Yesterday I whined about the amount of time it took me to train for Grandma’s Marathon. I did some math.

During the 11 (well, 10, as one week I completely skipped running) weeks of this aborted training cycle, I ran 254.24 miles in 68.26 hours, or 4095.6 minutes.

That’s an average pace of 16:07/mile.

Ok, not terrible. That’s actually faster than I thought it would be.

At a 15:00 pace, I’d save 4.7 hours.
At a 12:00 pace, I’d save 17.4 hours.
At a 10:00 pace, I’d save 25.9 hours.
At an 8:00 pace, I’d save 34.4 hours.

I’m probably never going to run at an 8:00 pace for marathon training runs, so that was more to compare to a speedy person. I’m also probably not going to hit 10:00/mile for training runs (but maybe for an actual race?), so that was to compare to a mid-packer. I don’t think I’m out of line to say in a couple years, barring injury, I could be running 12:00 paces for training runs. If I was that fast now, I’d have spent 1.7 fewer hours/week working out, or about 17 minutes/day. Of course not every run was at the same pace, nor of the same distance, but it gives a bit clearer picture.

I actually thought I’d save more time, so that’s a bit depressing. I did have a fairly low-mileage training plan, so I have to consider I’d be saving more time over a training cycle if I was running a more standard plan. (And, guess what, I will be running a slightly higher mileage plan next time around!) I do expect my training pace to decrease by the time I am ready to roll on the next marathon, but not to something silly like 12:00/mile, I’m still going to stay conservative. Patience!