#maf test

I was supposed to do my second MAF test on June 2. 

I have still not done it.

I attempted on Thursday, but it was so hot at 8:45 am that I ended up power walking to keep my heart rate down. Power walking is not progress from my initial MAF test. I don't know that it will be the same temperature it was during my May MAF test again until September or October, but I could win a prize for ignoring the most 5:00 and 5:30 alarms in the past week. And probably an honorable mention for making the most excuses.

My running clothes are out for tomorrow, and I have to pull myself together to at least go for a run. Rain is forecast for most of the morning, but at least it will be a little cooler outside from the rain. Cooler and more humid.

Who knows when I'll do another MAF test. Surely I'm making progress..right?

In preparing for my fall race, I thought I'd run/walk in 10:00/5:00 intervals. It maintains my run to walk ratio that worked for the Zydeco Half Marathon, but I'd only have to run 26 times over the course of the marathon. Plus, I'd have the whole summer to get used to those intervals.

I thought wrong.

A few people I know have switched to the Phil Maffetone "180-Formula" so I decided I'd give it a shot myself. I tried it out last week and liked it, so I've started using aerobic training.

A companion to the 180-Formula is the maximum aerobic fitness, or MAF, test, which is used to measure progress. It should be conducted about once a month, and I planned to do my first one on Saturday as a base...then I got sick and was in bed most of the day. 

I finally felt up to running again today, so I did my first MAF test over five miles. My times were as follows:

Mile 1: 14:43  Mile 2: 15:45 Mile 3: 16:17 Mile 4: 16:39 Mile 5: 16:08

After averaging 13:18 over 13.1 miles at the Zydeco, it's not much fun to run miles at these kinds of paces, but I feel so good. Not only that, but all kinds of people who have followed this process have seen spectacular results. I am excited.

Today was my first MAF Test of 2012.

I'm very surprised by the results, given how much of a slacker I've been since the last one two months ago. Previously, I've counted 2km per lap, whereas today, I did 1km= 1 lap.

It looks like I've reduced my times, regardless. 

        Laps     Time

Lap 1   07:26.96

Lap 2   08:26.84

Lap 3   08:19.54 

Lap 4   08:31.60 

Lap 5   08:32.50 

Lap 6   08:31.43 

Lap 7   08:29.39 

Total   58:59.94

Today I did my second MAF Test (Maximum Aerobic Function), and much to my surprise, I saw progress!

Note: Each lap is 2km

I actually think my progress is understated by the lap comparisons.

For test 1, I just hopped of the treadmill and took a picture at every split.

For test 2, I downloaded a stopwatch application to my phone and just logged a split whilst running. The latter was a lot more precise, excepting when the treadmill decided to scroll a summary right around the time of a split! I also didn't need to adjust my pace to capture a split, which helped. Lap 2 is a bit weird. I was startled during that lap when someone wronged an adjacent treadmill, resulting in a lot of awful, loud noise. 

(<--my view of the rugby)

I'm so glad I went and did the test now. I was really struggling to go to the gym this morning, and were it not for Hubs pushing me and the ability to watch the England-France game, I would have been perfectly happy to just stay on the couch. 

As one is supposed to stay within one's Maximum Aerobic Function, first thing to do two weeks ago was determine mine. I initially calculated one of 146 using website advice; however, the book said that asthmatics should deduct and extra 5. So....

As of today, my magic number is: 180- 34 -5 = 141. (Yes, I'm 34.)

This comes as a bit of a disappointment. I've been using 146 as my MAF, and to work with that, I start my hour long runs around 8 km/h and end around 7.5 km/h. 7.5 km/h is a twelve minute mile. For someone who has largely trained by just getting on the treadmill and accepting nothing less than a 10 minute mile, this feels like a setback, even though it really isn't. 

I've also read that I should, under no circumstances exceed my MAF at first, which means my cheating and going up to 152 or so at the end is a no-no going forward. It also means I should temporarily abandon weightlifting and focus on improving my aerobic function first. I also need to spend more time on warmup and cooldown. 

One thing I have found is that running at a slower pace over the past few weeks, while bad for my ego, is genuinely pleasant. I can happily jog away a 10k, and really just enjoy the music. It isn't stressful, as it was when training at a higher rate. 

Tomorrow will be my first day using my new rate of 141 as a target. I'll also be doing my first MAF test. The idea here is that I record what pace correlates to keeping me at my MAF (136-141) over the course of five miles. With each mile, one will typically need to reduce pace to remain around threshold, which is why you record it throughout. I'll repeat this test in 4 weeks or so.