Marathon Survey

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To better understand the various Marathon Training Plans, I have created a survey that is currently accepting responses.

1 The Survey

To respond to the survey, please go to 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 rather than H:MM:SS or "X 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, or put "N Km" if you're used to Kilometers.

2 The Results

We need a lot more data, but here are some initial results.

Row Labels Count % Responses Average of Longest Run Average of

Improvement Over Expected (negative is better)

Average of

Improvement over Personal Best

Injured? Overtrained? HitTheWall? DNF? Average Rating (out of 5)
Daniels 15 7.4% 21.6 8 -18 20% 7% 13% 0% 4.13
FIRST 23 11.4% 20.7 10 -21 30% 17% 35% 4% 3.61
Galloway 5 2.5% 24.0 2 13 20% 0% 20% 0% 3.60
Hanson 14 6.9% 19.1 9 -4 29% 14% 29% 0% 3.77
Higdon 36 17.8% 20.3 6 20 33% 11% 28% 0% 4.09
Lydiard 2 1.0% 22.0 -1 0 0% 0% 0% 0% 4.00
Other 38 18.8% 20.7 2 -4 21% 16% 18% 0% 4.08
Personal 25 12.4% 22.7 3 25 12% 8% 20% 0% 4.36
Pfitzinger 38 18.8% 22.3 0 -14 8% 16% 16% 0% 4.13
Runners World 2 1.0% -16 50% 50% 0% 0% 3.50
Web Site 4 2.0% 21.7 -1 -3 50% 0% 50% 0% 4.00
Grand Total 202 100.0% 21.3 4 -2 22% 13% 22% 0% 4.04

Some observations and notes:

  • We have too few responses to draw firm conclusions, so apply caution to these results.
  • My analysis is in the early stages, so results may change as I iron out bugs.
  • Long runs are capped at 31 miles, so a runner that does a 100-mile long run does not skew the results too much.
  • Hanson has the shortest Long Runs, but the average is still quite a bit longer than the 16 miles they recommend.
  • A lot of respondents do their own plan ("Personal") and there are a good number where there are only a few responses for a plan, so they've been put under "other".
  • 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 plan; there are 10 responders who put 1 star against their plan.