I liked Robbi's post where she referred to Maffetone stuff as "the M-word." Also, this post may read as if I'm just writing to complain, but that is not my intent.
So, I've been trying Maffetone with the 180-age training, refraining from speed work, etc, for almost 8 months now. During this period: I've been taking plenty of rest as needed, I've been "fine-tuning" other aspects of my life, particularly diet (dropping wheat and going mostly paleo), and I've made efforts to address stress and sleep issues. I feel generally healthy and not overtrained. Not only have I not gotten faster, I've gotten slower, going from 14:00 min/mile to 15:28 min/mile on the MAF test at constant heart rate (138 bpm). I feel like 8 months should have been long enough to see some improvement and to develop my aerobic base. I also feel that these results are not just measurement error or random error, even though nothing about this is well-replicated.
So, wisdom of the crowd, what's going on?
1) I'm "doing it wrong" in some way.
2) I'm doing it "right," but my body is just not responding to this type of training.
3) ?????
Are there any "lapsed Maffetonics" out there who have had the same issue?
Stray observations:
So, I've been trying Maffetone with the 180-age training, refraining from speed work, etc, for almost 8 months now. During this period: I've been taking plenty of rest as needed, I've been "fine-tuning" other aspects of my life, particularly diet (dropping wheat and going mostly paleo), and I've made efforts to address stress and sleep issues. I feel generally healthy and not overtrained. Not only have I not gotten faster, I've gotten slower, going from 14:00 min/mile to 15:28 min/mile on the MAF test at constant heart rate (138 bpm). I feel like 8 months should have been long enough to see some improvement and to develop my aerobic base. I also feel that these results are not just measurement error or random error, even though nothing about this is well-replicated.
So, wisdom of the crowd, what's going on?
1) I'm "doing it wrong" in some way.
2) I'm doing it "right," but my body is just not responding to this type of training.
3) ?????
Are there any "lapsed Maffetonics" out there who have had the same issue?
Stray observations:
- While running at what feels like constant effort on flat ground, my heart rate (according to the HR monitor) will race ahead 10 or even 20 bpm above the supposed max aerobic heart rate. Then it takes forever to come back down, even when I stop and walk.
- Heart rates as different as 125, 135, and 145 bpm all feel like the same speed and effort to me.