uknowlessthanudidyesterday wrote:
Maffetone is somewhat of a legend that not many in todays world know of.
He was one of the first big thinkers when heart rate monitors came out. Advised Mark Allen who you all wouldn't know and a few others. Not sure about the sub 2 hour stuff but his book was good back in the day.
He is a popsychologist with no scientific data to back his claims, his big secret is in slowing people down who would over run most runs. He used some gimmick formula and a heart rate monitor to baby sit a person. He never takes into account, heats effect on hr, sleep or lack of sleeps effect on hr, time of day effect on hr, individual fitness level effect on hr, a persons weight effect on hr, so on and so on. One can easily summarize that is you slow down, you can run more and farther and eventually you will become naturally faster from just running more.
Last year I ran 80% of my easy runs around 145BPM @ 8:45-9:30 a mile weighing 160lbs. This year I weigh 170lbs and I'm running the same paces at 155BPM, why? Because I'm heavier and my heart has to work harder due to fat in my body. Should I stick to 145 and run 9:45-10:30 to stay in his magic formula, no! If anything is close to right it would be running by lactate threshold values for setting up zones or learning to run by feel as Lydiard stated. Guess what Running by feel actually puts me in zone 2 where most mitochondria is produced.
Get that poppsychologist the hell out of here, no elite runner follows his training and no one races at MAF.