MAF Test and Training Summary

On the Facebook group, and people I am coaching we have a few participants doing an aerobic test called a MAF test.  Some are logging their performance here LINK.

The 180 Formula (To find the maximum aerobic heart rate):

1. Subtract your age from 180 (180 – age).

2. Modify this number by selecting a category below that best matches your health profile:

a. If you have, or are recovering from, a major illness (heart disease, high blood pressure, any operation or hospital stay, etc.) or you are taking medication, subtract an additional 10.
b. If you have not exercised before or have been training inconsistently or injured, have not recently progressed in training or competition, or if you get more than two colds or bouts of flu per year, or have allergies, subtract an additional 5.
c. If you’ve been exercising regularly (at least four times weekly) for up to two years without any of the problems listed in a or b, keep the number (180 – age) the same.
d. If you have been competing for more than two years duration without any of the problems listed above, and have improved in competition without injury, add 5. 

 For example, if you are 30 years old and fit into category b: 

180 – 30 = 150, then 150 – 5 = 145.

During training, create a range of 10 beats below the maximum aerobic heart rate; in the example above, train between 135 and 145 staying as close to 145 as possible.  Track you MAF tests weekly or biweekly for 3 months.  When you see a plateau you can switch to speed days, hill climbs, real anaerobic stuff. *

Perform the MAF Test on a track, (or repeatable surface) running at the maximum aerobic heart rate. A one- to five-mile test, with each one-mile interval recorded, provides good data. The test should be done following an easy 12–15 minute warm up, and be performed about every month throughout the year. Below is a 5-mile MAF Test of a runner training at a heart rate of 150:

 Distance Time (min:sec)
 Mile 1     8:21
 Mile 2     8:27
 Mile 3     8:38
 Mile 4     8:44
 Mile 5     8:49

During an MAF Test, it is normal for the running times to slow each mile – the first mile should be the fastest and the last the slowest. If this is not the case, it may indicate the lack of an effective warm up. In addition, the test should show faster times as the weeks and months pass. For example, over a four month period, we can see the endurance progress in the same runner from the above MAF Test. Note the aerobic speed improvement between April and July:

             April   May    June   July
 Mile 1   8:21   8:11    7:57   7:44
 Mile 2   8:27   8:18    8:05   7:52
 Mile 3   8:38   8:26    8:10   7:59
 Mile 4   8:44   8:33    8:17   8:09
 Mile 5   8:49   8:39    8:24   8:15

This improvement is typical during the aerobic base period. Some improve at a faster rate, others slower.  Most importantly, if you’re not improving within a three- or six-month period, it means something is wrong.  It may be a dietary or nutritional factor, excess stress, overtraining (such as too many miles), etc. In some cases, it may be the maximum aerobic heart rate is too high (often from choosing the wrong category in the 180 Formula).  Moreover, a reversal of aerobic function, i.e., slowing of aerobic pace during base training, may indicate an impending injury – enough of a reason to perform the MAF Test regularly.

Progress should continue in some form for three to six months or more before aerobic benefits may reach a normal plateau. Adding anaerobic work to the schedule before this plateau may impair (and ultimately even reverse) further aerobic progress.

The greatest benefit of the MAF Test is that it objectively demonstrates aerobic improvement in the form of aerobic speed. These changes also reflect competitive improvement.

© 2007 Philip Maffetone www.philmaffetone.com

*If you see NO improvements over 2 or 3 MAF tests, there's something in your training, diet or other stressors that is affecting your aeorbic performance.  email me and we'll figure it out! 

Night time running

For those of us on Northern Hemisphere daylight is becoming a more scarce resource.  Besides a reduction of Vitamin D* we are also now visually impaired and not easily seen by others. Gotta stay safe: Need to see and be seen.  Buying a lighting system is the type of purchase you want to get right the first time.  Nothing is more expensive than buying something that you never use.  Two reasons for lighting:

• Light your way
• Night Trail Running: There are typically no street lights on trails.  Looking for a lighting system with more than 100 Lumens is a safe rule.  



Black Diamond 80-100 Lumens

Headlamps are a good solution. They leave your hands free and only cast light where you're looking.  They can be inconvenient if you're used to wearing a hat, and the pressure on the forehead can take some getting used to.  It would be nice if they were lined with a Richard Simmons terrycloth head band - alas, there always seems to be some plastic digging in to your forehead. 


• Night Road Running: In the presence of some street lighting and possible traffic, it's more important to be seen by others.  For this you'll need a handheld flashlight that you can point low, looking for road hazards and curbs and not blinding drivers or other pedestrians. A handheld is also appropriate for encountering other nighttime runners in populated areas.  The major benefit of handheld is that they allow you to avert your lighting without having to avert your gaze.  Another secret...keep one eye closed when around a car's headlights (and don't look directly into the headlights - no brainer?), this keeps the pupil in the closed eye big for better night vision later ;)

• Be seen by others

In the presence of nighttime traffic (even dusk), wearing reflective clothing and carrying battery powered glowsticks and blinking red lights all help you be more visible to the half-blind drivers out there.  Quote from Evaluation of Reflective Vest Options 

"Research on human perception (in motor vehicles) finds that drivers must first notice, and then identify, an object (in or near the roadway) in order to react to it (Beck2  2005, and Ashton 2007). Police uniforms are typically dark colored and even more difficult to see at night. The white shirt common among higher ranked officers does not add to their visibility in low light or nighttime conditions. Beck, citing research conducted in 1984, notes a driver at 30 miles per hour (mph) detects a subject in dark clothing at approximately 70 feet (giving the subject approximately 1.5 seconds to react). If the speed is 55 mph, the reaction time was under one second. Similar research by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (as cited by Ashton 2007) concluded that in a simulated work zone, a driver detected a person in non-reflective clothing at 125 feet while they detected an individual in reflective clothing at 891 feet."

7 times further reaction distance is the difference between reflective and non-reflective clothing.  That's pretty good odds for a low cost inVESTment.  One ebay search shows as low as $5 could protect you.  Search here.

Flashlight with a pivot-able head

Selecting a headlamp or flashlight (or as I do it, one each): Think about battery replacement (rechargeable or not), comfort, lighting-power, and ergonomics. When using a flashlight, the angle of your hand is important. Over time, pointing a flashlight can be an uncomfortable if you need to maintain an unnatural wrist angle. Knuckle lights, or an aim-able flashlight head can make things more comfortable.

Knuckle lights

My solution, I wear a headlamp that has a blinking red light in the back and carry a stronger handheld. Because I'm a nerd I chose a 'programmable' flashlight.  I can get it to blink fast to remind me to do pickups at time intervals, or blink slow to remind me to turn around and run home.  If you're the type to think a programmable flashlight may be fun, here's an example of one:

www.hexbright.com

Be safe.  Buy quality stuff!  Torches would be more paleo (and more fun for the pyros among us), but it just makes your neighbors a little suspicious.  I'd love to hear what your lighting solutions are, what worked, and what did NOT work.

**The way to NOT be vitamin D* deficient (or A,E,K,etc) is high cholesterol diet rich in fats. Lead a fat burning lifestyle to get the most bang for your food buck.