Well, I think we can say the summer racing season in the UK is now well and truly over. There are a few races left this year I might look to do before Christmas, but nothing I've got my heart set on.

With this in mind, it means it's time to start building up the base for next year's racing season.

Today I discovered maximum aerobic function (MAF) training (PDF from Phil Maffetone who came up with the idea). Essentially, you take 180, subtract your age, add or subtract a bit more based on health and experience and then use the range of that number less about 10 bpm as your training range. You then do all your "base" training in that range and see great results.

This all sounds well and good and the long term results sound good, but I'm concerned about this rather generic approach, especially considering if I took 180 and subtracted my age (31) and added 5 (I pretty much meet criteria 4 in the link above), I get a heart rate of 154 BPM. This is not very high at all, especially considering that I've clocked a maximum HR during a race (Woodley 10k in which I set my season best) of 203 this year.

Has anyone had any experience with using this MAF method for their base training? I'm interested in the positive and negative experiences people may have had.

The other approach I've been contemplating is Arthur Lydiard's run a "million miles a week" approach, but that scares me, unless of course you've got some good information on that topic too.

Sorry about the lack of updates - work has been crazy and I've not really had much to write about in my little world of running, but now I do .

So far the running has been going well. I'm slowly building up the "time on my feet" to get my body and feet used to running. This is mainly an injury prevention measure. I'm also trying to stick to the old adage that you shouldn't increase your mileage by more than 10% a week.

At the moment I'm up to 2x 18-20 min gentle runs a week with one in Vibrams and one in shoes, and 2-3 weights sessions in the gym broken up into upper body and lower body workouts (this is actually a major cut in the amount of gym work I used to do so is also taking a fair amount of getting used to). The runs have been going really well and I've not felt the slightest bit of pain or discomfort in either my feet or calves.

That is until I tried something different on Monday. Foolishly, I thought I might see if I can start throwing some speed work in to the mix and to get things going, thought I'd determine my Billat pace (aka vVO2) (mistake 1), in my Vibrams (mistake 2).

I took a leisurely jog down to a nearby park which has a path around it that is about a mile long (mapmyrun.com route

Continue reading →