2006 Marathon Training

As May 2007 is wrapping up this week, I'm reviewing how my marathon training unfolded last year. What the heck did I do to take 1 min per mile off my marathon pace?

Here's a summary:

I'm April, May, June I ran without ad hoc. Since I wear a Garmin Forerunner 201, I have a history of my runs. The pre-marathon training "ad hoc runs" were this:

April 2006 - 5 runs for 41 miles
May 2006 - 10 runs for 58 miles
June 2006 - 8 runs for 49 miles

About a 150 miles total over three months avg of 6 1/2 miles a run. From a runner's perspective that's a bit light on the dedication. To my credit, those miles were spread across the US, Japan, China, Singapore and India...and TURKEY! Ok, I did pretty good to have a base of fitness to build from.

In July, Aug and Sept I was focused. I ran about 400 miles during those three months. I avg 10 miles a run. In review I can see that I did NOT run "fast", but I ran long to build endurance. I didn't want to crash and burn in the last many miles of the marathon. The plan worked for my October marathon 9:00/mi pace.

Here are those details:

July -- Date, Miles & Time
7/1/2006, 7.25, 64
7/2/2006, 6.9, 61.5
7/4/2006, 6, 50
7/8/2006, 14, 2:29:55
7/9/2006, 7, 69:14
7/12/2006, 3.1, 25:30
7/15/2006, 14, 2:20
7/16/2006, 8.25, 86
7/19/2006, 4, 34:00
7/22/2006, 15, 2:46
7/23/2006, 9.6, 93:00
7/26/2006, 6, 56:00
7/29/2006, 14, 2:35
7/30/2006, 10, 1:38
-------------------------
Total 125.10 miles

Aug -- Date, Miles & Time
8/3/2006, 6, 55
8/5/2006, 14, 2:33
8/5/2006, 4, 32:30
8/6/2006, 10, 88:38
8/9/2006, 3.5, 30
8/11/2006, 10, 7:30
8/13/2006, 12, 1:59
8/16/2006, 8, 76:00
8/20/2006, 14.4, 2:16
8/23/2006, 9, 78:44
8/26/2006, 14.2, 2:17:14
8/27/2006, 14.2, 2:15:47
8/30/2006, 10, 1:32:35
-------------------------
Total 129.3 miles

Sept -- Date, Miles & Time
9/2/2006, 12.4, 1:46:16
9/2/2006, 1.6, 15:01
9/3/2006, 15.2, 2:23:01
9/6/2006, 12.2, 1:51:55
9/9/2006, 14.2, 2:14:47
9/10/2006, 21.9, 3:27:11
9/14/2006, 12, 1:52:27
9/16/2006, 20, 3:05:00
9/17/2006, 6.9, 59:27
9/23/2006, 6.9, 61:44
9/24/2006, 12, 1:43:00
9/27/2006, 3, 23:57
9/30/2006, 2.2, 19:54
-------------------------
Total 140.5 miles


October 1, 2006 was the 26.2 miles of marathoning in 3:55:37. The remainder of October was a handful of ad hoc runs.

Oct-- Date, Miles & Time
10/1/2006, 26.2, 3:55:37 <<--- marathon
10/4/2006, 3.0, 27:00
10/7/2006, 3.1, 23:54
10/10/2006, 3.1, 23:58
10/28/2006, 9.4, 1:19:38
10/29/2006, 13.8, 2:17:17
-------------------------
Total 58.6 miles

I started a short focused training push in November. As I trained for Disney's Goofy Challenge. I did 5 sessions of back-to-back days of long runs. For example, 14 miles one day followed the next day with 18 miles. I think the concept has some merit, but I should have run more.

Nov-- Date, Miles & Time
11/3/2006, 7.5, 72:00
11/4/2006, 14, 2:20:00
11/7/2006, 4.6, 43:33
11/8/2006, 4.3, 40:16
11/9/2006, 3.8, 37:18
11/10/2006, 3, 26:08
11/11/2006, 4.3, 39:36
11/12/2006, 3.2, 28:40
11/15/2006, 3.5, 32:17
11/18/2006, 14, 2:08:28
11/19/2006, 18, 2:53:43
11/24/2006, 14, 2:07:06
11/25/2006, 20, 3:17:29
-------------------------
Total 114.2 miles

Dec 2006 -- Date, Miles & Time
12/1/2006, 14, 2:08:00
12/2/2006, 14, 2:11:00
12/9/2006, 24, 3:45:37
12/16/2006, 14, 2:10:00
12/17/2006, 20.6, 3:20:00
12/23/2006, 13, 2:01:00
12/30/2006, 8, 1:10:30
-------------------------
Total 107.6 miles


My 2006 training resulted in my Goofy results:

1/6/2006	13.1	2:00:24
1/7/2006	26.2	4:35:36