The family is on Spring Break this week so I did not need to drive the kids in. So I biked in. I kept it easy, wandering around on various roads and paths to the office ... looking for various ways I could get off the road and short cut the trip. "Short cuts make for long delays," as I learned once again (damn barb wire fences) It was about a 50 minute spin. HR was b/w 130-151. Ride home was about 40 minutes (a bit more direct and more downhill)
My legs are still significantly tired. As they have been for the last few weeks. Maybe I ought to just race burros ... (seriously, if I could get a Burro, I'd do this in a heartbeat). I had contemplated running anyway, and maybe even MAF testing it today. I found plenty of reasons not too and took advantage of them. I realize that today was not totally rest though. I am debating now if I am being just a plain old wimp with my mileage and my concerns about being tired of if this something I just need to work through, get through a wall. Am I breaking down or breaking through?
I think I may have set myself up as someone who is "anti-MAF." I am not. I am not fully blessing this approach either however. The general thought of MAF is that signficant time is spent doing aerobic work to develop that system exclusively. Over time, you will become more aerobically strong, and be able to work at faster paces while remaining aerobic. I agree with this idea. The part that I have questioned is the need to remain aerobic during the entirety of a base phase. I have been "MAF-izing" for the most part for the last month. I have gone above 150 (a MAF rate) a few times (and one time, way over, when I climbed Sanitas with JV ... 170, but even then we were talking), but rarely over 154 (I think Sanitas was the one time. There have been probably 3 or 4 occasions where I have gone north of 150). Lucho has been kind enough to explain to me that the development of the anaerobic system can compromise the development of the anaerobic system. I think this is the part that I am struggling to get my head around as to why that is true. And if this is true, why is this training approach (MAF) so poorly known amongst distance runners, particularly that of the marathon? I mean, it worked for Mark Allen, how come we don't hear Hudson's gang talking (or name any of your favorite running athletes) about it?
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