{"id":18081,"date":"2014-12-11T06:35:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T06:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=18081"},"modified":"2014-12-11T06:35:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T06:35:43","slug":"time-maf-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/12\/time-maf-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for a MAF Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hot on the heels of my FTP Test<\/a> on \u00a0the bike on Monday,\u00a0it was time to monitor progress (or lack of) in my running by performing\u00a0a MAF Test.<\/p>\n

MAF, a term coined by Dr. Phil Maffetone stands for Maximum Aerobic Function – I\u00a0won’t go into it here as I have a post planned about it soon enough. I’m not sure that the Maffetone approach and the MAF zone quite works for me, so I have plenty to say about it, so that can wait for another post. However, the test consists of a steady state run at your MAF heart rate. Your MAF heart rate is calculated as 180 minus your age, so for me at 44 (it’s my birthday today in fact) it should be 136bpm. To do the test you simply do a warm up and then run on a flat course\u00a0for 5 miles at your MAF Heart Rate. You actually aim for a heart rate zone 5 beats either side of your MAF Heart Rate. You record your pace per mile for each mile and if you like you can then average these out to find your MAF Pace.\u00a0During any one MAF Test, your times should always get slower with successive repetitions. In other words, the first mile should always be the fastest, and the last the slowest.<\/p>\n

If you do this test several times you can track improvements in your pace over time.<\/p>\n

I tend to do this test on the track at the\u00a0University as running on a flat track in circles helps to control any environmental factors that might otherwise impact on your pace such as hills, wind, running surface etc. Doing the test at the same time of day and in a similarly rested state also helps to control for fatigue \/ state of mind variables, but you can’t control for everything.<\/p>\n

Yesterdays test went well though. A nice early start in the morning so I was running in the dark and after a short warm up which allowed my heart rate to settle down I was into my run. Often the first few minutes of a warm up sees my heart rate reading much higher than it actually is, buts this is just due to the fact that there\u00a0isn’t a proper contact between my body and the heart rate strap. Once I warm up and start to sweat a little it settles down.<\/p>\n

Here are my results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Mile<\/th>Pace (Mins\/mile)<\/th>Heart Rate (bpm)<\/th>MAF Test Pace on 22nd Oct (Mins\/mile)<\/th>MAF Test Pace on 20th Aug (Mins\/mile)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Mile 1<\/td>7:18<\/td>139<\/td>7:45<\/td>8:07<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mile 2<\/td>7:23<\/td>141<\/td>7:46<\/td>8:11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mile 3<\/td>7:32<\/td>141<\/td>7:56<\/td>8:20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mile 4<\/td>7:39<\/td>142<\/td>8:04<\/td>8:21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mile 5<\/td>7:43<\/td>142<\/td><\/td>8:22<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

As you can see it was a fairly good MAF test. My Heart Rate was a little high. I was aiming for 137 (as I was 43 yesterday!), but it was dark and I\u00a0couldn’t see my watch so it was just a little higher than it should have been. However, my pace slowed gradually throughout the run. The pace wasn’t bad though and I felt good. More\u00a0importantly it was an improvement over my previous tests this year, the results of which are also included in the table.<\/p>\n