MAF Test Planning

It is time to check-in regarding my first MAF test. I have been doing all of my runs the past month with the goal of keeping my heart rate below 141 (180-my age). At first, I really struggled to keep my HR around 145, but after a few weeks, I found it easier to run jog with my HR around 141. Now I can pretty much run jog rog three miles without my HR going above 141.  

I plan to do my first official MAF test on 1/1/15. I will be running on the treadmill so today I did a trial run of the process I will use for my MAF tests. This is the approach that I have decided to adopt.

Warm-up/Cool Down

I plan to do a walk, slow rog warm up for about 15 minutes on the day of my MAF test, but for today, I did my standard 5 minute walk warm-up. I have started using separate "sessions" on the treadmill for my warm-up and cool-down minutes so I can more easily compare my runs at a glance.

I will cool down with a 10-15 minute walk.

MAF Test Process

Start a goal mileage "session" on the TM for 4 miles at a pace of 5 MPH. 

When my heart rate creeps up to 142, reduce the speed by 0.1-0.2 MPH until I need to take a 1-min walk break to get my HR down. 

Once the 1 minute walk break is over, resume rogging at 5 MPH until my HR creeps up to 142 and repeat the process of reducing the speed until it is time to walk again. 

As I improve, I will need to increase my starting pace for these tests as well. I can rog a few miles with no walk breaks at 4.5 MPH - that wasn't the case when I started this journey. So as this improvement continues, I'll use my regular runs to gauge when it is time to increase my starting pace above 5 MPH. 

Processing The Data

The treadmill I am using has iFIT so all of my workout stats are stored in the cloud which is really convenient. iFIT is horrible for analyzing data. Thanks to google and the iFIT help forums, I found an app that converts the data to a file format compatible for loading up to Garmin Connect. 

I will convert the file, upload to Garmin connect and then mine my splits which I will graph in Excel. 

Other Data

I am also going to track the number of walk breaks I take per mile at each pace during all of my runs including my MAF tests. I am expecting the number of walk breaks at a given pace to decrease over the next three months as well.

I think of this as more of a qualitative way to judge my progress - and a good indicator of progress between MAF tests. I am looking forward to when I can run several miles at 5.5 MPH with my HR below 141 without having to take any walk breaks. Why that number? I see that pace becoming comfortable for weekly long slow runs this spring/summer that would allow me keep up with the running club and have some company for my runs. But now I'm getting ahead of myself.


Have you done a MAF test on the treadmill? What process have you used?

Onward with the data crunching! Kim