Your plan in four answers
SwissCityMarathon has not announced its next date, so we have estimated October. Change the date below once you know it.
- Distances
- Marathon, Half marathon, 10K
- Terrain
- Rolling
- Field
- Over 13,000 runners across all races, including about 4,000 in the marathon and 7,000 in the half
Course
The SwissCityMarathon course
The marathon is a single loop that starts and finishes at the Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus) on the shore of Lake Lucerne, with start slots from 08:25 to 08:38. It passes the Schweizerhof, the Chapel Bridge and the Water Tower, circles the Horw peninsula along the lake, runs through the cheering zones in Hergiswil and Horw and follows Lake Alpnach to a turn at Alpnachstad.
Read the full course notes
The way back passes the FC Luzern stadium and the KKL before a final run through the old town to the finish. The officially measured climb is +175 m and −175 m (the organisers note that some GPX files overstate it at about 220 m), so expect gentle rolling lakeside roads rather than real hills. The half marathon is a 21.1 km loop around the Horw peninsula with +110 m, the 10 km CityRun goes from Horw to the Verkehrshaus with only +34 m, and around 30 music groups line the route.
- Terrain
- Rolling
- Distances
- Marathon, Half marathon, 10K
- Field
- Over 13,000 runners across all races, including about 4,000 in the marathon and 7,000 in the half
- Weather on race day
- Late October in Lucerne usually means a cool morning around 7–11 °C, with afternoon highs near 14 °C and rain on about one day in three. Start in a throwaway layer, warm up well and expect a damp road rather than heat to be the main factor.
What to train for
With 175 m of climbing spread over gentle lakeside rises, the marathon rewards steady effort rather than hill power, so run your long runs on rolling roads and hold goal effort, not goal pace, on each rise.
Build to 30–35 km long runs with the last 10–12 km at marathon pace to prepare for the long return from Alpnachstad via the KKL and the old town.
Add 6–8 × 2 minutes uphill at 10 km effort once a week to keep the short rises easy, and practise fuelling every 30–40 minutes in cool, damp conditions.
Sample week
A sample SwissCityMarathon 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
- Intervals: 5 × 1.5 km at 5K to 10K effort, easy jog between
- Wednesday
- Easy run, 10–11 km
- Thursday Key session
- Goal-pace run, 16 km with 10 km at race pace
- Friday
- Recovery run, 6 km, or cross-train
- Saturday Key session
- Long run, 26–29 km, the last 6 km at race pace
- Sunday
- Easy run, 6 km, then 6 relaxed strides
Taper
Tapering for the SwissCityMarathon
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 rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week.
Also in Claude
Ask Claude for this plan
Add AthleteSpace to Claude once, then paste this prompt and put in your own numbers.
Build me a training plan for the SwissCityMarathon Lucerne in October. I run [distance] a week, [days] days a week, easy pace [pace].
SwissCityMarathon training questions
How long should I train for the SwissCityMarathon?
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 SwissCityMarathon course hilly?
Rolling. The marathon is a single loop that starts and finishes at the Swiss Museum of Transport (Verkehrshaus) on the shore of Lake Lucerne, with start slots from 08:25 to 08:38.
What is the weather usually like at the SwissCityMarathon?
Late October in Lucerne usually means a cool morning around 7–11 °C, with afternoon highs near 14 °C and rain on about one day in three. Start in a throwaway layer, warm up well and expect a damp road rather than heat to be the main factor.
When should I start tapering for the SwissCityMarathon?
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 rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week.
Do I need an account to get a SwissCityMarathon 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.