I am a newbie at MAF…. So, am seeking some advice:
It is understood that MAF + HIIT/LT are not recommended. Is this correct?
There is an important annual event (HM) coming up on 21st October 2018, in India : Procam Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, which I intend to give my best at. But, I started MAF training around mid-May 2018 and am worried about MAF results not showing up in time for this upcoming HM race. So, I am going for ONE or TWO HIIT/LT runs as a cheat days in the week, while the other days I run strictly as per MAF HR. I also try to be strict about the HR range as I set it in the zone.
In the first two months, there seem to be some MAF improvements. For the 1st mile, from about 10:15 min/mile it has come down to about 9:40 min/mile. But, not significant yet and am wondering whether it is because of my cheat days . It is still improving though. OR maybe the rate of improvement is expected to be this slow indeed… If I stop the HIIT cheat days, and stick with MAF only, then I am worried that I may not be able to pick up the speed with just 8 weeks before the event. Should I risk this and go for MAF only for another 6-8 weeks, and then start HIIT/LT runs? Any thoughts?
My current 5k best is 21:00, HM best is 1:39, FM best is a poor 3:56.
After October, I will start training for the FM in February 2019, and then will have two-three months for dedicated MAF in Nov, Dec, Jan. Would that be enough for the FM in Feb?
Not an expert on this but I don't believe that HIIT/LT workouts will hinder your performance. I believe that MAF is more less base building that significantly improves your ability to do HIIT/LT workouts. From what I can tell, the only real danger in doing HIIT/LT workouts before having a sufficient base built is that it wears you out so bad that you can't keep your volume up. This results in less total positive running stress you can put on the body in order to improve.
I think that the real reason they say to never exceed MAF early on is to prevent that burnout. Once that base it built, you will find that you can run hard more and more and more without it hindering tomorrow or the rest of the week.
Just a guess!
Thanks for your valuable advice SD_BlackHills!
With about 50 mile running weeks, I am definitely not wearing out... because, relative to the past, I am doing far less Anaerobic / Hard workouts and more of MAF runs. In fact, I feel more relaxed, and less recovery time required due to the easy LHR runs. In short, no burnout worries
The concern is/was whether the MAF runs will turn out to be more of "junk miles" (waste of time) because I am doing the HIIT/LT runs twice a week. Will my aerobic base NOT be built due to those anaerobic workouts?
So far, the feedback from SD_BlackHills seems to be that aerobic base building can be done successfully with intermittent HIIT/LT workouts, IF the anaerobic workout wear-out is not significant. This sounds great(!), as I can keep in touch with the speedwork as well.
Any other advice is welcome from MAF/LHRT experts! Looking forward to more easy and happy running with LHR/MAF runs
Keep Running ya all, and keep inspiring,
Cheers!
Gary,
I'm very interested to hear how your HM will go. I think the best way to approach races like the half marathon and marathon are to not worry about a specific goal time. Instead, work on your aerobic fitness and then run your best possible race on race day. I've seen my best improvements in my aerobic fitness by doing the following:
As to your question about the MAF runs becoming "junk miles" if doing too much HIIT/LT, I don't believe that one for a second. I think that is a cautionary tale that was spun to get people to stop attempting to run ALL of their miles at Marathon Pace or faster at lower volumes. I was one of those people as was pretty much everyone I knew. If in doubt, you can run the Maffetone MAF Test or Hadd Test periodically to see if you are getting faster at given heart rates. Ultimately, that will tell you whatever you are doing in training is working or not and everyone is different.
Thank you so much (!) for the clarifications SD_BlackHills
It is really comforting to know that my HIIT/LT runs will not hurt the MAF base building efforts. Also, it is encouraging to know that my experimental approach seems to be a reasonable balance between MAF and HIIT/LT. {Considering that, as of now, I am definitely feeling relaxed with the LHRT schedule}. My current volume is about 50 mile weeks, out of which about 5-10 miles may be HIIT/LT, rest are all MAF.
At age 40, I am considering my max MAF HR to be about 142/143... as I have been an active runner for the last three years. I am not yet doing range-below-MAF runs, and will try to convert some of my at-MAF-HR (140-142) runs to a slightly lower range(130-140). That should be even more relaxing
And thanks for the tip of not focussing on a goal time ... Even though I don't consider myself crazily rigid / forcing about the target times (like some other runners I have seen), it does hover around in the mind for any major event involuntarily Will try to reduce those thoughts a bit more ...
Lastly, I will definitely post updates about the progress with my learning the ropes of LHRT and also the upcoming HM time.
Hopefully, in another year or so my base will be reasonably improved with the MAF approach
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