter races don't, how carb-loading actually works, how much to eat during the race, and the most common fueling mistakes marathoners make.
Read guide →
10K Race Day Strategy: How to Pace It Right
How to pace a 10K correctly from the start, why the margin for error is smaller than a half marathon's, warm-up strategy, and what to expect on race morning.
Read guide →