I got an email today from my dear friend, and frequent running partner, Paxton with some insightful analysis of my training log and possible factors that could have lead to my recent stress fractures. A number of members of our running group have accounts on RunningAhead.com, and have access to each other’s logs. Without prompting, Paxton looked through my logs for trends in the data that could provide insight into what threw me into my recent injury cycle. Paxton works in genetics, and is an expert in looking at datasets and graphs. He sent me a couple of annotated graphs from my log such as the one below:
He pointed out several things that were present in the data, but the one that jumped out to me was the fact that tempo and interval mileage accounted for almost 50% of my total mileage for a given week or month, just prior to both of the stress fractures. This is obviously way too high, but was exacerbated by the fact that it was also accompanied by a significant uptick in mileage. This is another example of how I allowed my obsession with Boston to push me over the edge in my training.
A big thanks to Paxton for selflessly spending this time to look at the data and help me out. It means a LOT to me. I will definitely remember this when I put together my full training schedule for NYC. I wish I knew some way to get both Paxton and Nathan into NYC to run with me. Would be great to have the Bellevue Trio in NYC together.