"there's no progress without some kind of training stress" Not if you are over-stressed to begin with.
One premise of Maffetone's training is that most people are over stressing their bodies by doing too much anaerobic training. The "reset" for this is to remove the stress and allow the body to catch up with itself. His advice for world class athletes is to remove as many stressors as possible, including intervals and tempo runs. Why? Two reasons. First, the body needs to heal from the adrenalin and cortisol and friends coursing through it's system. Second, to build up aerobic capacity, the base on which any anaerobic effort happens. When the base is small, we always engage anaerobic (sugar as the primary fuel is Maffetone's definition) in order to run fast. Yes, volume helps in building the aerobic capacity, but healing from over training and building the base to whatever your standard load is will get you farther than you likely realize. Maffetone's approach, in my experience, is much like Grant's approach to cycling. What we have been told in the last 30+ years is wrong and we need to return to basics to get it right. From there, if we are doing a specific application, we can easily branch out from that base. Maffetone is not against anaerobic training, but says that without an aerobic base you will not get as fast as you can with one. As far as incorporating MAF into cycling, that is easy. It is simply a matter of gaging your effort and staying within that rather than going above it. It really is amazing how quickly you get faster with the same effort. You may find using a heart rate monitor helpful until you learn what your MAF feels like. I simply go by feel and can easily tell when I am pushing above my MAF (maximum aerobic function). On Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:46:31 PM UTC-6, Patrick in VT wrote: > > > > On Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:30:34 PM UTC-4, Deacon Patrick wrote: > "Doing MAF training in my experience does not require as high a volume as > you describe to yield results" > > Thanks for the reply. Like any training protocol, I think it really > depends on an individual's current level of fitness, what his/her goals > are, and what inputs we respond to. there's a lot of variability, person to > person. I'm certainly not opposed to riding/running slow ... I do often > and it's integral to my training. But a strict Maff programs wouldn't do > anything for me unless I significantly increased my volume because there's > no progress without some kind of training stress (Optimal Stress + Optimal > Recovery = Optimal Progress). With Maff, the additional stress is > introduced with more aerobic work (training at low intensity means one can > do longer sessions and/or train daily). > > As an example, my current target for an on-road 5k is 18:30. I'm running > 19:xx's now at that distance on 4 runs/wk (about 20-30mpw) - long easy run, > 2 tempo runs and 1 interval run. Only the long easy run would I be close > to a Maff approved HR. If I were to do each run at my Maff HR, there is > no way my time would improve . .. rather, I'd plateau very quickly and > there would be no improvement unless and until I added stress, either with > more volume or some intensity. The famous "Maffers" I know of, like Mark > Allen, were doing *enormous* volume for months at a time (then doing a > build/speedwork phase on top of that, by the way). > > I have no doubt I could hit 18:30 on a Maff program if I could run > 70-80mpw ...that ain't gonna happen for me, so I have to introduce stress > in the form of intensity to keep things moving in the right direction. > training gets really simple time is a fixed variable. anyway, this is way > off-topic .. .let's go offlist if you want to keep it going. > > on-topic comment: Michael's perceived lack of "punch" is most likely a > very relative term given what I know of the commute he used to have. > Westford to Burlington has to be about 40mi roundtrip with a good amount of > "up" in either direction, probably some wind to battle, tacky dirt roads .. > .. that's a baller commute! better believe that fellow is fit! > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
