jimmyb suggested this is a good thread for a little something:
I found this in one of the old coolrunning threads (from RER/DavidD).
It is a fine line. I've measured students right before exam time and the reduction in fat burning (due to the stress) is sometimes dramatic. Translated to running, it would be a very significant slowing in pace.
must be what I had in that race I had 10 days ago.
HR did increase dramatically, pace did slow dramatically.
this also brings up the question of the RQ lab test validity - what if one person is stressed during the test because they don't like being measured? I think this is a totally valid possibility
I'm not asking a question here or anything. just wanted to mention this.
Dave (RER here) used to post on occasion. This person claims to have worked in an athletic testing facility, and was familiar with Dr. Maffetone's work, and with him. Supposedly, he had tested lots of athletes over the years and what he has reported has been interesting. Your quote is one such thing, which lends creedence to what Dr. Phil writes about life stress and how it can be a contributing factor to over-training. He has also reported that eating a high carb snack or breakfast right before a workout would also affect fat-burning adversely. He was also able to determine MAF with the tests and saw that they lined up fairly well with the 180-formula. The RQ test is always valid in that it just measures what you are exhaling while you run. How the effects of eating carbs too close to the test, increased life stress, exhaustion, nervousness, and not warming up actually show up in the resulting data, and whether or not it skews the pinpointing of your MAF and LT, is unclear to me from that quote or from my memory of his posts. I get that the paces at the same HR were affected, but were the MAF and LT points moved? Perhaps, Dr. Phil will do a pop by and respond to this. He does on occasion.
--Jimmy
How the effects of eating carbs too close to the test, increased life stress, exhaustion, nervousness, and not warming up actually show up in the resulting data, and whether or not it skews the pinpointing of your MAF and LT, is unclear to me from that quote or from my memory of his posts. I get that the paces at the same HR were affected, but were the MAF and LT points moved? Perhaps, Dr. Phil will do a pop by and respond to this. He does on occasion. --Jimmy
How the effects of eating carbs too close to the test, increased life stress, exhaustion, nervousness, and not warming up actually show up in the resulting data, and whether or not it skews the pinpointing of your MAF and LT, is unclear to me from that quote or from my memory of his posts. I get that the paces at the same HR were affected, but were the MAF and LT points moved? Perhaps, Dr. Phil will do a pop by and respond to this. He does on occasion.
yeah, that is the main question, whether MAF is moved or not. perhaps it is not moved and just the HR goes up... the problem then is can the person do any running at MAF anymore to get it measured. at the race, I could not have run at MAF as simple walking brought the HR up to 180. perhaps this is an extreme case of "nervousness" though.
yes I'd love to see either RER or Maffetone answer this