Stratford Marathon Training Analysis

This blog comes with a Health Warning, suitable only for those with a deep love of numbers or of me. Side effects may include slipping into a deep sleep and so is recommended for insomniacs.

I was interested to further analyse my preparation as I knew it wasn't the best and I hoped to find some inspiration for my next Marathon at Chester in October. The results of the analysis didn't tell me anything particuarly groundbreaking but were interesting to look at.

In the 13 weeks leading up to Stratford I did the following:
- 252.19 miles (an average of 19.40 miles per week)
- 46 runs (an average of 3.54 runs per week)
- 3 races (Bentley HM, Albert Parkrun 5K, Norwich HM)
- 4 long runs (Over 10miles) (10.10 miles,15.09,10.18,11.00)
- 3 Weeks of 10 miles or less.
- 5 Weeks of 10 - 20 Miles.
- 3 Weeks of 20 - 30 Miles
- 2 Weeks of 30 - 40 Miles.
- With a Highest mileage week of 37.29 miles and a lowest mileage week of 4.01 miles.

All showing that I was definately undercooked going into Stratford. What I haven't shown is all the bike training I have done in that time for LEJOG and I think that must have helped particuarly with all the undulations on the Stratford course.

Fetch has a whole world of Stats and calculators one of which shows what mileages people do for different race times. For my time of 3:37:41 the average training mileage in the 13 weeks leading up to race day is 453.92 miles with an average of 4.6 training sessions a week. Fetch also splits into different bands the mileage people undertake in the build up to the race. My mileage total for the 13 weeks was in the lowest 10% out of those analysed.

All of this gives me lots of confidence that given proper prep before Chester I can get another big PB of sub 3 hrs 30 and reach my eventual goal of a sub 3 hour Marathon given time.