Thursday, September 12, 2013

TL; DR; MAF is working it's magic...

(For the non internet-cognescenti: TL; DR:  means Too long, didn't read.)

Another boring post of weekly summaries for the last 90 days interspersed with pics from various things we've done or visited:

Date    Miles     Pace   BPM   WHR%     Elev+    Elev-     YPB
2013-06-10 Mon 26.8 11:33 126.2 65.7 1609.0 1601.6 1.233
2013-06-17 Mon 33.3 11:30 124.5 64.3 1286.0 1275.3 1.228
2013-06-24 Mon 6.8 10:03 122.0 62.3 44.4 47.8 1.438
2013-07-01 Mon 8.0 9:29 127.0 66.4 91.6 89.9 1.464
2013-07-08 Mon 30.6 9:31 124.1 64.0 152.4 162.7 1.489
2013-07-15 Mon 25.3 9:44 123.9 63.8 430.6 438.2 1.483
2013-07-22 Mon 30.2 9:33 125.6 65.3 255.5 258.6 1.471
2013-07-29 Mon 43.0 9:34 123.4 63.5 490.6 496.9 1.493
2013-08-05 Mon 33.0 9:31 122.7 62.9 394.9 363.3 1.513
2013-08-12 Mon 18.4 9:20 124.5 64.3 72.5 41.4 1.524
2013-08-19 Mon 28.5 9:21 124.1 64.1 417.4 432.8 1.525
2013-08-26 Mon 21.4 9:16 124.3 64.2 127.8 136.1 1.535
2013-09-02 Mon 29.3 8:59 125.1 64.9 112.0 115.6 1.553
2013-09-09 Mon 14.2 8:54 126.8 66.2 44.6 52.0 1.560
Summary 348.8 9:47 122.1 62.4 5529.3 5512.3 1.460


(Two more weeks and the double marathons on 6/16 and 6/17 will FINALLY drop off this report...seems like 6 months ago not 3 months..)

In the YPB column, you can see the gradual progression from 1.4xx to 1.5xx..which means my paces have gone from 9:30-9:40 to 9:00 at about the same MAF-ish HR of 125 bpm. I'm not long run trained or LT trained, but basic aerobic economy is there. Right now sitting and typing this my resting HR is 46 bpm...only gets that low when I've been doing a bunch of running for a while.

8 days to my 'moonlight' 10k.


I've been doing some mile and 800 intervals, as well as some  tempo runs. I don't think my LT threshold is high enough yet (takes 6 weeks)  to get a PR, (even if the crowding on the course isn't bad), but I'm enjoying doing some speedwork anyway just for a change from MAF.

So, it's going well. Last week, I ran 30 miles at an average pace of 9:00..that is a high base pace for me...I've only done average paces like during the Tacoma buildup.

Crunching the data, if I look over all weekly totals, that week is the 3rd most efficient week out of 36 weeks (I am throwing out weeks with less than 15 miles and slower than 9:30
miles..there are only 36 of them). 15 weeks in that list are from the 2013 Tacoma buildup! 

So far, I have no injuries and not even any niggles (knock wood). Pretty amazing.  

I'm running in a new pair of Kinvara 4's, and use my Scotts for days where I feel a bit more tired in the feet. (Not often, about once or twice a week).

I think the Chi running, wearing calf sleeves for every run, and foam rolling are what's doing it. (as well as drills, exercises, etc). 

I'm running using glutes now, not legs. It's quite different from how I was running in 2009!

Ok, the photos: The first photo is of the flukes of a humpback whale right next to the boat! The 2nd photo is not Hogwart's dining hall.... I'll bet nobody can guess where it's from. Here's one more photo that is a clue as to where I was:

PS: Re: swimming: have done some but sorry to say been off it for the last two weeks due to other constraints...when push comes to shove and I'm short of time I do the running. I also feel really feel like I need to work on my neck flexibility to get the most out of it. 




7 comments:

  1. Sounds like your running is going really well. I read so many good reports about Maffetone training and the numbers up there really show just how effective it is.

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  2. Paul, how long have you been doing MAF? I just ordered the book.

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    1. I've been running since about mid 2007. IN the beginning I was so slow it was always MAF ;).

      I read about it a couple of years ago and wrote the software I have now for crunching my data to follow yards per beat...which is basically what you are doing with MAF.

      IN the beginning my legs could not even run at MAF. I was such a pokey guy. But some strength work, hills etc fixed that. (Although I still don't do enough)

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  3. I can totally appreciate the desire to do some running to break up the MAF monotony! I do think it's an amazing tool, though.

    Very cool shot of the whale, and Universal?

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    1. I suspect MAF is more useful for you that for me..I think you probably tend to run too fast too often.

      My problem was getting my muscles able to even run at MAF day after day. I was running 10 beats LOWER than MAF when first started running ;)

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  4. Since all my squats & Dr Metzl tips, I really feel a push in my glutes. So, I hear ya' on that one. Love the barnacles on the whale's tale - very cool.

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  5. That whale picture is awesome!

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