Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Time for some number crunching

My last long run before the taper was great: 3:12:02 for 21.12 miles, a 9:06 pace. Heck, I could have just run five more miles at that pace and gotten under four hours! Not that I really felt like doing that after 21 miles. I felt great for most of it and relatively good near the end. I was worried I'd gone a little too fast, but I seem to be fine today--a little tired, but not really even sore. So, today will be a rest today and I have a short interval workout to get in sometime before the end of the week. Otherwise, all easy runs.

You'd think I'd have zonked right out last night, but instead I had trouble falling asleep...I was so restless! I hope this isn't taper madness already. :)

Now that I can't run as much, I'll have to turn to numbers to get my running fix. I've been spending some time comparing last spring's marathon training cycle to this one. They make for a good comparison because last year I did a 15K and a half (among others) and this year I also did a 15K and a half. So here are some stats for the 16 weeks leading up to the taper for each training cycle:


Spring 2007 Spring 2008
Total Mileage 556.5 728.7
Average Mileage 34.8 45.5
15K race time 1:19:37 1:10:47
Half marathon race time 1:57:14 1:44:54
Final marathon time 4:14:20 ?

As you can see, some fairly dramatic differences. Hopefully the pattern will hold up at Sunburst!

4 comments:

Nitmos said...

At the very least, you have a nice PR coming your way. Maybe more!? Good luck!

Meredith Brooks said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog - the whole "Flying Pig" experience was quite an ordeal!

Best of luck in the upcoming Sunburst Marathon - that sounds like a great race! I might add that to my race calendar for next year -- while I am here in Kentucky I am going to try and run all of my marathons in the surrounding states - hopefully on my way to the 50 states club.

I look forward to reading your race report after Sunburst! I enjoyed your Derby mini race report - I love that race!

jen said...

You've made huge gains this year. Since I've run that exact same half marathon time, I will tell you that I ran the marathon in 3:45. BUT, you have had a higher training volume and are a more experienced runner then I was at that point, so I think 3:40 is very reasonable. You're going to do great no matter what! :)

James said...

I'm excited for you, you've paid your dues, I can't wait to see how you do...who knows, maybe I'll borrow someones non-gas guzzling car and make the trip to run.

Congrats on a great year, with more to come