Maffetone Method Thread

[Alejandro 10]

Can anyone shed any light on this bit of history?
I ran my 7 miles home last night at about 7.35 pace and an AHR of 128. This morning I did my regular 5 miles to work at the same average pace but my AHR was 135.

What gives? Just caffeine?

Where have I read about this before... It was probably on Barefoot Ted's Forum. Anyway, the running thought there was that it isn't unusual, and that the best time to meaure resting heart rate was actually some time in the afternoon and not in bed first thing in the morning, as conventional wisdom holds. I'm sorry, I can't remember the reasoning. If I had to guess, Tuck or Gordo probably spelled it out well.

Gracia y paz,

A

 

[DNEchris]

Thanks Nick and Alejandro!

 

[Alejandro 10]

Chris, I am reading Maffetone's "The Big Book of Health and Fitness," and "The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing should meet me at the house when I get back from a hang in the woods (hammock camping) this weekend. If I find anything in them explaining this I will let you know.

 

[DNEchris]

Many thanks.

I'm away this weekend too.

 

[pilotrunner]

Can anyone shed any light on this bit of history?
I ran my 7 miles home last night at about 7.35 pace and an AHR of 128. This morning I did my regular 5 miles to work at the same average pace but my AHR was 135.

What gives? Just caffeine?

Hydration... Food intake... Weather...

Who knows. I'd bet either caffeine or you were a bit dehydrated.

 

[migangelo]

did you guys see i had a 2.5 min improvement in my 5k? that's huge!

to toot my own horn some more i just did my fourth maf test. in one month my time dropped by 1:10 each mile and my mph went up .5. this has/is taking some patience but i can see the progress now.

 

[ElyDave]

Well done Mike

Just 30km steady for me this week. Started out cool, warmed up nicely

Geek trace http://connect.garmin.com/activity/163614697

 

[mokaman]

I'm using the Maff method on the heartrate for my everyday easy running. I still will add in 10-20% faster runs around my anaerobic threshold a few weeks before a race. Anaerobic threshold is just over half marathon pace...this works really well for me. To get an idea of how heartrate varies for different race distances here are mine known heartrates, these I have taken from wearing a Garmin watch during races and training runs. Sometimes I will wear my Garmin in a race to try to stay in these ranges so not to burn out too early in the race, mostly I do this for longer races like a half marathon. On a 5k I just run as fast as I can start to finish.

Max heartrtae = 184
Maff pace = 136
5k = 180 - 182
10k = 170 - 172
Half marathon = 163 - 166
Marathon = 150 - 155

 

[palouserider]

My improvements with Maffetone were very modest but I will try again now that I'm on a low-carb diet and have much more energy in the afternoons and evenings. I suspect my body was still storing a lot of what I ate as fat rather than burning it for energy.
This time around I will stay within the 180-age but will add strength training 2-3 times/week. At my age, 48, I can't afford to lose muscle mass and actually really want to gain a little.

 

[Alejandro 10]

Wow, today was the first day with the heart rate monitor strapped on... that thing is a difficult taskmaster to work with!

 

[pilotrunner]

With the increasing heat in my neck of the nape, it's been hard to keep the HR down after 3-4 miles. I guess I should keep slowing the pace, but I can only run so slow. Not saying that I'm fast by any means, but I can't run an 11 minute mile and that's what it would take to keep the HR down. So... The last couple of miles sees my HR creeping up and ends up being 8-10 BPM over my Maff HR.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Alejandro 10]

With the increasing heat in my neck of the nape, it's been hard to keep the HR down after 3-4 miles. I guess I should keep slowing the pace, but I can only run so slow. Not saying that I'm fast by any means, but I can't run an 11 minute mile and that's what it would take to keep the HR down. So... The last couple of miles sees my HR creeping up and ends up being 8-10 BPM over my Maff HR.

Anyone have any thoughts?

What a difference the heat makes! Yesterday I ran ~4 miles in the afternoon. It took an hour and forty minutes. This morning I ran the same run and it took 61 minutes.

 

[migangelo]

i haven't dealt with heat yet but it will affect your hr. it takes a lot of patience to do maf but will be worth it and will work faster the more you stick with it.

 

[pilotrunner]

I did pull off a "pure Maff run" (as I call it if I can stick to the HR) this afternoon. I kind of got suckered because it was a high, thin overcast and the temp wasn't bad... Until the clouds moved and it was pure sun.

5 more miles at Maff. I must say, I can really see a difference during "mild" temperature runs.

 

[ElyDave]

I've been in Jakarta and offshore Indonesia the last week and I've been seeing a very wierd effect. I've been treadmill running using a footpod for speed/distance which I've calibrated previously at about a 3% error or so. Here I've been running 10km or so on treadmill with pace and HR wildly better i.e 8min mile at 135 HR, than recent efforts despite higher temp and RH than I'm used to so it's either
1 ) my long runs have kicked something off sothat these 10k's are easy by comparison, or
2) bothy my HR strap and footpod have suffered blowouts at the same time in the same direction

Can't post too much more at present - beer, sushi, sake

 

[ElyDave]

The above mentioned effect seems to be real, just did another 11km on the roads at 4:57/km with AHR 144 and MHR 152 into the wind.

 

[KiwiRunning]

With the increasing heat in my neck of the nape, it's been hard to keep the HR down after 3-4 miles. I guess I should keep slowing the pace, but I can only run so slow. Not saying that I'm fast by any means, but I can't run an 11 minute mile and that's what it would take to keep the HR down. So... The last couple of miles sees my HR creeping up and ends up being 8-10 BPM over my Maff HR.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I dont really know what pace you run at 'normally' but its not at all unusual to feel unnaturally slow when you first start running at a pace that keeps your HR down.... but i assure you that you can do it. One of the things i do is really concentrate on my running form, on my cadence, and all the other little things that i might forget when im running at a higher effort. ... If its hot, then you just have to slow down even more... If its hot and your going up hill you may even have to slow to a walk to keep the HR in zone... your still reaping the rewards of the maffetone method. (Although i do have to say that im not adverse to letting the HR spike a bit on a hill)