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I thought I would start this thread as some of you seem to be interested in knowing more about the Maffetone Method of low HR training. I'd also like to share my personal experience thus far with it and I'm planning to keep the thread updated with my most up-to-date progress.
First off, a link to a PDF file that pretty much summerises the whole idea: http://content.bandzoogle.com/users/cippianhotmail/files/Want_Speed_Slow_Down_2007.pdf
Please grab a copy if you are not already familiar with his method. I can't explain his theory better than the man himself, can I?
I'm still reading his book "The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing" but I've finished reading most of the core chapters regarding training and diet. It's basically just a highly elaborated version of the PDF article above.
In his book Maffetone said something along the line of "being fit and being healthy are 2 different things", and that really did it for me. Do I want to be fit or do I want to be healthy? Too many times have we seen runners putting in all the hard work, setting PB's, ignoring the niggles they have picked up along the way, putting in more even harder work, and achieving more personal goals, only to find themselves injured or getting sick and having to spend a prolonged period of time on the sideline and watch their hard earned fitness decline.
I have first hand experience of that "syndrome" when I broke my heel bone in May 2010. I was still a relatively new runner, I was training hard trying to set PB's, doing tempo and interval sessions once or twice weekly, etc. I was fit (by my standard then), I was setting PB's in my 10k's and 5k's. I picked up a niggle on my ankle/heel some time in May, didn't thought much of it, continued to train hard, even set a PB in a 5k race later that month. Of course the "niggle" turned out to be a fractured heel bone and I was banned from any form of sport for the following 6 weeks! During that 6 weeks down time I did a lot of reading and found out about barefoot running, I've since been converted as many of you are already aware of but this post isn't about that so I won't go there
Now in early Oct 2011, 15 months after my recovery from the injury, my barefoot running had served me very well, I set a 10k PB on 1st Oct. Things were indeed going very well. However, at that point some of the training sessions had become quite hard and I started to feel that it was going to be rather difficult for me to progress very far anymore. I started to doubt if the hardest sessions were worth it. I fear the effort/reward ratio would start to decline very quickly, and injury became a real risk again.
That was when I stumbled upon Maffetone's theory and I found it very interesting. I liked his theory on improving the body's aerobic functions, in order to improve general health, and only then, incorporate anaerobic training to further enhance running and racing performance. Being just a middle-of-the-pack runner I thought it made sense for me to train in a more sensible way that doesn't jeopardise my health. It's not like I have an Olympic medal to chase anyway so there really isn't much for me to lose by trying something new from scratch again. I gave up all the mileage to start running barefoot from literally zero distance last year, so the idea of giving up all the speed and start from zero again isn't too much of a shock to me
I'm now almost 6 weeks into training strictly below a HR suggested by Maffetone's book, and I'll share some data and charts to illustrate my progress in my next post.
First off, a link to a PDF file that pretty much summerises the whole idea: http://content.bandzoogle.com/users/cippianhotmail/files/Want_Speed_Slow_Down_2007.pdf
Please grab a copy if you are not already familiar with his method. I can't explain his theory better than the man himself, can I?
I'm still reading his book "The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing" but I've finished reading most of the core chapters regarding training and diet. It's basically just a highly elaborated version of the PDF article above.
In his book Maffetone said something along the line of "being fit and being healthy are 2 different things", and that really did it for me. Do I want to be fit or do I want to be healthy? Too many times have we seen runners putting in all the hard work, setting PB's, ignoring the niggles they have picked up along the way, putting in more even harder work, and achieving more personal goals, only to find themselves injured or getting sick and having to spend a prolonged period of time on the sideline and watch their hard earned fitness decline.
I have first hand experience of that "syndrome" when I broke my heel bone in May 2010. I was still a relatively new runner, I was training hard trying to set PB's, doing tempo and interval sessions once or twice weekly, etc. I was fit (by my standard then), I was setting PB's in my 10k's and 5k's. I picked up a niggle on my ankle/heel some time in May, didn't thought much of it, continued to train hard, even set a PB in a 5k race later that month. Of course the "niggle" turned out to be a fractured heel bone and I was banned from any form of sport for the following 6 weeks! During that 6 weeks down time I did a lot of reading and found out about barefoot running, I've since been converted as many of you are already aware of but this post isn't about that so I won't go there
Now in early Oct 2011, 15 months after my recovery from the injury, my barefoot running had served me very well, I set a 10k PB on 1st Oct. Things were indeed going very well. However, at that point some of the training sessions had become quite hard and I started to feel that it was going to be rather difficult for me to progress very far anymore. I started to doubt if the hardest sessions were worth it. I fear the effort/reward ratio would start to decline very quickly, and injury became a real risk again.
That was when I stumbled upon Maffetone's theory and I found it very interesting. I liked his theory on improving the body's aerobic functions, in order to improve general health, and only then, incorporate anaerobic training to further enhance running and racing performance. Being just a middle-of-the-pack runner I thought it made sense for me to train in a more sensible way that doesn't jeopardise my health. It's not like I have an Olympic medal to chase anyway so there really isn't much for me to lose by trying something new from scratch again. I gave up all the mileage to start running barefoot from literally zero distance last year, so the idea of giving up all the speed and start from zero again isn't too much of a shock to me
I'm now almost 6 weeks into training strictly below a HR suggested by Maffetone's book, and I'll share some data and charts to illustrate my progress in my next post.