Road To The Sham Part 3: Street MAF vs. Track MAF

So yesterday I did a track MAF session where my MAF average speed was 8:17/mile. Today I did a 5 mile "street MAF" session and my average speed was 9:20/mile. More than a minute different per mile. There were some hills and clearly there were some 'undetectable" gradients that assisted in this drop. So now I have a baseline street and track MAF speed to compare progress (I hope) against.

I can already see why MAF training is popular with those who now swear by it. Firstly, it makes running fun again in that you have something to do other than beat on your legs (and heart). These slow miles "fly by" because you're paying close attention to your heart rate.

The next interesting thing was that I felt 'fat burn" in my legs. I don't usually feel burn in my legs unless I've taken time off due to illness or even changing to cycling. To have felt that during a slow run tells me that my body is using a different source of energy.

And it bears repeating that it is very nice to not be totally knackered at the end of a run. VERY

Road To The Sham Part II: MAF(fing) A!

So I put the MAF to the test this weekend. Not going to work. The standard 180 minus your age as top HR during a run had me walking. We're talking 42 minutes to cover 3.4 miles and that's with me deciding at mile 2.5 to up my "max" by 10 BPM.

No way, no how I take a "long run" with that kind of pace. I simply do not have the time for that. at the rate I was walking, cause that's what I was doing, it would take me 2.6 hours to complete 13 miles.

Absolutely not having that.

Why was I walking so much? I had read that when people start out they do a lot of walking so I did expect to do some walking. I particularly expected it at hills. Level ground though? I was going so slow it was impossible to jog much less run.

So the next day when I took my usual walk I noted my heart rate because I wanted to know why I was having this issue. Lo and behold my walking HR was 20 beats lower than my calculated MAF rate. Explains a lot. There is no way that I could maintain a MAF rate of any speed that did not involve extremely poor form running (shuffling).

So what to do?

So in my self-imposed "slow" runs I had put a limit on my speed which corresponds loosely to a modified MAF of +15 BPM over MAF calculations. For me this is a very easy jog. since I am prone to "discovering" that I'm running 30+ seconds per mile faster than target pace, I'll be paying far more attention to my heart rate for the remainder of my runs.

I've watched other runners say they do something similar, in terms of modifying their MAF calculation to accommodate their fitness levels so I don't think my mods are unreasonable. The principle is to run aerobically and that's what I'm going to do.

As a side note, Just so you know just how much easier it is to run on a treadmill, I did a MAF run on a treadmill. My pace there was FAR faster than what I did over the weekend ( by 4 minutes/mile). So clearly the miles done on a treadmill do not match what you do on the road, by a long shot. -Update So this afternoon I went and tried my MAF test on a track. Completely different results; ~8:20/mile which is about what I had determined as a good slow pace for me. I'm going to guess that the street route that I was on was a problem and perhaps I was anxious. Also I'm not sure my walk heart rate is as high as I thought it was. Perhaps because it was early and I hadn't drunk much or eaten.

So I'm satisfied with that result. If, during the next few months I can drop 20 seconds off that rate I'd be very happy.

Road To The Sham Part 1: We're In!

So I'm officially running the 2020 Anthem Shamrock Half Marathon. This will be my third run. I was supposed to run last year..umm this year, but I was not in a good mental place to do the training and I don't like doing things half-assed. My last run, in 2018, I did far worse than I should have due to a couple of major mistakes that I'm fixing this time around. First mistake was my training.

Too FAST:

I am a natural sprinter so I came into running from doing 5ks. Also being naturally impatient, every, and I mean EV-ER-Y training session was done at or above race pace. For like 20 years. In addition I was undereating for the calories and sugar I was burning and was crashing. At the time I had no idea. I thought that you trained hard so you were used to it on race day. Oh so wrong.

Of course I also injured myself. A lot. Knees, lower back, foot pain, Achilles pain.

Professional runners know my mistake: No aerobic base. I didn't know about that. Anyway, my race pace goal was 7:39/mile. My training took me below that many many times during my long runs...for the entire run. Boo.

Blew Up On Race Day:

So on race day I made many mistakes. First I changed my morning eats including neglecting my morning coffee. I have one cup a day. Caffeine helps with fatigue. If you train with it then you need to run on it. Dont go changing your regimine on race day. You may eat earlier than usual but you better EAT!

Second mistake was that I ran the race backwards. By that I mean that rather than have negative splits as planned, I had positive splits AND a total bonk at mile 12 where I walked 50 meters. *hangs head in shame*

I ran the first mile of the race at near 5k pace ~7:05/mile. While I can keep that up for about 5 miles I cannot do that for a full 13. By the time my average pace got down to 7:30 I was already 8 miles in and the damage was done. Miles 8-10 are my transition miles. I generally know how I feel at that point. Either fatigue sets in or I'm good. I was not good.

As I now know, I basically burned sugar or glycogen over the too fast portion of the race and had nothing left at the end. I still PR'd for that particular race but it was far from my goal which was 30 seconds faster than my overall PR. So what am I doing differently?

Firstly I'm already at 11 miles for my long runs. The intent here is to be very comfortable with the distance before race day. Being impatient I need to mentally prepare to run that distance and that amount of time without losing focus, getting bored, etc. So I'll be doing 13 miles throughout February.

Second, I'm running slow to run fast. I had heard this phrase a number of times. But me being impatient could not keep myself from seeing a person ahead of me and having a "look squirrel!" moment and chase them down. So I'm running long runs at a pace no faster than 8 min/mile and closer to 8:20./8:30/mile. This is still in my aerobic zone but well away from 90 or even 80% effort. It's around 60% max heartrate. That's a guess because I don't actually know my max heart rate but I know the old 220-age does not apply to me at all. My Amazefit says that at a 6:45/mile pace I'm pushing 188 BPM and I can run faster than that.

I've already seen benefits of this. I haven't injured myself. I'm not crashing after the long runs. Still a bit tired by none of the "I feel like crap" feelings of overexertion.

My overall schedule is 5K speed work, Half long run distance 10-15 seconds per mile slower than race pace, and then long...slow...run.

I've also incorporated dead lifting. I read somewhere that Meb (who will be at the Sham!) used deadlifts to win Boston. Supposedly he (or Bolt) dead lifted 1.7 their body weight. That's my goal. I started out below my body weight. I'm up at 1.4 now. I don't necessarily need to go to 1.7 but it's a goal. If I can go there without injury I'll do it, but I'm not killing myself. This has addressed an issue I've long had: Weak lower back and glutes.

Race Day Plans:

So the plan on race day is to address problem number one: Wrong pace! The Sham employs people to pace different finish times. I'm going to hang out with whomever is close to the pace I want to keep. The most important thing for me is to not overrun the first 8 miles. If I'm burning fat rather than sugar (or glycogen) for the first 8 I can lift my pace for the last 5. That's the plan.