A couple of interesting sessions

I was really pleased with the session I did yesterday.  It's an 8-mile route where I do 2 miles warmup, 5 miles at quicker than half marathon race pace and then 1 mile warm down.  It was a lot cooler yesterday than it was on the weekend and for the 5-mile block I managed 7:28, 7:26, 7:18, 7:15, 7:24 which is an average of 7:22.  One week earlier, on more or less the same course when it was hotter I only managed 7:50, 7:39, 7:40, 7:36, 7:45 which is an average of 7:42.  I'm really pleased with that and I now have a bit more confidence going into the Torbay Half, as long as it remains cool.

On the Shades thread on Runner's World there is currently a lot of talk about Base Training (BT).  There are various methods of doing BT but the simplest seems to be the Maffetone method of building a good aerobic base, based on a heart rate that is the Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF).  Someone on the thread has seen some great results from this.  When he started, he could run at 12 min/mile at his MAF of 142bpm.  After sometime, at the same 142bpm he was running 8:30 min/miles, so it means that he was going a lot quicker for the same level of exertion.

From the Maffetone site:

To find your maximum aerobic training heart rate, there are two important steps. First, subtract your age from 180. Next, find the best category for your present state of fitness and health, and make the appropriate adjustments: 

1. Subtract your age from 180. 

2. Modify this number by selecting among the following categories the one that best matches your fitness and health profile: 

a. If you have or are recovering from a major illness (heart disease, any operation or hospital stay, etc.) or are on any regular medication, subtract an additional 10.  

b. If you are injured, have regressed in training or competition, get more than two colds or bouts of flu per year, have allergies or asthma, or if you have been inconsistent or are just getting back into training, subtract an additional 5. 

c. If you have been training consistently (at least four times weekly) for up to two years without any of the problems just mentioned, keep the number (180–age) the same. 

d. If you have been training for more than two years without any of the problems listed above, and have made progress in competition without injury, add 5.

So, for me I'm 37.  I don't have any injury and I more less fall into section 2)c).  Therefore, 180-37 gives me a MAF of 143, meaning my MAF zone for base training is between 133 and 143 BMP.   This means that all training should be done between these zones (without exception), which equates to quite a low heart rate for most people which can be off-putting as the pace is slow.

There is more about this here and a good blog post from an ultra runner here.

Anyway, I had an easy 5-miler planned today and I thought I'd give it a go to see what pace I'd be running at if I did try BT.  I'm afraid I didn't manage to stay in the 133-143 range for the whole run but I was relatively pleased.  A screenshot of my HR together with the route elevation is:

You can see I started off too quickly but got into the routine okay.  The average for the run was 143, so I was relatively pleased.

I'm not committing to doing this yet as it means lots of slow miles for a period of several weeks but it's interesting doing a quick test to see what it's all about.   To be honest, I'm not sure if I have the patience for it but I'll definitely be keeping it mind.