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Old Thu, Apr-18-19, 15:29
khrussva's Avatar
khrussva khrussva is offline
Say NO to Diabetes!
Posts: 8,671
 
Plan: My own - < 30 net carbs
Stats: 440/228/210 Male 5' 11"
BF:Energy Unleashed
Progress: 92%
Location: Central Virginia - USA
Default Getting back to low zone cardio training (MAF)

Last night I resumed doing the MAF (low zone cardio) training that I started after last year's 10K. The goal with MAF is to keep your heart rate within your MAF zone, which is a calculation based on your age, maximum heart rate, and general health. Last year my MAF zone was 121 to 131 beats per minute. When I first started this it was almost impossible for me to keep my HR in this zone unless I mixed snails pace jogging with walking or worked out on some piece of exercise equipment. As my fitness improved I was able to maintain a slow jog and stay in the zone. I stuck with this MAF training for 7 months two or three times per week. It certainly improved my level of fitness even though I had some weight creep going on over that time.

As I considered restarting the MAF workouts I refreshed my memory about how my proper MAF zone is calculated. The max HR should be 180 - age + 5 if generally fit and active. It occurred to me that the "180" is an offset of the maximum heart rate -- which can vary for each individual. Based on the standard calculation (220 - age) my maximum heart rate should be 165. But I've been using a heart rate monitor all year during my workouts and know that my maximum heart rate is actually somewhere between 175 and 180. I don't know how normal this is, but my ticker seems to tick a little faster than it should for someone my age.

So... what's this all about. I've decided to up my MAF zone by about 10 BPM to take into account that my max heart rate is a little higher than average. I'll shoot to keep my HR between 130 and 140 during my MAF workouts in the coming months. Last night I was able to maintain a nice, slow & steady indoor jog and remained locked in my new MAF zone for 3.1 miles. For that 5K my HR averaged 134 BPM. I was not winded at all and barely broke a sweat. it was easy peasy and quite enjoyable. I'll try to do this 2 or 3 times per week throughout the summer - mixing in longer and shorter workouts. So that's the new workout plan. I'll be moving a little faster than last year and hopefully I'll reap more benefit from it.

Last nights workout...

Distance: 3.1 miles
Average HR: 134
Pace: 13:33
Time: 42:00


P.S. I should be working in some upper body resistance training as well. So far I have not found the motivation to make that happen. We'll see. I'll keep on nagging myself and one day I just might get it done.
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