Heart Rate Monitor Training and Dr. Phil Maffetone

My experience with low heart rate training, inspired by Dr. Phil Maffetone. This is a deep dive into the specifics of aerobic heart rate training, calculating MAF paces using the 180 formula, challenges to overcome and more. Full transcript of this video available at http://extramilest.com/blog

During exercise your energy comes from different sources, it comes partly from glucose that your body is burning and it comes from body fat that is being burned as well. A fit athlete who is very fat adopted, is able to use a significant higher part of body fat percentage for fuel than an unfit athlete. This comes in particularly handy during a later part of an endurance race. Many fit athletes are able to run for hours and hours on just body fat without having to fuel up.

A lot of athletes train at a heart rate that is much too high for them, so it teaches their body to use primarily glucose for energy source and use very limited body fat for energy.

If you want to run a marathon or beyond in distance and finish strong, you want to get as much of your energy out of body fat. This will significantly reduce your risk of bonking later on in the race.

What most people will notice when they start off training with a heart rate monitor training at MAF pace is that they have to slow down significantly. I had the same thing, I used to train a lot on the road at pace before I had a HRM, and this was above my fitness level at the time.

When I started using the 180 formula, I had to slow down to a pace of 8:21 min / mile on road (5:11 min / km) and about 11 min / mile (6:50 min / km) on trials, so this felt like I was almost standing still at this point.

Once you train at Max Aerobic Heart Rate for a while, you actually become much more efficient and you use much less energy at the same heart rate. So after 1 month of training this way, I was able to drop my aerobic pace down to a 7:43 min / mile (4:47 min / km) , so I shaved off a total of 37 seconds per mile or 24 seconds per km. I started making a slight progress every month and after 18 months right before the Boston marathon, my aerobic pace dropped to 6:10 minute / miles (3:49 min / km) at a HR of 148. So if you calculate that over a marathon time, that makes a massive difference right there.

I was talking to Mark Allen, he is the 6 time world champ iron man and his coach Dr. Phil Maffetone. Mark used to train in the No Pain no gain mentality, he was hammering out a lot of 5:30 min / miles (3:25 min / km). When Dr Phil Maffetone first had Mark train with a Heart Rate Monitor, Mark had to slow down significantly to a pace of 8:30 min / mile (5:16 min / km). When he trained like that, over time he became faster. First it became an 8 min / mile (4:58 min / km) pace at the same Heart Rate, then a 7:30 min / mile (4:23 min / km) pace, eventually it dropped all the way down to 5:20 min / mile (3:18 min / km) at the same heart rate. This comes in very handy at the end of an endurance race, in both running and the triathlon, he has a significant advantage from that.

When I trained for the Boston marathon, I trained for several months only at maximum aerobic heart rate, zero speedwork. Eventually over time I started adding some speedwork. In total, 94% of my runs were at low heart rate and only 6% at a higher heart rate. If you’re going to be training for a Sub 3 Hour Marathon or Marathon PR, I can highly recommend you add 3 to 6 months of only aerobic base building to your training schedule. This is going to be hard for most people, especially when you go out running with friends, they are going to wonder why you are running so slow. You have to trust the system, over time you are going to become a much faster runner. Give it a try and see how much progress you are able to make, patience is key. That is why most people don't stick to this.

To measure your aerobic progress, you can do a MAF test on a monthly basis. What this means is you go to a running track and you warm up for about 15 minutes. After that you run 5 miles (8km) at max aerobic heart rate and you measure your time per mile or per kilometer. At the end you calculate what your average time per mile or km is, that is your max aerobic heart rate pace.

Over time your aerobic pace should improve, like on a monthly basis. Naturally if you’re healthy athlete and you are training at max aerobic hr, you should progress for several months on end.

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Article mentioned: https://philmaffetone.com/180-formula/

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