MAF Test - I Did One.

I had a long chat with Dr. Phil Maffetone today on Skype (he has a beard!), and that motivated me to collect some of my own data by doing a legit MAF test. Well, talking to him motivated me, not his beard lol ;) I don't do a lot of testing for myself anymore because, to be honest, it's really the last thing I want to think about after doing all that for my clients very regularly. But I'll admit, it is fun to get in some useable data and to see where my aerobic fitness is at currently!

That said, I do a lot of MAF running already, and have an idea of my normal MAF pace on my regular routes, but they're not really tests in the sense that the variables aren't usually controlled for and most my routes are hilly and involve random stops or whatever. So by legit test, I did a proper warmup, and landed myself at the high school track for 5 nonstop miles on a controlled, flat loop, no hills, holding my target MAF HR, and if it spiked or dropped I got it back to MAF within seconds. Running 5 miles on the track really wasn't boring, and I actually really enjoyed it. I did have to dodge all the high schoolers at track practice and whatnot, but oddly we're not allowed to run on the track when school's in session so I had no choice but to do it at this time (or wait till weekend, but I didn't want to do that). Anywho...

Test Variables

Location: Laguna Beach High School Track

Time of Day: 2:53 pm start (not normally my ideal running time, but I felt great and decided to go for it. Normally I'm a morning runner)

Temp: 73 degrees F and overcast (perfect!)

Playlist: Girl Talk (All Day album)

Shoes: Pearl Izumi Em Road M3s, they're old but one of my fave pairs

Target HR: 151 (MAF = 180-age, thus 180-29)... that is close to being 180-30 = 150 ;)

Previous Test Data: n/a. Couldn't find, and it's been ages anyway, but right now normally on rolling hills I'm running 8:20ish avg.

Warmup: Non-run dynamic exercises at home followed by running to the track - 13:51, 1.48 miles, 9:22 avg pace, 139 avg HR, which included walking up a steep flight of stairs to get to the high school and trying not to spike HR. My HR was comfortably at MAF when I started.

MAF Test Results

Avg pace: 8:06

Avg HR: 151

Miles: 5.00

Time: 40:30

Splits 

(lap, avg pace, avg hr):

1 - 7:51 // 151

2 - 8:02 // 152

3 - 7:56* // 152 

4 - 8:16 // 151

5 - 8:23 // 151

RPE: Very easy and relaxed.
~3-4 on scale of 1-10.

I'm pretty happy with those numbers. The pace dropped off more than I would have liked to see, but some dropoff is expected. In fact Maffeone wants the first mile the fastest and the last mile the slowest, otherwise, he says, you didn't warmup well enough.

I ended with another 1.7 miles of cooldown, running home, averaging 144 HR for that (didn't go too hard lol). Honestly, the whole thing went by very fast and I felt incredibly relaxed, loose and at ease during the test. Thanks to all my MAF practice, holding that effort was very comfortable and natural, nearly a conversational pace.

I think the next 16 weeks of marathon training are just going to get better...

For more on MAF HR and the MAF Test:

http://philmaffetone.com/180-formula

http://philmaffetone.com/maf-test

*During this lap I stopped for 20 seconds, literally, do grab a drink from the drinking fountain. I was kicking myself for not bringing water and was feeling thirsty, so I had some out of the public fountain and it tasted like butt, and it didn't settle well (I'm a water snob!). Wondering if it would have been smarter to skip it lol. But I think that contributed to slightly faster split due to the very quick rest.