As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly create a marathon training plan for you.

What to actually do

1. Use a tool built for this

   The route this page recommends

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a chatbot such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and copy the full prompt into a new chat.
   2. Gather your race date, goal, recent weekly running, longest recent run, previous race experience, available days and time limits.
   3. Add any current or recurring pain, medical conditions, medicines or pregnancy to the relevant prompt fields, or write "none" where that is accurate.
   4. Paste the completed prompt and answer the chatbot's follow-up questions without guessing about symptoms or training history.
   5. Copy the resulting schedule into a calendar or spreadsheet and compare every session with your real work, family, travel and recovery commitments.
   6. Compare the plan's medical cautions and basic training assumptions with NHS guidance, and ask a GP, physiotherapist or qualified running coach to check it if you have a condition, injury, worrying symptom or major uncertainty.
   7. Start only after removing sessions you cannot recover from, then record completed sessions, pain and unusual symptoms and ask the chatbot to revise the next block rather than silently pushing through.

   Prompt

   Create a cautious marathon training plan for me using the information below.
   
   Race date: [date]
   Target: [finish comfortably, finish within a time, or other goal]
   Current weekly running: [distance or time, number of runs, and longest recent run]
   Running history: [how long you have been running and any previous races]
   Recent training: [what you have done in the last few weeks]
   Injuries or recurring pain: [details, or none]
   Medical conditions, medicines or pregnancy: [details, or none]
   Age: [age]
   Days available: [days]
   Time available on each day: [details]
   Usual surfaces and terrain: [details]
   Access to hills, gym or cross-training: [details]
   Preferred units: [miles or kilometres]
   
   First, state which information is missing and ask only the questions needed to make the plan safer. Do not diagnose me or tell me that a symptom is harmless. If I mention urgent or worrying symptoms, tell me to seek NHS 111 advice rather than building around them. Do not prescribe treatment or make medical claims.
   
   If there is enough information, give me a week-by-week plan with the purpose of each session, easy effort guidance, rest days, cross-training options, a gradual taper before the race and a recovery period afterwards. Keep the plan realistic for my available days. Include clear rules for reducing, skipping or stopping a session when pain, illness, unusual breathlessness, dizziness or other worrying symptoms occur. Mark any part that needs checking with a GP, physiotherapist or qualified running coach. Explain the assumptions behind the plan, and do not invent facts about my fitness.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Hand it to a person

   The distant third

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.