Club together with a few training partners and it becomes pretty affordable...$300 for a blood lactate analyzer, hmmm, hard to justify when bike parts need regular replacing. Maybe some day.
Try this on. Instead of thinking one day, reframe to six months, minimum, for a proper heat check. I had to walk, on flat terrain, when I bumped into a mild headwind. Your heart will love you and your KB practice will improve.@Don Fairbanks. Thank you for the article. A lot of information in there to digest. I'm going to give a few more runs in MAF style a go. It was a strange sensation tonight trying to run and look at your wrist whilst trying to look forward and then adjust speed/gait accordingly. I certainly was not smooth. I think I gave myself a small interval session. Hopefully I can settle on a technique fairly soon.
It was a strange sensation tonight trying to run and look at your wrist whilst trying to look forward and then adjust speed/gait accordingly.
Yes, HR alerts, very helpful initially.I could see this being annoying and challenging. It works well on a bike because I'm displaying my heart rate on my bike computer on the handlebars right in front of my face. I've heard people on this forum mention that you can set an alarm on your watch that correlates with your maximum desired heart rate so when it beeps you back off a bit. Not sure which HR monitor/watch has this feature.
I hear you about too many variables. Here's some tips that I have garnered from MAF running for the past year:I received my HRM and tentatively set out on my first MAF run with a little knowledge gained from the helpful people on this site, and to be honest my feedback would be that I maybe think it is not for me. Not because it is a bad method or anything, but because myself as an individual introduces too many variables for it to be effective.
If you were running on a flat athletics track in a warm location under controlled conditions, with constant heart rate (I.e. as maffetone originally trained his runners) I can see it working well, but it does not translate well to running in the real world.
The basic problem I found is that heart rate is not constant. Running at a constant rate off road and hilly is difficult.
If there is a hill or you have to stop and start say for a gate during the run your heart rate changes. Heart rates in the real world (which has more accelerations, changes in effort due to terrain etc.) result in a much slower pace and a different gait.
Also I live in a country where there could be as much as 10°C change in temperature from morning to evening and I run at all times.
When I went my run today after work, stupidly I had my coffee pick me up prior to it, I guess this may have affected my heart rate too.
Running in different weathers must be a variable too which would affect results. The nice warm, dry summer evenings, opposed to wet slidy Autumnal leaves underfoot must be a negative variable.
I think I need to seek out a program to follow that a recreational runner may use to build base fitness, as this is all I really want and throw it in when I'm out with the dog. The equivalent of a "Simple" program for runners. I thought MAF was it, or am I just not understanding what its function intended results are?
I have a Garmin 920xt, with a chest HR monitor. I've had two different Garmin models that have alarm features, I think most models have this now. You can set upper and lower alarms if you really want to train in a narrow HR zone.I could see this being annoying and challenging. It works well on a bike because I'm displaying my heart rate on my bike computer on the handlebars right in front of my face. I've heard people on this forum mention that you can set an alarm on your watch that correlates with your maximum desired heart rate so when it beeps you back off a bit. Not sure which HR monitor/watch has this feature.
Club together with a few training partners and it becomes pretty affordable...
@offwidth have you ever played around with lactate tests during KB ballistics?
I did this once. Brought my kettlebells to the lab of an exercise physiologist who had done a V02max test on the stationary bike. For the kettelbell session, I warmed up with a typical S&S warm-up -- goblet squats and halos with 16kg, hip bridge, 3 rounds of 5 each. He took my baseline lactate reading and it was already at 2.6. Since I was just warming up, I was surprised. (In comparison, for my VO2 max test on the bike, my baseline La was .9, and it slowly rose to .9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.7. 2.1 over the course of the first 24 minutes, increasing wattage from 1 to 75, 100, 125, 150, and 175. My HR during that time went from baseline 57 to 153.) So I asked, why is it already up at 2.6? He said, "because you did squats. Squats are very glycolytic." It was then that I realized "Alactic" or "Anti-glycolytic" really wasn't as I imagined it... And later learned that it only means that we limit the amount and durantion of glycolysis, or lactate production, not that we limit our activity so that it doesn't happen at all.
Back to the kettlebell-lactate test session -- I did sets of 10 swings on the minutes for 27 minutes, 1H with 20kg. My HR was 144-170 (the last few sets I pushed the pace to more than OTM), and lactate was between 2.6 and 5.5. So lactate never went as high as it did in the VO2max test on the bike (up to 8.0 at the end; HR 185, watts 300, RER 1.2, VO2 62).
That is some great info! Thank you for sharing.
Regarding some of the lactate/testing stuff:
-In general "Alactic" is indeed a slight misnomer. "Less lactic" would probably be more appropriate (but not as catchy). Lactate happens during the first second of exercise. By 6 seconds of maximal exercise glycolysis is contributing almost as much as the phosphocreatine system (with the note that human bodies are different). Even during low intensity cardio we are producing lactate (it is just getting shuttled very quickly).
-During the first few minutes of any exercise it's not uncommon to get higher lactate values (like after the S+S warm up) because it takes several minutes for the aerobic system to get fully turned on. During this period, even at lower intensities, you are still using a fair amount of glycolysis. When I've done step tests before it's pretty common for the second step to have a lower than the first, despite an increase in wattage.
-You can get a lot of the same benefits from lifting kettlebells you get from traditional aerobic work, but they really are apples and oranges.
-Makes sense that lactate did not get as high. Your bike test was a max, and the kettlebell test seems more like a challenging workout. Most studies I've seen comparing KB and maximal aerobic tests find that heart rate can get close, but there's always a significant difference between VO2 values. Now, maybe if they tested GS athletes that gap would diminish due to the volume and loads they're able to use.
-Link to a cool graphic showing energy supply during a 30s all out bike test. Muscle biopsies were done at 6", 15", and 30" to evaluate energy system usage: Fig. 1: Muscle energy metabolism during intense exercise. | Nature Metabolism
Only I noticed I was way below my normal pace, so I was constantly thinking if I was getting any benefit? I'll need to head over to MAF website and refresh myself on the theory/benefits.
Run B to A was different. I was running into the wind, to keep my HR in check I had to slow my pace. Now I was definitely thinking I may not be getting any benefit from going so slow?
And lactate only really becomes a problem once we pass our lactate threshold. All of this LED training is a part of expanding this zone. A high aerobic capacity allows is to use the lactate constructively. Ride/run faster for longer before fatigues sets in...That is some great info! Thank you for sharing.
Regarding some of the lactate/testing stuff:
-In general "Alactic" is indeed a slight misnomer. "Less lactic" would probably be more appropriate (but not as catchy). Lactate happens during the first second of exercise. By 6 seconds of maximal exercise glycolysis is contributing almost as much as the phosphocreatine system (with the note that human bodies are different). Even during low intensity cardio we are producing lactate (it is just getting shuttled very quickly).
-During the first few minutes of any exercise it's not uncommon to get higher lactate values (like after the S+S warm up) because it takes several minutes for the aerobic system to get fully turned on. During this period, even at lower intensities, you are still using a fair amount of glycolysis. When I've done step tests before it's pretty common for the second step to have a lower than the first, despite an increase in wattage.
-You can get a lot of the same benefits from lifting kettlebells you get from traditional aerobic work, but they really are apples and oranges.
-Makes sense that lactate did not get as high. Your bike test was a max, and the kettlebell test seems more like a challenging workout. Most studies I've seen comparing KB and maximal aerobic tests find that heart rate can get close, but there's always a significant difference between VO2 values. Now, maybe if they tested GS athletes that gap would diminish due to the volume and loads they're able to use.
-Link to a cool graphic showing energy supply during a 30s all out bike test. Muscle biopsies were done at 6", 15", and 30" to evaluate energy system usage: Fig. 1: Muscle energy metabolism during intense exercise. | Nature Metabolism
I usually run an average of 25km/week, or 100km/month. Some months as high as 150km.@mar2safety. That is reassuring to hear your experiences. How many MAF runs are you doing per week and for what distance? Have you coupled with S+S or any other StrongFirst program?
What is rucking out of interest?