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To better understand the various [[A Comparison of Marathon Training Plans| Marathon Training Plans]], I have created a survey that is currently accepting responses. =The Survey= To respond to the survey, please go to [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19UG0y-o09TW3LlTe1PqwMhJtjQwqIgBTKz0helPvffY/viewform Google Forms Marathon Survey].
* Most of the questions are optional, so leave blank those that don't apply. For instance, if this is your first marathon, leave the Personal Best blank.
* For marathon times, please use H:MM (e.g. "3:35") rather than H:MM:SS or "X Hours"(e.g. "3 hours"). (I have code to parse the data, but the less ambiguity the better. * For long run distances, you can enter just the distance in miles(e.g. "18"), or put "N Km" (e.g. "30 Km") if you're used to Kilometers. =The Results=* If you've run multiple marathons, and you can remember enough detail from the prior races, feel free to fill in the survey multiple times.* If you used a plan and didn't get to start the race, or started the race and didn't finish, I'd still love to have your results. Knowing what doesn't work is just as important as knowing what does work.We need a lot more data, but here below are some initial results. These results are based on some post processing of the raw data, so they are not updated in real time.{| class="wikitable" Popularity =! style=The Marathon survey attempts to gather data at the specific plan level, but until we have more data I will summarize it at the "backgroundmeta-color: #DDEBF7;plan" |'''Row Labels'''! style=level. For example, all of the [[Jack Daniels]] plans, such as Plan A, 2Q, etc., are all just considered "background-color: #DDEBF7;Daniels." |'''Count'''You can also see a count of the number of entries for each plan in the table below.! style="background-color[[File: #DDEBF7;" MarathonSurveyMix.png|none|thumb|500px|'''% Responses'''This pie chart shows the popularity of the various marathon training plans.]]! style=Summary=This table shows the basic numeric analysis of the survey results so far. Some of the columns include a plus/minus value (standard deviation) which gives you an idea of how far the results vary from the average. Because many of the answers are optional, I've included the number of answers to the specific questions after the "background-color: #DDEBF7;" |.* '''Average of Longest RunCount'''. This is the number of responses to the specific plan.! style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''Average of Improvement Over Expected (negative is better)'''. This is the difference between what the runner expected that finish time to be compared with the actual time. A negative number indicates they did better than they expected.! style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''Average of Improvement over Personal BestOver Previous. '''This is the difference between the runners prior Personal Best and the actual finish time, and of course it only applies to runners that have previously done a marathon. ! style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''Injured?.'''This is the percentage of runners that reported they got injured, and on average more than 20% of runners on said yes.! style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''Overtrained?'''. This is the percentage of runners that reported they were overtrained or burned out.! style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''HitTheWall?Hit the Wall'''! style=. For this survey, "background-color: #DDEBF7;hitting the wall" |is simply described as a dramatic slowdown during the race, rather than attempting any more specific definition.* '''DNF?. '''Only one respondent reported that they did not finish the race, which makes me believe we are not getting good representation from that demographic.! style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''Average Rating (out of 5)Overall rating. '''|-| Daniels| 15| 7This is how well the plan was liked by the runner out of five points, with highest being most liked.4%| style="background-color: #FFEB84;" |21.6| style="background-color: #FA8871;" |8| style="background-color: #7EC57C;" |-18| style="background-color: #F4E883;" |20%| style="background-color: #B9D780;" |7%| style="background-color: #CBDC81;" |13%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #CBDC81;" |4.13|-| FIRST| 23| 11.4%| style="background-color: #FCBC7A;" |20.7| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |10| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |-21| style="background-color: #FDC27D;" |30%| style="background-color: #FFD981;" |17%| style="background-color: #FCAB78;" |35%| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |4%| style="background-color: #F98470;" |3.61|-| Galloway| 5| 2.5%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |24.0| style="background-color: #F6E883;" |2| style="background-color: #FB9F76;" |13| style="background-color: #F4E883;" |20%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #FFEB84;" |20%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #F9826F;" |3.60|-| Hanson| 14| 6.9%| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |19.1| style="background-color: #F9796E;" |9| style="background-color: #FCEA83;" |-4| style="background-color: #FECB7E;" |29%| style="background-color: #FFE483;" |14%| style="background-color: #FEC67D;" |29%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #FBAC78;" |3.77|-| Higdon| 36| 17.8%| style="background-color: #FBA576;" |20.3| style="background-color: #FCB079;" |6| style="background-color: #FA7E6F;" |20| style="background-color: #FDB57A;" |33%| style="background-color: #F3E783;" |11%| style="background-color: #FECA7E;" |28%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #E0E383;" |4.09|-| Lydiard| 2| 1.0%| style="background-color: #E5E483;" |22.0| style="background-color: #E5E382;" |-1| style="background-color: #FFDC82;" |0| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #FEE683;" |4.00|-| Other| 38| 18.8%| style="background-color: #FCBB7A;" |20.7| style="background-color: #FCEA83;" |2| style="background-color: #F4E783;" |-4| style="background-color: #FCEA83;" |21%| style="background-color: #FFDF82;" |16%| style="background-color: #F2E783;" |18%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #E4E383;" |4.08|-| Personal| 25| 12.4%| style="background-color: #B5D680;" |22.7| style="background-color: #FFE683;" |3| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |25| style="background-color: #BAD780;" |12%| style="background-color: #CBDC81;" |8%| style="background-color: #FFEB84;" |20%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |4.36|-| Pfitzinger| 38| 18.8%| style="background-color: #D3DF82;" |22.3| style="background-color: #E6E382;" |0| style="background-color: #9DCE7E;" |-14| style="background-color: #9CCE7E;" |8%| style="background-color: #FFDF82;" |16%| style="background-color: #DEE182;" |16%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #CCDD82;" |4.13|-| Runners World| 2| 1.0%| | style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |-16| | style="background-color: #F8696B;" |50%| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |50%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |3.50|-| Web Site| 4| 2.0%| style="background-color: #FAEA84;" |21.7| style="background-color: #E3E382;" |-1| style="background-color: #FFEB84;" |-3| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |50%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #F8696B;" |50%| style="background-color: #63BE7B;" |0%| style="background-color: #FEE683;" |4.00|-| style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''Grand TotalRecommend'''. This is how likely the run is to recommend the plan to someone else, again down to five points with highest being most likely to recommend.| style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''202Long run rating. '''This is a five-point scale, with three being just the right length long run, one being too short and five being too long.| style="background-color: #DDEBF7;" |* '''100Speedwork rating.0%'''This is a five-point scale, with three being just the right amount of speedwork, one being too little and five being too much.| style="background-color: #FED980;" |* '''21Rest rating.3'''| style="backgroundThis is a five-color: #FED280;" |'''4'''point scale, with three being just the right amount of rest and recovery, one being too little and five being too much.| style="background-color: #FFE683;" |* '''-2Completing long runs'''. This is the percentages of runners that were able to complete all of the long runs. I was a little surprised that the percentages were as low as they are.| style="background-color: #FFEA84;" |* '''22%Completing speedwork'''| style="background-color: #FFE884;" |'''13%''. This is the percentage of runners that were able to complete all of the long runs. I'm perhaps less surprised by how low the percentages are than for the long runs.| style="background-color: #FFE283;" |* '''22%Longest long run'''. This is how long the longest long run was that the runner completed.| style="background-color{{: #FFDD82;" |'''0%'''| style="backgroundMarathon Survey-color: #F8E984;" |'''4.04'''|Table}}
Some observations and notes:
* We have too few responses to draw firm conclusions, so apply caution to these results.
* The number of runners that hit the wall is quit high.
* The low number of DNFs suggests runners who DNF are not responding.
* Almost everyone likes there their plan; there are only 10 responders who put 1 star against their plan.=Overall Rating=Most runners like their plan, with average ratings above 3.0 for all plans. [[FIRST]], and [[Higdon]] have a few one/two star ratings, and [[Pfitzinger]]/[[Hanson]] have some two star ratings. [[File:MarathonSurveyOverall.png|none|thumb|500px|This shows how satisfied runners are with their plan out of five points.]]=Recommend to Others=This is similar to the overall rating, though runners are slightly more likely to recommend a plan than their rating would suggest. [[File:MarathonSurveyRecommend.png|none|thumb|500px|The ratings for "would you recommend this plan"]]=Use Again?=The distribution of runners inclination to use their plan again is interesting. Generally, runners seem to be inclined to use the same plan again. [[Higdon]] and [[FIRST]] have a rather more doubtful runners, while [[Hanson]] uses are more positive.[[File:MarathonSurveyUseAgain.png|none|thumb|500px| How likely are you to use this plan again?]]=Length of the Longest Long Run=The average longest [[Long Run]] is over 20 miles for most plans, which is no surprise. I don't have enough data to report on the Long Run distance against the risk for Hitting The Wall, but preliminary results indicate the reasonable expectation that the risk goes down with longer long runs. [[File:MarathonSurveyLongest.png|none|thumb|500px|This is the distribution of the longest [[Long Run]]s.]]=Long Run's Long Enough?=Most runners seem to feel long run is about the right length. [[Daniels]] had a surprising portion of felt it was too short, as did [[Hanson]].[[File:MarathonSurveyLongRun.png|none|thumb|500px|The rating for [[Long Run]]s, with 1=not long enough and 5=too long, 3=just right.]]=Enough Rest?=[[Hanson]] runners wanted more rest, though some of them also wanted less rest. Other plans seemed to get it more or less right.[[File:MarathonSurveyRest.png|none|thumb|500px| The rating for Speedwork, with 1=not enough and 5=too much, 3=just right.]]=Enough Speedwork?=Most runners seem happy with the amount of speedwork, though Higdon users were more likely to want more. [[File:MarathonSurveySpeedwork.png|none|thumb|500px| The rating for Speedwork, with 1=not enough and 5=too much, 3=just right.]]