Hi to all,

new here and new to the MAF method as well.

I am 45 years old and followed the couch to 5K app on my mobile fand ketp on running for the past months...after finishing the eight weeks continued maintaining runs of 5km 3 to 4 days a week on an average 6min/km...last two months started increasing the time and distance and was up to 8km always keeping the 6min pace...well up to various aches and pains on various muscles and stress accumulating from pushing myself to keep on going...until i arrived on the maf website and got the book and read it inside out....from this book I also learned why I managed to put on weight while running for all this time instead of loosing fat from the overtraining and high cortisol / lack of sleep cycle 9even from work / family pressures)....i was also putting in as well 2hr of mountain bike on sundays.

So...started MAF this week...on walking and running as I cant keep low heart rate on running...keeping heart rate up to 130 max fro 180-age and less 5 for the odd cold i get and also overtraining and high cortisol from my past training...i am running for approx 30 sec until i get the alarm from my monitor and then walk down to about 125bpm and then jog a bit again...it is not that fun as a run but I m sticking to it...is this a correct way to make a start??

With the main aim of remaining in health, injury free and loose weight, i am planning to go on this plan for about 12 wks...so is the range of 130bpm correct for me to maximise fat loss as I reckon with this style of running injuries should be kept to a minimum.

Glad to receive any advise.

Regards and good day.

Hey Emann, welcome to the forum. Sounds like a good start.

The main focus of the MAF method is staying healthy. Stress, especially abnormally high stress, adds to the hormonal training load, and can be the tipping point for sending an athlete into overtraining syndrome. It gets difficult to lose weight and loosen that belt when the body is under great hormonal stress. If one is running at high intensities all the time, this can really mess with the body in many ways. Insomnia, not being able to lose weight, abnormally high or low resting heart rate (RHR), getting slower at the same HR, dead legs, injuries, etc. can be the result.

Running at MAF or below will relieve some of the hormonal stress, but one still must be careful about volume. One can run 100 miles per week at MAF, and still run into problems. That's where the MAF test, or monitoring your speed at MAF, comes in. A.K.A monitoring your aerobic speed.  If you're getting faster at MAF heart rate, and feeling well, no injuries, then training load/volume is at a good level. If you're getting slower, then adjustments might need to made to training load. Plateaus will happen while progressing, but if you're feeling well, no injuries, most likely you'll begin to progress again after a few weeks.

Sometimes, beginners will see some regression in aerobic speed in the initial weeks, but it usually turns around. The regression is most likely due to the new focus on the slow twitch Type 1 fibers, and there a bit exhausted. Or, maybe a little extra volume is needed.

I hope it works well for you. Feel free to hang out in the daily thread and report on your journey, accomplishments, etc. Hope you lose the weight and get that belt or tight pants loose! I hope I do, but this tight-panted sea cow (me, who needs to lose a LOT of weight) digresses. 

Keep going!

Thanks to all for your encouraging comments.

 

@AlexVan: can you kindly advise what breathing technique you use to assist in maintaining your HR at MAF...I am quite difficult at this and feel myself various times during a single run changing the way i breath....I am sure this would help me a lot if you can describe it here.

 

 @jimmyb: can you please confirm that starting with an hour every morning for 6 days per week should be enough as regards to volume whilst monitoring my HR and my MAF tests....I really want to nail this down and get some weight loss going on as well as stay injury free and maybe someday get running all the time during a run rather than the walk/run situation I am in at the moment.

 

Good day.

I think I'll weigh in on some of my experiences here although I'm not nearly as experienced as jimmyb.

Breathing - I've found that this is one of the most important aspects to improving your running economy.  If I can breathe through my nose without using my mouth then I know I'm running easy no matter what my heart rate monitor says.  I've never seen my heart rate go over MAF with exclusive nose breathing but I'm sure that varies by person.

How much to Run? -  This depends how much your body is currently capable of doing.  I know that some people have attempted to quantify this mathematically by having you calculate your threshold and then it applying some fancy algorithm that looks at your daily workouts and how close you were to threshold for X period of time and assigns a stress score.  Training Peaks using something called TSS to measure this (Training Stress Score) and Stryd uses something called RSS (Running Stress Score).  Either way, effort over time will wear on your body even if it's low effort if the time is long.

If you prefer a simpler method, you can always go by the 10% rule.  Don't increase your weekly mileage by more than 10% a week.  Also, I personally don't plan rest days.  I just take them when my legs feel tired.  If my legs feel tired just walking around Tuesday night, you had better believe that I'm not running on Wednesday.  Your legs should feel like they have some spring to your step.

Run/Walk Situation - I'll probably get shot for saying this in this forum but I don't agree with this method.  Unless you are redlining the HRM and totally gasping for air, then you are still running aerobically.  I don't think going a few beats over MAF is going to slow your progress.  Personally, I think not running is worse (unless of course you should be resting that day).  It certainly doesn't set back non-MAFers who put in the miles.  They very quickly build up an aerobic base to the point where they can religiously follow MAF without walking, even up hills.

Weight Loss - Personal experience again.  I very rapidly lost weight when I first started MAF training and I was in no means overweight.  After that I stabilized to a point where the only thing that effects my weight is nutrition.  During my last marathon training session I gained weight in weeks in which I was over 70 miles and well over 60 of those weekly miles were sub MAF.  That's because I wasn't watching my nutrition that closely (lots of crap food and alcohol).  At least for me, the only way to shed pounds and keep them off is to both run lots of easy miles and watch your nutrition (especially portions).

Hope this helps!

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