10 Years of Low Heart Rate Training: Lessons From Running 17,000 Miles

Hi there!

Today I'm going to be running a sub-3-hour marathon, and I'm going to be sharing the different things that I've learned from 10 years of low heart rate training. That's been about 17,000 miles.

So, uh, yeah, hopefully you learn a few things along the way. Let's get started. 2 watches, one for backup, you never know. The plan today is to run a 6:45 minute mile pace, roughly. That's 4 minutes 12 seconds per kilometer. Should get me in at about 2 hours 57 minutes. Just leaving Long Beach over here, going to head towards Huntington Beach and then Newport Beach in California. 10 years ago was the first time I heard the concept of training slower to race faster, and this was by Dr. Phil Maffetone on the Trail Runner Nation podcast. He talked about maximum aerobic function, or MAF, which is your ability to use body fat for energy instead of stored carbs, carbohydrates. Improving your fat burning abilities can be done in a variety of ways, such as low heart rate training, truly looking at your nutritional intake, stress management, sleep, etc. Calculating your low heart rate training zone be done in a variety of different ways. You can use a heart rate calculator with your resting heart rate and your max heart rate. You can use a talk test, or you can use a blood lactate test in a medical lab. Dr. Phil Maffetone developed another option here, which is the 180 formula, where you take 180 minus your age, and you adjust it with your health and fitness profile. And I'll actually link to that for more details below. But it's basically 180 minus your age. In my case, that was 30 when I started out with low heart rate training, is 150. And then you're trying not to get your heart rate over 150. I think the 180 formula works reasonably well for a ballpark training number for most athletes. That being said, one of the lessons learned was that the 180 formula is not accurate for everyone. Some further personalization may be needed. For example, athletes with an exceptionally high max heart rate for their age, or who are over the age of 55 or 65, might have to increase their training zone. So it does take a little bit of playing around. If you feel the 180 H formula is not working for you, I would say just experiment with some of these others, like the breathing test, the resting and max heart rate test, or the blood lactate test in the lab, and just get multiple data points that you compare there. The reason I like the 180 formula and the math method approach is that it really does take the athlete's health and fitness profile into account. What does that mean? Well, if an athlete has just been injured, has been unfit and just getting back into exercise, or has been unhealthy overtrained, you're training at a lower intensity than when you have been progressing well in your training and in your racing, and if you're healthy and without injuries. So this personalization specifically based on you is something that I do really like there. Long Beach Pier. My first experience with MAF low heart rate training was Very humbling. I took the number 180 minus my age, 30 at the time, and I started training below a heart rate of 150. I used a heart rate strap. If my heart rate would go over 150, a heart rate alarm would go off. On the first run, within 30 seconds, my heart rate alarm already went off, and I was really thinking, am I really that out of shape? And this is very common among athletes starting out with this training approach, almost like a disbelief that your fitness level is definitely not as well developed as you thought it was. And I've heard that from different podcast guests on the Extra Mileage Show, my podcast. I've heard it from many different members in the Extra Mileage community and our PB running coaching program. Across the board, those frustrations is quite challenging, honestly. I had to slow down by several minutes per mile on flat And also on the trails, had to take loads of walk breaks. Um, on the hills, any type of heat would rapidly increase my heart rate. And at the beginning, that was quite frustrating, I'm not going to lie. Like, there was an ego of running faster. All of a sudden, I had to slow down significantly. Over here on this bike path, I was getting passed by a bunch of different people, including— I'll still remember— an older lady well into her 60s just crushed me. I was like, wow. So it was a blow to the ego, but part of the process. One lesson that I learned in those early stages was when I changed my watch settings from looking at pace and running distance to just looking at heart rate and how much time I spent in my training zone. Once I started caring about that, it all kind of changed, and I was okay with slowing down. I tried to be patient with my training, and after about 4 weeks, I started to notice some slight differences. My pace started to improve a bit, and all of a sudden, my body started responding positively as well. Here are some of those benefits. I would finish a run and feel that I could do that same run again. My energy levels throughout the day were much more even. The niggles and muscle aches in my body disappeared. I became much more aware of my surroundings. All of a sudden, I saw things that I didn't notice before. My sleep quality and duration improved significantly. I started paying closer attention to the signals from my body, such as my breathing, my footsteps, and how I really felt on my runs. My nutritional intake improved because I noticed how my energy levels related. I looked forward to all of my runs. I told myself that slow jogging and walking is also training. I really stopped caring about my running and walking pace. Started thinking longer term versus shorter term, my runs became more enjoyable. And this is not unique to me, this is something that I noticed with many other runners around me as well. Breakfast in the form of gels. Nom nom. Nice few hills in the mix over here, they definitely get your heart rate up. About 6:45 minutes miles. Roughly 6 miles in, my heart rate is a little bit higher than I wanted it. Then again, there's quite some wind, and obviously I'm yapping away in the camera as well. But so far so good. This math training could actually work. After 4 weeks of low heart rate training, I started noticing my pace improve as well. Slowly but surely, I became a bit faster at the same heart rate, and that was really an aha moment for me as well. I was still somewhat skeptical in those early stages. One misconception about MAF training is that it's only training at low heart rate. That is not true, and Dr. Phil Maffetone talks about this on his website. Train MAF until you plateau or until you've been improving for 3 to 6 months, then add in some speed work. Most people respond well when the volume of anaerobic training is 15 to 20% of their total training, while 80% is at or under MAF. And this is what I did as well. I started adding in some speed work as part of the process after about 3 months' time. My MAF base gradually started to improve from about an 8:21 in the early stages to a 6:12 minute mile about 2 years later. And even on the trails, it used to be about 10 to 14 minute miles. Similar improvements there as well, a lot less walking needed. But I'm still walking on some of the uphills. 17,095 miles, 27,511k in 2,586 hours. When you break that down, that's only 5 hours of running per week, or 42 minutes per day. So the total average training volume is not that high. More than 90% of that was at low intensity, and less than 10% high intensity sprinkled on top. Some weeks I ran a lot more than 5 hours, and some weeks a lot less. But I do think it's the consistency of being able to run injury-free and being able to recover well that really helped stack improvements on top of each other. And that consistency of improvements over long periods of time is what I noticed with other athletes as well. Several years to gradually improve. Aerobic development takes a long time. Yes, with some other training methods you might be able to improve much more rapidly. However, the chance of injuries goes up significantly as well. I see many athletes improve rapidly, get injured, not being able to run for several weeks or months, and having to start all over again. This happens all the time. Could I have improved more than 2:44 marathon if I would have trained more training volume or would have trained harder? Yeah, possibly. However, I have a busy job. 2 young kids, have a podcast, and I really enjoy helping other people with their running as well. Oh, and I enjoy sleeping 8 hours a night. Low heart rate training and consistent running just brings me a lot of joy and relaxation to my everyday life as well. Journaling is a powerful tool. Many Extra Mileless podcast guests including Eliud Kipchoge, Kilian Jornet, Sally McRae, all of them mentioned that they're using journaling. This is something that I personally use too, writing down all of the different things in your training that you notice so that you can start paying attention. What works, what doesn't work about your running gear, your paces, your nutrition, your stress management, all of these different things. You can really dial them in if you actually ride it down. I like what Kilian said here. It is not about how much you ride down on all of the details. Just like with running, it is about your consistency, so that over longer periods of time you can start recognizing patterns and adjust your training and racing and daily life. Another lesson here is that rest and sleep is also training in certain periods of my training blocks. I've had it that I only slept 5 hours a night. My running took a huge nosedive. These days I aim to sleep 8 hours a night. I prioritize this. During sleep and rest is really when that recovery happens. That's where those improvements start happening. It's not only during the workout part. If you can't recover from your workout, you're not going to improve. I'm just blabbing away over here. I have to remind myself to take in some calories because even over here my heart rate is definitely up. Don't want to bonk here. One other lesson is to relax more. Stress levels make a big difference on all aspects in your life, from sleep, from digestion, from running performance, heart rate variability, resting heart rate. All of it is impacted by high stress levels, so the more we can relax, the better. And this applies to training, racing, and to life. Half a marathon, 1:28:55. Looking good over here. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to like it, hit that subscribe button and the bell. It really helps support this channel. The right nutrition plays a plays a huge role in your energy levels, in your performance, in your recovery. 10 years ago, I wasn't paying much attention to it at all. My energy levels were all over the place. Over the years, I started eating cleaner, non-processed foods, cut out most of the sugars, and I actually noticed I started dropping significant amount of weight. With consistent training and the right nutrition, the body just started functioning better. And I noticed this with many other athletes around me as well. They started dropping weight even without trying. Just naturally, the weight started coming down. This makes it much easier if you have less weight to carry around on race day. Your math base and your race finish times are just numbers. Every athlete is different. Some runners are genetically more gifted aerobic genes than others. Some have higher priorities for running, higher capacity, higher, like, more goals and motivations. And so I say only compare yourself to yourself. Comparison is what makes people unhappy. I am as proud of someone just getting off the couch and starting to walk consistent outdoors as someone who is crushing it in all of their races. Doesn't matter. Go out there Train consistently, move consistently, and you'll start seeing big improvements in various parts of your life. 15 miles in and made it to the Huntington Beach Pier. Look at that, progressing well. Things are looking good, having a blast out here. Well, only 11 more miles to go. Let's do this. The new Alpha flies. Of feeling fresh and popping well. If you're not improving with your low heart rate training, I suggest you look under the hood. I sometimes hear from athletes, I've been low heart rate training for 3 months or 6 months, I'm not improving. I would say first start looking at, are you truly sleeping enough? Are you recovering enough? What are your stress levels like? What is your nutrition like? One athlete in our personal best program was not improving. I told him to start sleeping more after we discussed sleep. Within 4 weeks, his math pace improved by 90 seconds. That is how much of a difference that can make. Yes, it could be that you're not training at the right heart rate zone, but don't right away start looking there. Look at some of these other factors in your life as well. It's all connected. And then sure enough, you can start playing around with heart rate, with a bit of high intensity, with overall training volume, but you don't need to right away jump in there. It is okay during the base building phase to occasionally run at a higher heart rate if you enjoy going on a group run, or sometimes you want to blow off some steam. Just forget about heart rate and just run. Main thing is, I understand it's a balance between being motivated to lower your intensity low enough in most of your runs and still keeping it exciting as well. Just don't overdo it. Don't start running too many high-intensity runs during the base building because you'll add too much stress on the body, and that could block aerobic progress. Set my speed as 9 miles an hour and to slow down. Stoked. There is a time and place for high heart rate running. I noticed some athletes go way overboard with the low heart rate training and only train at a low intensity all the time. Yes, you can get a lot of benefits from low intensity training, but at some point you want to add in some high intensity as well. It gets you used to what race day pace feels like. It gets you used to faster turnover, develop your fast twitch muscle fibers, strengthen your legs, develop that aerobic base first, and then add in some speed work. Don't overdo the speed work though. Dr. Stephen Seiler said it best on Extra Mileage Show number 50 in our conversation. You don't have to go hard in training every day with high-intensity sessions. You're building the cake, but racing is eating the cake. I'm getting into Newport now, river jetties. Mile 20, this is where the race really starts. So let's have a chat. Flexibility in training is one other thing that I learned. What does that mean? I do have a training schedule, a training plan, but I adjust that sometimes on a day-to-day. If my 6-year-old has been partying the night before and I didn't sleep much, I might cut my run a bit back, duration or intensity. But if I'm feeling good, well rested, I might go a little bit longer, or I might add in some more speed work. 22 miles in. And the hills are surely feeling heavier right now. I made it to the Back Bay, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa. 24 miles in. There's a lot of wind, so no more talking. Just going to focus on holding on for dear life and finishing. 26 miles. Oh, I have to dig deep here. Let's finish strong. Let's go! That's it.

That was no joke at the end over there with the wind. I really had to dial it back in.

So yeah, slowed down a bit, but that's why we build in that 3-minute buffer. So luckily I was still able to get under 3 hours.

Few closing thoughts. MAF low heart rate training can really work for everyone, and I've seen that work for beginners, intermediate, and advanced athletes. I've seen it for younger athletes, and I've seen it for athletes way into their 50s, 60s, 70s. I've seen it for men and for women from 5K, half marathon, marathons, all the way to the ultra distances. Yes, some further personalization might be needed with the heart rate zones over there, but the concept of low-intensity running first, building that base, then adding in some high-intensity running, truly watching your nutritional intake, your stress levels, your sleep— everything is connected over there. That concept over there absolutely works for everyone. Sometimes I'm asked why not 80/20 running or like a normal training schedule instead of MAF low heart rate training. Well, For me, the biggest thing is during that base building phase, I feel you can really gradually build up that running intensity and ease your body into it. And I see way too many athletes get injured still. Injured, overtraining, burned out. It is so common. Even in 80/20 running, you can still burn out and you can still overtrain. I've personally seen that and with many athletes around me as well. Progress takes time and is not linear, so be patient over there, be consistent, and just constantly show up. I've been low-intensity training with some high intensity for about 10 years now. I'm so glad that I discovered this approach to training, and I will continue training this way for the rest of my life. I made it back to my ice bath. I would love to hear from you. Do you have any experience with low heart rate training? If so, let me know in the comments below. Also, you can check out many more stories from Extramileless podcast guests at extramileless.com/podcast. Learn more about my PB running coaching program at pbprogram.com, and check out all of the gear that I use in the description below. All right, have fun out there on your runs.

Later. Oh, I'm starting to cramp.