I used some of my hard earned money to have an hour consult with Mega Ultra Cool Runner/Coach Zach Bitter. He’d been giving me a bit of advise anyway on messenger. We discussed Maximum Aerobic Function training.
He really knew his stuff. Amongst other things I’ve made a note below of what I learnt.
In order to work out a more accurate MAF heart rate run 30 minutes all out / race. Then take the last 20 mins and use the average and subtract your age.
Instead of running 70 – 80 miles at MAF less 10 beats pick up the effort and run 40 miles to begin with and try to increase the miles each week. The rest of my mileage can be easy.
In Ryan Hall’s book he talks about the east Aficans. They train similar; easy is easy but their progression runs (MAF) are fast.
If training for a half marathon it will be worth doing a few tempo runs but only if it feels OK. If training for a full marathon then tempos are not necessarily required as the pace will be close enough.
