2012 Disney Half Marathon Training Summary

OK, how awesome would it be to run in these (barring injury)

Today marked my last workout part of my training plan for the 2012 Walt Disney World Half Marathon.  Since I didn't really summarize any of my training workouts or weeks of training for this race (which I may do for future races), I decided to do an overall training summary where I figure out totals for everything.

As I have mentioned a couple times before, I used the Run Faster, Run Less training program and followed it almost religiously with respect to the running workouts (on the other hand, I was pretty lax for the cross-training workouts, as you will see).  This training program was pretty long, but I think it did a good job of mixing up the workouts so that it didn't get too boring or repetative.  Anyway, here is my training program, by the numbers:

• Total Days in Program - 123 days (from my first planned cross-training workout on Sept. 5, 2011 to tomorrow's planned rest day.  That's an 18-week program)
• Total Running Workouts -  52 (only one less than the prescribed 53 workouts.  I missed one two weeks ago because I was sick.  This broke out into 18 track interval workouts, 16 tempo runs (17 planned), and 17 long runs (with the 18th "long run" being the race itself)
• Total Running Miles - 344.22
• Total Running Time - 2 days, 8 hours, 59 minutes, 44 seconds (56:59:44)  (Yep, you read that right, I spent more than two full days running during this training program . . . wow)
• Longest Run -  15.08 miles, Dec. 11 (this was the distance that was called for in the training program.  I actually think that running two miles further than the race will help a lot)
• Slowest Long Run -  10:31/mile (Sept. 24, 10 miles) - this was the first long run of 10 miles or more, so I was supposed to take it easy.  My next slowest was a 10:24/mile 9-miler the following week (Oct. 1)
• Fastest Long Run - 9:13/mile (Dec. 31, 8 miles) - It's not surprising that my fastest long run was the last one, which was one of the shortest, and came after 17 weeks of training.  I also had a 10 mile race that acted as a majority of one of my long runs, and that was faster (9:05/mile), but it was only 10 miles of a 12 mile planned run.  The total for that workout was 9:31/mile.
• Slowest Short Tempo Run - 9:21/mile (not including warmup and cool down) (Sept. 22, 3 miles) - As I described in my review of the Run Less, Run Faster book, there are 3 types of tempo runs: short (or fast) tempo, Mid-tempo, and long (or slow) tempo.  There were only 4 total short tempo workouts.  Interestingly, my slowest Short Tempo was not the first short tempo, it was the second.
• Fastest Short Tempo Run - 8:13/mile (Dec. 29, 3 miles).  Nice!  More than a minute improvement in tempo pace, which hopefully means a nicely improved lactate threshold.
• Slowest Mid-Tempo Run - 9:39/mile (Sept. 15, 5 miles (not counting warmup and cool down)
• Fastest Mid-Tempo Run - 8:39/mile (Dec. 9, 5 miles) - the one workout I missed (a 5 mile mid-tempo run scheduled for Dec. 22) was also a mid-tempo run.  I suspect that would have been my fastest by at least a few seconds per mile.  But, regardless, I still had a full minute per mile of improvement.  (Also of note, there was only one Long Tempo run, so I am not going to do the Slowest/Fastest comparison)
• Total Cross Training Workouts - 14 (out of a prescribed 36... so, yeah.  My wife and kids got sick a lot after the first few weeks of the program, so I skipped a few, and it just kind of snowballed from there.  Most of these were stationary bike rides at my local Lifetime Fitness.  A few were eliptical machine workouts, and I had one swim.  For my next Half (in May), I want to do MUCH better at the cross-training workouts)
• Total Cross-Training Time - 8 hours, 41 minutes. (this should have been around 21 hours.  But, all I lost for not doing the cross-training workouts was endurance base... and that's not important for a half marathon, right?  Oh, it is?  Crap.)
• Total Workout Time - 2 days, 17 hours, 40 minutes, 44 seconds  (more than 2 and a half days of sweating for this one race.  This is kind of why I like training for distance races.  The enormity of the undertaking is remarkable, but so long as you just chip away at it, you eventually take down the whole damn thing)
• Total Weight Lost - 17 pounds - this is as of my last weigh-in on Saturday, so it may be off by a pound or so today.  Imagine how much I could have lost if I had (a) done all the cross-training workouts, and (b) actually ate moderately healthily?

Fun, fun, fun.  It will all be worth it on Saturday.