I was forwarded an article by a potential running coach that completely justifies my approach in this contest against CrossFit Endurance. Essentially it boils down to Mike doing short workouts in which he raises his heart rate to 180+ for 10-15 minutes, and I am doing longer ones of 50 minutes or greater where I maintain a heart rate of 150 or so. Simple math.
Well it turns out I am going too fast if I want to go faster. Mark Allen, the six-time Ironman winner, based his entire career on doing workouts in which he kept his heart rate at a level based on the below formula (the ironic thing is one of the first articles I read about CrossFit criticized Allen for wasting time training at such a slow pace).It's called MAF runnning.
Take 180
2. Subtract your age
3. Take this number and correct it by the following:
-If you do not workout, subtract another 5 beats.
-If you workout only 1-2 days a week, only subtract 2 or 3 beats.
-If you workout 3-4 times a week keep the number where it is.
-If you workout 5-6 times a week keep the number where it is.
-If you workout 7 or more times a week and have done so for over a year, add 5 beats to the number.
-If you are over about 55 years old or younger than about 25 years old, add another 5 beats to whatever number you now have.
-If you are about 20 years old or younger, add an additional 5 beats to the corrected number you now have.
The theory is that if you do your runs at this heart rate, you will increasingly get faster at the same heart rate. After four months, the benefits to this approach eventually diminshes, and you have to start doing speed work. This isn't radically different from what I am doing now - I just need to run slower.
I was losing fitness but it turns out I am going too fast.
Who knew - I'll taunt Mike with my slowness to get faster.
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