Your plan in four answers
Set for April 19, 2027, about 25 weeks out.
- Distances
- Marathon
- Terrain
- Hilly
- Taper starts
- April 1, 2027
Course
The Boston Marathon course
Point to point from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, run on Patriots' Day. Net downhill overall, which is exactly what makes it hard: the first miles drop fast enough to wreck your quads, and the Newton hills arrive at mile 16 when the damage is already done.
Read the full course notes
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- Terrain
- Hilly
- Distances
- Marathon
- Weather on race day
- Notoriously variable. The same date has produced 40 degrees and driving rain, and 80 degrees and sun. A noon-ish start for many waves means you race in the warmest part of the day.
What to train for
Downhill running is the specific preparation this course demands, and it is the one most people skip.
Build quads that hold up on long descents by practising sustained downhills in training, then treat the Newton hills as a pacing problem rather than a strength problem.
Sample week
A sample Boston Marathon training week
A week from the middle of the build, about six weeks out. Your plan sets the real distances and paces from your own fitness and adjusts them every week as you train.
- Monday
- Rest, or 20 minutes of mobility
- Tuesday Key session
- Hill repeats: 10 × 90 s up a steady grade, jog back down
- Wednesday
- Easy run, 6–7 mi
- Thursday Key session
- Goal-pace run, 10 mi with 6 mi at race pace
- Friday
- Recovery run, 4 mi, or cross-train
- Saturday Key session
- Long run, 16–18 mi on hilly ground, steady effort on the climbs
- Sunday
- Easy run, 4 mi, then 6 relaxed strides
Your build to race day
Taper
Tapering for the Boston Marathon
Start the taper two to three weeks before race day. Cut your weekly volume by about a third, then by half in race week, and keep a few short efforts at race pace so your legs stay sharp. The course is hilly, so keep one short hill session in the first taper week to keep the climbs familiar. With the race on April 19, 2027, your taper starts around April 1, 2027.
Also in Claude
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Add AthleteSpace to Claude once, then paste this prompt and put in your own numbers.
Build me a training plan for the Boston Marathon on April 19, 2027. I run [distance] a week, [days] days a week, easy pace [pace].
Boston Marathon training questions
How long should I train for the Boston Marathon?
Most runners give a marathon sixteen to twenty weeks of focused training on top of an existing base. The plan above counts back from your actual race date, so if you have less time than that it builds the best plan the remaining weeks allow rather than pretending you have longer.
Is the Boston Marathon course hilly?
Hilly. Point to point from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, run on Patriots' Day.
What is the weather usually like at the Boston Marathon?
Notoriously variable. The same date has produced 40 degrees and driving rain, and 80 degrees and sun. A noon-ish start for many waves means you race in the warmest part of the day.
When should I start tapering for the Boston Marathon?
Start the taper two to three weeks before race day. Cut your weekly volume by about a third, then by half in race week, and keep a few short efforts at race pace so your legs stay sharp. The course is hilly, so keep one short hill session in the first taper week to keep the climbs familiar. With the race on April 19, 2027, your taper starts around April 1, 2027.
Do I need an account to get a Boston Marathon training plan?
No. The plan above builds in your browser with no account, no email, and no card. Make a free account only if you want to keep it, log your runs against it, and have the coach keep adapting it as your training goes.