AM: 10.4 miles, averaged 8:24. HR 133.
MAF Test #2
Quite chilly this morning at around 36-38 degrees, which was a bit of a shift from previous mornings. It was quite foggy as well, so I worried about visibility on the tempo loop, but it ended up being fine.
I feel quite satisfied with how I have been able to sustain the patience for this approach. I am pretty good at running sensibly easy, but to not even let things naturally pickup once in a while is somewhat different.
4 weeks ago I ran 8:21 @ 140 BPM for 5 miles. I started at 8:14 and slowed to 8:22-8:24 for the remaining splits. Today I was able to run a good deal faster and without any drift and in fact had the pace DROP. I ran 5 miles @ 8:03 @ 140 BPM. 18 seconds faster and only 7 seconds of drift as opposed to 9.
8:03 @ 139, 8:07 @ 139, 8:04 @ 140, 8:00 @ 140, 8:01 @ 140 and I actually ran another mile at effort to see if I would slow, but I sped up to 7:58. I do not know how long it would have taken for the pace to slow as I ran out of time, but I was going to keep going and in fact might make it the focus of my long run to test this.
I think I could bump my MAF number up to 144/145 and run a little bit faster. AI projects that I would run around 7:40-7:48 if I used that number for my test. That seems about right. I imagine the top of zone 2 right now is around 7:20-7:25 (assuming 148-152 beats per minute is the upper end of zone 2).
I am enjoying this experiment now that I have been able to commit to it and it seems to be working. Of course, my cycling is also helping, but that overall training hasn't really changed, so I imagine it is mostly helping me maintain fitness, but hard to say.
I will test again in 4 weeks after Iceman and decide whether to continue until the end of the year or start including some higher aerobic work in my long runs.
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