What my running data tells me
Training for marathon #2, and finally looking at the data behind #1
back at it
I’ve been running on and off for about ten years. Mostly for my health / fitness, and I’m alright at it. Never serious enough to be competitive, but consistent enough that it keeps coming back (thanks Coach Mann!).
Last year (2025) before I turned 30 I decided to challenge myself. My dad sent me a link to sign up for the lottery system (I had no idea there were lottery systems for marathons) to the Big Sur Marathon, and I got selected. I chose to put myself through the 18-week Hal Higdon Novice 1 program (I used their half-marathon program back in 2017). I made it through the program, but my taper was interrupted by three weeks of vacation and good eating leading up to race day. Coupled with the reputation the race has for its challenging course, my time ended up a bit disappointing. I finished, which was the important thing, but I knew I could do better.
So now I’m training for marathon number two, and now my goal is to massively improve my personal record.
what the data shows
Before diving back in, I wanted to actually understand my running instead of logging the miles. I like looking over my trends in Garmin Connect, but I don’t see the full history all together, so I exported my Garmin data and built some basic visualizations to see what it’s like. It only goes back to November 2024 when my dad gifted me his old Forerunner 235 (I’m now rocking a 965), but that covered almost the whole first-marathon arc.
The most honest thing about the charts: the gaps. You can see exactly where I fell off, including those three vacation weeks that disrupted my taper. No story I tell myself can hide a flat line; the breaks are right there.
Even before I started base building again, you can see how little I ran during the holidays (I hate the cold) and my inconsistency even leading up to this month. It’s uncomfortable, but somehow motivating. Seeing the data makes it seem like achieving a good time may come down to me just showing up often enough.
putting it online
I threw the data up at run.jtapostol.com as a “fun” way to track progress and keep myself accountable.
For marathon #2, the plan is (hopefully) simple: 1) Protect the training block (as much as I can with a pretty new job), 2) reduce number of vacation-shaped holes, and 3) push myself to improve (mixing up training, pace, moving up from Novice 1 → Novice 2). I’ll probably refresh the data monthly-ish, so we’ll see how I progress.