Fatdude: I'm in a similar place as you. I'm a new runner trying LHR methods, and I can see some small improvements after 6 weeks, so I doubt your aerobic fitness is so low that LHR isn't worth it,

Assuming you answered the other questions that go along with the calculation (deducts for illness, medication, etc), your HR sounds right. The recommended range in one of the articles referenced by the FAQ would be 131-141 for you (from 10 below MAF up to MAF ).

The different soreness is normal. It should ease up soon.

The muscle soreness probably comes from using small aerobic muscle fibers that were not used much before training at slower paces. I've had it happen and I've seen it in athletes at all levels of fitness.

Be careful about stretching -- I've seen it cause much more trouble than it's worth. Better to spend the time warming up as per Maffetone (I don't think he's a fan of stretching either, for good reasons I'm sure)

quote:<HR>Originally posted by catwoman73:

One more question- I am about due to do a MAF test. Should I even bother? I already know the results will be horrible, but it may be good to get a baseline to see if improvements do start to happen once the pollen/mold spore counts are down. Any thoughts?

Thanks, all!

Pam

<HR>

Most definitely, do your MAF test. All good data is good data (you might not like what you see, but...). And, you might be pleasantly surprised.

I did this little test last night. It was three miles and the times are below:

1..15.53..MAXHR..141
2..16.04..MAXHR..141
3..16.30..MAXHR..141

Is this enough of a test to gauge progress? Say in three months or so?

Kent

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Ok, thanks. I got the temp at 70 and the dewpoint 59.


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Ok, I posted a few weeks ago that my MAF training was going pretty good, so I was very excited to see the Dew Point drop 20 degrees for 3 or 4 recent runs. The problem is these runs ended up being my worst runs in quite a few weeks.

I can live with that. Maybe the excitement and thrill and anticipation of being able to run faster during those runs raised my HR and prevented me from running faster!

Anyway, I have been running MAF now for almost 16 weeks. I run four 1 hour runs and one 1.5 hour run a week at MAF 140, my pace somewhere in the 13 minute range. I set my HRM to allow me to run between 130-140 bpm. After 16 weeks I am still walking about 40% of the time. Is this normal, or should I be able to "run" the whole way? A few times last night I counted my steps while running and walking. I was running around 120-150 steps before I reached 141 and then I would walk around 50-60 steps before I reached 129 and started running again. It is getting a little frustrating! At the end of my run last night, after hitting 129, I "ran" as slow as I could and I did last longer before going over MAF, but I was taking 6 inch steps (the heel of my shoe would land about 6 inches in front of the toe of the other shoe). I calculated my pace when I got home, using runningmap.com to figure out how far I'd run, and I am guessing I was slogging along at about a 20 minute pace.

Should I keep running/walking? Should I run at 20 minute pace?

Most importantly, should I still be this aerobically unfit after this amount of time? Any success stories out there that started out sounding like mine?

Thanks

Whew! I just read the entire thread! It took me about 3 weeks, reading off and on, which is about the amout of time that I've been doing the LHR training. Thanks for all the useful info. I thought I was in fairly good shape, but my iniitial Low Hr training definitely proved otherwise. I've been training steadily for the past 7 years, but my runs were pretty much always in the 3 to 5 mile range. I did a half marathon last April, and I did the cool running pre race plan, but I couldn't figure out why I never got any faster, and I really worried that I would even be able to finish! I did, in just over 2 hrs 10 min, but those last 4 miles were torturous. I'm planning on doing it again next April, and I won't even mind if I don't get a lot faster. I'll be satisfeid to enjoy it more, and so far, I definitely feel like I'm on the right track...albeit a slow one.