- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
MAF Training for Runners?
Posted on 8/12/21 at 11:41 am
Posted on 8/12/21 at 11:41 am
Anyone using this as a guide? LINK
Basically, it follows what Hal Higdon has been saying for years, "Keep your long runs aerobic. 65% to 75% of max. Conversational." Based off the MAF calculation and Higdon's calculation, 80% of my training should be done at a HR zone of 130-140. This has been my long run, recovery day pace. I just started this week trying to keep my HR at 140 for all my runs as I slowly ease into my zero drop shoes. My times are in the crapper as you would expect as I occasionally have to walk to stay in that zone especially with the heat and hills we have here.
Thinking I'll give this 6 months as a change of pace and slowly increase my mileage over the next month or so. Needless to say, at that HR zone, you can basically run forever and not get tired. Anyone else have any experience with this?
Basically, it follows what Hal Higdon has been saying for years, "Keep your long runs aerobic. 65% to 75% of max. Conversational." Based off the MAF calculation and Higdon's calculation, 80% of my training should be done at a HR zone of 130-140. This has been my long run, recovery day pace. I just started this week trying to keep my HR at 140 for all my runs as I slowly ease into my zero drop shoes. My times are in the crapper as you would expect as I occasionally have to walk to stay in that zone especially with the heat and hills we have here.
Thinking I'll give this 6 months as a change of pace and slowly increase my mileage over the next month or so. Needless to say, at that HR zone, you can basically run forever and not get tired. Anyone else have any experience with this?
Posted on 8/12/21 at 11:45 am to Aubie Spr96
God bless you for having the patience to do this. I sure as hell don’t
Posted on 8/12/21 at 11:57 am to Aubie Spr96
Tried it. Didn't like it. Started running by feel again.
Posted on 8/12/21 at 12:34 pm to Aubie Spr96
I keep most of my runs conversational (which means talking to myself every now and again ). That typically corresponds to ~155bpm. Which falls right inline with 180-age +5 per MAF
Posted on 8/12/21 at 1:07 pm to Ingeniero
Same. I’ve tried it. Mainly go by feel. If I can talk and breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth primarily I’m at a good aerobic capacity zone.
Posted on 8/12/21 at 1:49 pm to Ingeniero
quote:
Started running by feel again.
We have a guy in my run group we call the metronome. That MFer is running at a 9min pace all the time. You can literally set your watch by the guy. No idea how he does it. Me on the other hand..... I'll be bebopping along and my run app will give me my pace and HR and it is rarely what I think it is. One of the things that attracted me to this was having a scientific target that I can instantly have feed back on.
Posted on 8/12/21 at 2:47 pm to Aubie Spr96
I did it and struggled because of how many hills are around me. Kind of hard to keep running easy when you’re going up multiple hills per mile.
Posted on 8/12/21 at 7:02 pm to StringedInstruments
Never realized how hilly Bham was until I started running.
Posted on 8/13/21 at 12:43 pm to Aubie Spr96
Yeah Brentwood with the hills makes my pace and cadence stats useless.
Posted on 8/13/21 at 2:05 pm to Aubie Spr96
From what I've been reading about MAF is that it's a guide for people looking to lose weight with running as its exercise mechanism. The 220 minus your age with an extra step is there to make sure that beginners using this form of exercise don't get too overzealous.
He's got a little "triangle of blame" for lack of better term which is primarily food, stress, exercise in that order of importance with his method. "are you not improving?" is the question for runners that plateau with this method. The MAF answer is: check your diet. Good? Check your stress. Good? Okay, now you can do a farlek workout or two.
Here's the main takeaway and the most important part IMO. MAF is a diet, not a training plan. Maffetone is not a running coach, he is using running as the fitness part of his diet.
I don't think he is misrepresenting himself, but I do think that many runners misinterpret what he's selling.
Most of your training runs should be aerobic, that's not new, that's been a staple in running training and fitness that has existed since the beginning.
Those that have been running as long as you have, stand to gain little as far as this training goes. That is unless you are following this plan as a diet and have no improvement goals beyond running base miles. Maffetone method will not improve an experienced runner's times in my opinion and experience.
He's got a little "triangle of blame" for lack of better term which is primarily food, stress, exercise in that order of importance with his method. "are you not improving?" is the question for runners that plateau with this method. The MAF answer is: check your diet. Good? Check your stress. Good? Okay, now you can do a farlek workout or two.
Here's the main takeaway and the most important part IMO. MAF is a diet, not a training plan. Maffetone is not a running coach, he is using running as the fitness part of his diet.
I don't think he is misrepresenting himself, but I do think that many runners misinterpret what he's selling.
Most of your training runs should be aerobic, that's not new, that's been a staple in running training and fitness that has existed since the beginning.
Those that have been running as long as you have, stand to gain little as far as this training goes. That is unless you are following this plan as a diet and have no improvement goals beyond running base miles. Maffetone method will not improve an experienced runner's times in my opinion and experience.
This post was edited on 8/13/21 at 2:13 pm
Posted on 8/13/21 at 4:35 pm to BurtReynoldsMustache
140 HR is hard to maintain in this heat. Times have really sucked. I had been using 160 as my target HR. I’ll do this for a couple of months and see where I am this winter.
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News