Maffetonovember.
And so the saga of October's strained calf finally resolves in the positive. A 3km plod two days ago, and a better, 6.7km outing today shows the calf being no longer a problem. But, because of the injury a scheduled step back week therefore extended out to two weeks, and a big dent in the training schedule. More significantly, it played havoc with my confidence as I had to assess why a simple and not particularly significant calf strain took two whole weeks to mend, and worse, all the usual treatments of ice, heat, ibuprofen, stretching, massage and rest only made the strain worse, not better. Go figure! It certainly messed with my mind, I can tell you.
Amongst all this angst, and in one of those nice moments of positive synchronicity, I picked up a copy of Christopher MacDougall's Natural Born Heroes, in which he attempts to link heroism with feats of endurance, concentration and so forth. It's a riveting read, and if not entirely convincing, it certainly did have me researching Dr Phil Maffetone's 'method' for adapting the body to endurance events, which is strongly postulated in MacDougall's book as one of the essential ingredients of heroism. Of that fact I am not completely certain, and I haven't yet received Dr Maffetone's own book, so I'm working purely off what I gleaned from MacDougall's references to him and from the good Doctor's own website. On the matter of endurance running however, it does all seem to make some sense to me...
Essentially Maffetone and MacDougall are saying that for endurance sports, you need to properly train the body to run on fat and not carbohydrates. The devil will no doubt be in the detail, but the guts of it requires an initial two-week no-carb diet and exercising only at your purely aerobic heart rate, which for me corresponds to a range of 120 - 130 bpm. If the no-carb diet is hard enough (and it is, more or less, but more about that later), then running within this very narrow and highly restrictive range turns out to be far harder.
It seems, at least so far as I can tell from my research and my own experience thus far, that the transition from fat-burning (aerobic) activity, to carbohydrate-burning (anaerobic) activity is not a smooth, linear transition. Those 'heart rate zones' are listed in bands for a reason, or at least so it seems. As you exercise and your heart rate goes up, it tends to jump quite rapidly from the aerobic zone to the higher, anaerobic zone, switching from fat-burning to glycogen depletion very rapidly. This transition is to be strenuously avoided, according to Maffetone, if you are to train yourself to run further and faster whilst still burning fat. If successful, this will allow you to run for many hours without the need to refuel on the run, rather than burning glycogen in the anaerobic zone which will last for only 30 - 36km at best, and be subject to the usual up/down response as sugar levels rise and fall depending on your pace and ingestion of further carbs as you go.
As I say, this all sounded very logical to me, and with the other problems I've been experiencing it seemed worth a shot. Having struggled in recent weeks to lose some girth, the no-carb diet, which is just an extension of my 'no bread, no booze' regime and which has worked for me in the past, came along at the right time and appears to be just the fillip I need to get on top of things.
With that in mind, I did a couple of test walks and the 3km run mentioned before, to see just how difficult staying within the narrow aerobic zone would be. All the reading I did suggested it would end up being the proverbial (but inverse logic) 'walk in the park' as staying down in that zone is surprisingly tricky at running pace. This definitely proved to be the case, and for today's first serious outing using the method I had to be very disciplined and stay well down at the very gentlest of jogs to keep my heart rate below the threshold, because beyond that it simply races away to an alarmingly high and definitely anaerobic rate. This morning's jog was by far the slowest run I've ever undertaken, covering a mere 6.7km in an hour, and requiring several walk breaks (yes!) as my heart rate nudged the maximum range and needing to be brought back within the confines of the fat-burning zone again.
So it all seems a bit strange. To run so slowly, and yet have to take walking breaks just goes against all intuition as a runner. And yet that's the point of it. Nothing changes unless you yourself change something, and now seems the time to begin this. It's a long, slow process by all accounts, but the results are impressive. The Maffetone Method is credited by Mark Allen for his six Hawaii Ironman Championships, and I think it's this that really caught my attention. I've regularly used Hawaii Ironman videos as motivation, and it always struck me how the athletes gorge themselves on everything they can shove in their mouths. This is hardly surprising given the vast outlay of energy required to complete a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a full 42.2km run (and the winners routinely do it all in about 8 hours), but two things have always struck me about this in particular. Firstly, how on earth do they train their stomachs to not only cope with the influx of foods, but digest it properly (something I've never been able to do), and secondly, if the human body is actually adapted to cope with long distances by burning fat reserves rather than relying on glycogen, for my own modest goals which do not require a winning time, would this latter option not be preferable and more sensible? Mark Allen apparently mastered this, and whilst my goals are obviously far, far more modest, I can still see the potential benefits but will it really work for little, humble, rank-amateur me?
The answer, I think, is a qualified 'yes'. The qualification is that to do this properly is a long, slow process. The potential payoff however is worth the attempt, or so I think at this stage. As I say, I haven't yet read Dr Maffetone's book on the subject, but if nothing else, in the short term I will lose (am already losing) those excess kilograms of blubber.
To go entirely carb-free for two weeks is probably an impossible quest for anyone except perhaps the strictest and most pedantic of carb-counting extremists. If nothing else, the usual round of family birthdays, work functions and social outings make the task very difficult. But thus far I am four days in and the results have been brilliant (despite one birthday party and a work function). Already the weight is dropping off and I feel generally better and healthier. My daily carb intake would be close to zero, and certainly under 10 grams per day so far. Compared to the typical recommended daily intake of around 310 gm/day this is vanishingly low, but I've had no ill effects at all, in fact quite the reverse. My calorie intake has probably about halved, yet I have no cravings or real feelings of hunger at all.
How this will translate into endurance running will take time to tell, of course. My goals are simple: run well for long periods of time and remain injury-free, and eventually to run another marathon without hitting the wall. Beyond that, who knows? I'd like to think an ultra was possible, but not at the expense of limiting time with family and friends. Distance training is a time-consuming, and ultimately an isolating thing to do, so there will need to be balance. But I think at least one more marathon, just to prove to myself that I can run one well within myself would be a worthy goal.
Getting back to this morning's run then, a mere 6.7km in an hour seems so bizarre to me. To put that into perspective, ten years ago I walked my first Point to Pinnacle at a faster pace, even up that bloody mountain, than this morning's 'run'. However, I covered the distance this morning without once moving into the anaerobic zone, barely breaking into a sweat at all, and most importantly with no pain or even tiredness in the legs.
To build this into something less embarrassing will take time, but heck, who really cares? The important thing is time spent on my feet, burning fat and gaining great aerobic fitness and health.
Really, when I think about it, this is really just a slightly more scientific variation of Jeff Galloway's run/walk method which achieves the same results in a slightly simpler format.
So, let's see where this all ends.
Maffetonovember
