Although I'm older and slower, I did have a maf test where I ran faster at the same hr in second and third mi of maf running. It was attributed to insuffiicent warm up before starting the test. I'm not sure if that is it or not because I am also on beta blockers which can do funny things to hr. For insance I can be walking and hr gets to 83 then suddenly drops to 76-77 without any change in pace. I've been doing a 2 mi warm up these days in order to get the bod settled down. Other than that I am satisfied with the lhr approach to training. It has allowed me to run 5-6x/week for 5-7 hrs total. I go by hrs more than mi, although that works out to over 25 mi/week. Which is reasonable high for me to date.

I've noticed an interesting situation with my longer runs.

 

Right now, i run about 6 miles/day during the week. Most of those runs are around 8:40-9:00+ (depending on a variety of factors). I typically do a 12-mile run on the weekend. I noticed that my speed at the same heartrate gets faster the longer I run. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

I am 45 with 32+ years of running experience. I use 145 as my HR ceiling due to the 180-45+5. I added 5 beats because I remember reading some article (Mark Allen) that suggested an extra 5 bpm for certain people, but I can't remember why now.

 

Anyway, during yesterday's 12-mile run on 3 4-mile loops, my 1st loop was in 34:26, the 2nd loop was in 34:22, but I covered the 3rd loop in 33:29. I've noticed this on my other 12-mile run, and I've noticed it on 10-mile runs. My 6-mile runs get faster if I start slow. The pace for the first loop yesterday was faster than my 6-mile pace.

 

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced it. Other than that, MAF-type running has gone great. I've gone from virtually no running to easily running 12-mile runs and 40-mile weeks (on 5 runs due to life) with no problems. I do a lot of my runs in Nike Free 3.0 although I weigh just under 200 pounds currently. I'm looking to drop about 25 pounds as I progress.

 How consistent is each mile  (HR and pace)? 

yes I also notice that when running under MAF, I often get faster after a while - very slightly but consistently faster. but the HR starts out relatively low and so I think it might subtly increase...

if my HR could stay this consistent at MAF+35 then I'll be very happy in my first race that's soon to be held (and I will run MAF+35 in it)... but I somehow doubt it :P the one thing for sure is that I would get slower at higher HR's before starting MAF training. did anyone get better at this after MAF training?