16-Week Miami Marathon Training Plan

The 2027 Miami Marathon is scheduled for January 31, 2027, so the 16-week window opens around October 11, 2026. Treat that as the outside edge of the window, then line week one up with the plan's normal weekly rhythm.

Use this window when you have a running base and want several weeks before the hardest marathon-specific work begins. The extra month over a 12-week plan creates more room for gradual long-run growth and recovery. The course does not change the opening load you can handle, so choose from your current mileage and recent longest run before adding race-specific terrain.

Use the first month to establish consistency, then make long runs progressively more specific to the race's terrain and conditions. The course rehearsal should grow with the plan, not appear all at once in peak week. Training for the Life Time Miami Marathon is heat work, not hill work. Race morning averages 66 degrees and 80 percent humidity, and most runners building for a late January race are doing it through a northern winter. Do every long run in cold air and the first warm mile of the race is a shock you cannot take back.

Do not double weeks or cram missed mileage into the remaining calendar. Use your current mileage, recent longest run, experience, goal, and available days to choose a plan that can enter at an appropriate point while preserving the taper.

It is a flat course, which is not the same thing. The Life Time Miami Marathon sits between 1 and 35 feet above sea level with only 254 feet of climbing, but race morning averages 66 degrees and 80 percent humidity. The terrain is fast and the air is slow, and the air usually wins the argument.

Race morning at the end of January has averaged 66 degrees with 80 percent humidity under clear skies, warming toward a daily high near 77. The sun is up for most of the race and the causeway crossings offer no shade at all. Runners coming from cold climates should build deliberate heat exposure into the final six weeks.