Day 10: LSR4

Today was my last real run before my business trip to Brazil (I'm posting from O'Hare International while I wait for my connecting flight to Sao Paulo.)  Went up into Peters Canyon for a second day of hills.

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	5.6	0:54:32	0:09:44
SPLIT: OUT	2.8	0:27:49	0:10:03
SPLIT: BACK	2.8	0:26:40	0:09:27

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204343981
This is a good benchmark run because I've done it so many times before, and will do it many times to come.  After 10 days, I'm pleased that I've been able to go a bit longer than intially planned.  Of course, all this confidence is gained on runs that have been less than 6 miles.  The last 3 weeks of August when the 6 and 8 mile runs start will give me a better idea of how I'll fare with this plan.

There does not appear to be any suitable places to run in Sao Paulo, so the plan for the week is to do a treadmill + pool workout at the hotel Tue-Wed-Thurs, then try to get a recovery run done on Friday after I get off the plane.

Day 9: LSR 3

Saturday was the sixth day of running this week.  The initial shock of running more frequently has worn off a bit, my legs do not feel as tired when I first wake up.  I have to ease into every run but after a mile or two, the legs feel ok.  Decided to multitask yesterday, did my LSR in Rancho Santa Margarita while I was having my car serviced.  Pros: got two things done at the same time.  Cons: had to run at 10 AM with the sun beating down and the mercury over 70 degrees.  RSM has some nice areas to run, I took a trail called "Live Oak Trail" which ran alongside part of O'Neill Regional Park.  The path had a slight incline, but as the garmin data shows, I ended up gaining 400 feet in elevation.  What goes up, must come down, so I was able to hit a pretty decent pace coming back.

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	5.4	0:50:29	09:25
Lap 1	1.0	09:31	09:31
Lap 2	1.0	09:49	09:49
Lap 3	1.0	09:26	09:26
Lap 4	1.0	09:17	09:17
Lap 5	1.0	09:08	09:08
Lap 6	0.4	03:17	09:07

Here's the garmin data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204044885

It felt good to do some uphill running.  I would like to include hill running on at least one of the LSRs each weekend to build leg strength.

Logged 25.5 miles this week, starting to find a groove just as I'm leaving on 3 trips in the next two weeks.  I'm hoping this interruption is early enough in the plan that I can maintain fitness on a treadmill without losing too much of the training momentum I've gained.

Day 8: Recovery Run

Oops, a few days behind in my posts.  It's difficult to leave the office for two weeks.
Friday was a double down day, recovery run in the morning, swim at lunch.

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	3.0	0:30:40	0:10:17

At the pool, repeated last week's workout with six 5-minute intervals, only this time I aimed for 175 yards in each 5 minute period.  Worked better this week, I got 20 seconds of rest after each 175 yards, and I did the full distance in each period, so I totaled 1050 yards this week.

Day 7: MP2

Today was the first time I've felt fast since the 2011 Surf City Half Marathon.  Here was today's plan:

Workout	Unspecified by HB
Distance	3 miles
Goal	8:45 pace

and here's how it turned out:

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	5.3	0:45:36	08:36
Lap 1	1.0	08:43	08:43
Lap 2	1.0	08:43	08:43
Lap 3	1.0	08:37	08:37
Lap 4	1.0	08:29	08:29
Lap 5	1.0	08:36	08:36
Lap 6	0.3	02:28	08:10

According to the garmin data, the first two laps were slightly uphill.  But except for lap 4, the route seemed like it was downhill the whole way.  I felt like I was in cruise control for the first 3 miles, so I used my reserve energy to attack the slight incline at mile 4.  I was torn between going for it hard like a true RW Advanced Plan tempo run or staying in range of the MP, treating the run like the first 5 miles of a marathon.  I compromised by slowing down over the last mile and coasting to the end. 

I gained quite a bit of confidence from Tuesday's speed work (I'm bummed that my business trips are going to force me to miss the next two track days.)  The muscle memory from the pace of the 800s made today's MP feel easy in comparison.  I was able to find a good groove and lock it in.  I also realized that Duran Duran and the 80s in general have no place on my running playlist.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/203313163

Day 6: Speed Session 2

Back on the track today for the first speed session on tired legs.  Focus today was to run faster intervals with shorter rest periods in between.  Here's the workout:

Workout	Speed, 6x800m, 400m jog
Distance	4.25
Goal	8:20

and here are the results:

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	4.3	0:38:15	08:50
Lap 1	0.5	04:11	08:13
Lap 2	0.5	04:06	08:14
Lap 3	0.5	04:09	08:13
Lap 4	0.5	04:08	08:17
Lap 5	0.5	04:04	08:07
Lap 6	0.5	03:50	07:38

Clearly those six laps only add up to 3 miles.  The total miles includes the 1.25 miles of recovery jogs (5 x 400m.)  I targeted running each 400m in 2:05 to get to a 4:10 for each 800m.  The rest intervals ranged from 2:42 to 2:48, roughly a 10:15 pace.  It felt SUPER slow.  I like running my intervals with music to break up the monotony of going in circles.  Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin In Love" came on in the middle of Lap 5, and gave me a major shot of adrenalin.  The final interval was a combination of running the first five too slow and a burning desire to be done.  Next time I hit the track (in 3 weeks) I'll be targeting 2:00 min 400s, with a more brisk recovery lap, maybe at a 10:00 min pace.

My legs were tired when I woke up this morning, and I felt it a little on the first two intervals.  But by the third, I was in a pretty good groove and didn't notice at all until I climbed the stairs to my office when I got to work. 

Best part of doing track work at 6:15 AM...realizing you have nearly 48 hours off until the next run!

Day 5: Recovery run

My ultra conservative plan had Monday as a rest day, but I felt like the first 4 runs did not wipe me out completely.  Also, my 3 trips-in-two-weeks begins Sunday afternoon which is going to wreak havoc on my schedule, so it seems prudent to get miles in if I can.  After a quick core workout (that really needed to be harder) here's what I did:

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	2.9	0:28:51	0:09:53

It was a quick jog from work through the UCI campus.  The first mile was downhill and I thought I was going slow, but my watch said I was running at a 9:36 pace, so I took it REALLY easy up the hills.  Felt like I was practically walking.  These recovery runs are going to be tricky at first because it's difficult to run short distances slow. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202429730

Day 4: LSR2

Day late on posting Sunday's workout.  It was only Day 4, but my legs were noticeably tired when I woke up.  Here was the goal:

Workout	Unspecified by HB
Distance	3 miles
Goal	9:00 to 9:15

Here are the results:

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	4.6	0:43:19	0:09:23
Lap 1	1.0		0:09:16
Lap 2	1.0		0:09:12
Lap 3	1.0		0:09:21
Lap 4	1.0		0:09:47
Lap 5	0.6		0:09:16

Without looking at the Garmin data, you can probably guess that we ran downhill for the miles 1-2, uphill for miles 3-4.  I may have been able to get to an even 5 miles, but 6 would have been tough.  However, an hour later, my legs felt fine.  Maybe next weekend we'll try to get Saturday's pace to more closely match Sunday's.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/202348494

Day 3

Woke up this morning with legs a bit tired from Friday's swim.  As with Day 2, today's run had no goal called out by HB.  We treated it like a moderately paced Long Slow Run.  Route was another out and back, starting again from Hicks Canyon Park, running along the Mountains-to-Sea trail, under the 5, and turning around at Walnut.

Workout	Unspecified by HB
Distance	3 miles
Goal	9:00 to 9:15

Here's what we actually did.

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	4.0	0:36:27	0:09:08
SPLIT: OUT			0:00:00
SPLIT: BACK			0:00:00

Sorry, no garmin data today, so no splits.  I'm pretty sure we ran a 9:30 for the first mile and hit 9s the rest of the way.  My 110 froze as I connected it to the laptop, and in order to bring it back to life, I had to reset it which erased everything.  Good thing my downloads were current through Thursday.

When we finished, I figure I could have gone another 1.5 - 2 miles, but I think my pace would have dropped.  I am interested to see how I feel during tomorrow's run after three consecutive days of activity.  One thing I have realized already is that the we are capable of doing more than just the minimum miles on the plan.  Case in point, I was telling AMD I'm going to do a short recovery run on Monday, and she pointed out that the first 5 Mondays are rest days as currently scheduled.  And I never once thought about running only 3 miles today, mostly because I don't have a good 3 mile route.  We agreed today that the miles on the plan are the bare minimum, and that we'll try to aim higher.  The minimum mileage gives us a fallback position if we're getting overly fatigued.  I've always believed in tiered goals.

I'm going to add another page this weekend called "Workout Log" where I'll document the actual mileage run and the pace. 





 

Cross Training

Cross training is mentioned in every "run your best marathon ever" article, and is something I've been historically bad at working into my training.  There is no mention of XT in HB, but I want to gain every advantage I can, so I'm making room for swimming and strength conditioning, primarily core workouts.  The recovery run days seem most logical: Mondays will be a gym day, Fridays a swim day.

I went to the pool at lunch today for a 30 minute workout.  I split the time into six 5 minute intervals and tried to swim 150 yards during each period with some rest at the end.  150 yards during int1 went too quickly, leaving me 75 seconds of rest, so I swam 175 yards for int2 and int3.  But I started getting tired and slowed down so much that I only had 7 seconds of rest before int4.  Int4 and int5 were cut down to 150 yards because of fatigue.  But as I was swimming int6, I realized 150 yards would leave me at 950 yards for the workout.  I swam an extra 47 seconds in order to get to an even 1000 yards for the day.

30:47 minutes, 1000 yards.  I have no idea how those Olympians swim 10,000 meters!

Day 2: MP1

It's only Day 2, and I already appreciated Wednesday's rest day. When there's only one day off, you cherish every minute of inactivity.

Here's today's run:

Workout	Unspecified by HB
Distance	3 miles
Goal	8:45 pace (9:00 out, 8:30 back)

The only workouts directly called out in the HB plan for the first two weeks are the SPEED sessions, so that's why I described today's run as "Unspecified." My guess is the plan assumes you haven't been running much before your started, so it gives you two weeks to ease into it. AMD and I were doing some light training in May and June (17-25 miles a week) so we have a slightly higher fitness baseline.

Thursdays are MP days, so that's how we approached today. Today's route is an old standby for us, starting at Hicks Canyon Park, running an out-and-back up the Hicks Canyon Trail to Portola Parkway. It's moderately challenging because its uphill all the way to the turnaround. Of course, the benefit is it's a sweet downhill finish. The goal pace for today was an exercise in conserving energy up a hill in order to gain the time back coming down.

	MILES	TIME	PACE
TOTAL	3.8	0:32:52	0:08:39
SPLIT: OUT	1.9	0:16:49	0:08:51
SPLIT: BACK	1.9	0:16:04	0:08:27

Here's the garmin data:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/200866789

I'm pretty happy with today's results. I have been running paces more in the 9:15-9:30 range all summer, so it was satisfying to feel like the 9 min pace uphill was a bit slow.

These are my times. AMD finished closer to 32 minutes. She is an amazing downhill runner and she opened it up on the way home. She wanted to get an idea of the pace she can run on relatively fresh legs so she had something to compare to in later weeks.

HB gives you up to 5 weeks to acclimate to running 6 days in a row. Tomorrow was an optional rest day, so we're taking it. July 20 will be the only scheduled Friday break until December 7.

Day 1: Speed Session 1

I added two new pages to the blog, BBR HB Implementation and Hanson Brooks Plan.  The latter is my translation of the table in the RW article.  The former is how I molded that plan around the reality of my life with work and family.

I am not quite crazy enough to try something like the HB alone, so I've convinced my running partner, AMD, to join me.  She has completed 3 marathons since 2011, and she's PR'd each time, running a great 4:18 at LAM in March.  Now we're both gunning for a sub-4 at CIM.  We need to run a 9:09 pace, so we're training to run 8:45s to give ourselves some margin.

Here's how Day 1, Speed Session 1, 6 x 800  (jog 400m) went:
1: 4:25 (8:48)
2: 4:24 (8:45)
3: 4:23 (8:38)
4: 4:21 (8:41)
5: 4:22 (8:45)
6: 4:15 (8:23)

Technically, speed sessions are supposed to be run at 10k race pace.  My 10k PR is a 7:57 pace, AMD doesn't have a 10k race finish, so we kept it easy on the first day.

Jogged after int1 at a 10:27 pace, but that seemed a bit aggressive for the first day.
So walked at a 17-18 min pace after int2 through int5.  This basically was half speed compared to the interval, ~4:25 min of rest.  That was probably too much rest.  Will try to get the rest time down closer to 2 min next week.

Tomorrow, like every Wednesday, is a rest day.

The Starting Line

Welcome to the Buddha Belly Runner.  One question sparked the creation of this blog:

Is it possible to run a marathon PR without doing a single 20 mile training run?

It is, according to an article I read in Runners World's January 2011, The Way of The Renegades.  I have run 6 marathons since 2009, with a PR of 4:21:24 at the 2010 Chicago Marathon, and like most of my running friends, have always followed a training plan that prescribes 2-3, sometimes 4, 20-22 mile training runs.  It seems completely counterintuitive that I could be better prepared by using a plan that has no run longer than 16 miles.

Two of those marathons were designated "A" races where I made a serious commitment to a traditional training plan in an attempt to break 4 hours.  The first attempt was a disaster.  The second attempt was the 2010 Chicago Marathon.  In both training cycles, I was hitting paces during intervals workouts, tempo runs and half marathons that suggested I had should have a good shot at the 4 hour mark.  In both races, my goal was lost because my legs cramped up terribly.

Now I'm ready to try something completely different. 

However, beyond that initial article, I had a difficult time finding more details about the reality of this plan.  Sure, there were some brief posts on the RW site attesting to successes achieved, but there was nothing about the process.  Other google searches suggested that this plan would only work for elite runners.

So this blog has come to life to completely document one average runner's attempt to become a Renegade.

Target: break the 4 hour mark at the California International Marathon in Sacramento, December 2, 2012.

Day 1 starts in 5 hours at the track, 6 x 800s.

As the austerity of this page suggests, this is my first time blogging.  Once I get used to the design process, I'll get my training schedule posted.