I’m not the type of person to obsess over data. I don’t analyze my runs from a technical standpoint very often and my standard measure of a good run versus a bad one is how my legs felt (or relative effort level if it’s a speed or tempo run). I do, however, follow stats that Dailymile provides. They gather data based on all different types of activity on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

If you are a Dailymiler, you probably get a little twitch of satisfaction every time one of those bars inches upward on your monthly mileage total. I know I do! Given that today was the 1st of April, I checked out my totals:

Week #41 was the Chicago Marathon on October 9th. The two ‘zero’ weeks are due to post-marathon recovery and minor tendonitis recovery. Ever since the 2nd week of 2012, I’ve been running strong. I was able to work on a sufficient base to start and gradually began focusing on speed and tempo work. All of those hard runs paid off a few weeks ago when I crushed my half marathon PR at the Rock ‘n Roll USA Half in D.C.  I think I’m still in shock, to be honest. I need to continue to run smart these next few weeks to prepare for the Carmel Half Marathon on April 21st.

12 months o’ crazy miles. I try not to focus on monthly mileage too much. I’m not one of those crazy people than runs 300+ miles every month (kudos to those of you that are!), but my endurance is slowly building. My body is so much stronger now than it was in March and April of 2011. In fact, I’m running almost as many miles preparing for this half marathon racing season as I did to train for the Carmel Marathon. What a difference a few months of consistent training makes!

Do you focus on your running data? How do you keep track of all of this information? Dailymile, Garmin Connect, running diary?

-J