Vital Statistics

In December 2007, I was beginning my serious preparation for my first marathon, the Hong Kong Standard Chartered Marathon. I decided that I should keep track of all my runs, oringally, just of the distances covered, but soon after, of all the times as well. Thus, my training log, a humble excel spreadsheet, was started on the 12th of December, 2007.

Why talk about this now? Well, I noticed that after Monday's 10km I managed to log four hundred runs. So, as an anniversary of sorts, I was going to discuss the stats.

Total number of runs: 400 (well 402 as of writing - I will update the blog soon)
Total distance covered: 4,009.5km
Average run length: 10.02km
Average run speed: 11.98km/hr (dar, just under 12km/hr)
Total time: 1045days (149 weeks completed)
Average weekly total: 26.84km (including 8 "zero weeks")


My primary "run-sheet". Blue dots are individual runs (easy to pick out the marathons!). Yellow dots are weekly totals (also left axis). The red line is average daily temperature (right axis). The low points on the red plot are Jan/Feb, so this shows about 3 full years.

You can easily spot my two marathons. I applied for the 2010 but it was too full (same for the 2011 marathon unfortunately) and so I ran a couple of half-marathons that winter instead, but it's surprising that I didn't run anything over 21km for that whole winter.

It's also pretty surprising to note that for a year and a half in 2008-2009, I didn't have a single zero week, and basically since recovering from an injury in 2008, I've only had 2 zero weeks, the first due to sickness and the second for my wedding. That includes many trips abroad and running while in San Francisco, Cairns & Melbourne!


This is my pace plot, which shows a very strong influence from the daily average temps.

Looking at this graph I'm a little worried by how suppressed my speeds have been this summer. The only explanation I can give is that since I moved closer to the developed city, I no longer have any "fast" routes to run and so can't put in those speedy 6.5 - 10km runs I used to in Tseung Kwan O. All my runs are either lunchtime very hilly routes around work, or through busy streets with many stops at street lights around home. It's certainly something I'm going to have to work hard on!

I think that's about enough data crunching for now, I'm also planning a non-running post on the wear pattern on my shoes, but that'll have to wait!

I'm still looking for more contributors to this blog, and although I've had a couple of "I'll do it"s, nothing has materialized as yet. It doesn't have to be about a specific run, an important run or even have any text, photos are great! Single posts or co-author / a series are all fantastic. If anyone wants to post let me know!

See you on the hoof!
~ Joe