Following the Friel program, I test my 5k run monthly. My all out, standalone pr in a 5k is 21:45’ (OK I’m slow but I’ve never seriously trained for short distance).
The 5k test is run 10 beats below lactate threshold. This should be a solid aerobic pace. When starting the Friel program last March, I could complete a 5k at 169 bpm in 28’. Last month, I completed the same test, on the same treadmill, same diet, same rest, etc. in 22’.
Two weeks ago at the end of a sprint tri, I finished a 5k in something like 21:00’. The funny thing is that I set a new 5k pr after I hammered on the bike knowing that I’d blow the run because I wanted to see what I could do on the bike. My wife saw me in T2 and said she had never seen me looking so bad when I started my run. I wonder what I can do in a standalone 5k?
from Duncan: "In fact, I was interested to read of (I think) Chris McCormack’s success in Ironman that was enabled by training himself to need less food on rides. My friend has been telling everyone to do this for years… "
Excellent points made. Just for the record, it is Michael McCormack (two-time Canada winner and 11th last year at age 41) who advocates “controlled deprivation.” Standard mix of Cytomax and a couple of bananas and he went sub-8:30 twice.
from joncane: “For the record, at various times Mr. Allen has attributed his numerous Ironman victories to …”
Quite true. We should also remember that Mark didn’t rise to the top of IM racing by doing long steady work alone. Recall that he LOST Kona to Scott umpteen times while winning at every shorter distance in the world. The guy was already wicked fast. He trained for short and medium course events and tried to win Kona. Didn’t work. When he started going long and steady, he got the specific type of fitness needed to win Kona. It is really a simple matter of event-specific training.
Maffetone’s (and Lydiard’s) idea is to use the long steady base to prepare yourself for your event-specific work. Lydiard believes that the long steady work keeps your body ready to launch into specific training of any sort. He kept his athletes always prepared to enter any distance event with 8 weeks of specific preparation.
If you run the mile, LSD runs will not get you under 4:00. Lydiard had his milers doing 20x400 on 1:00 with 2 minutes rest. You can’t go much harder than that workout!!
What Maffetone and Friel and Byrne are saying for IM training is that the steady base building work aloneis your event-specific preparation cycle for the IM. Go into your “build” period, and just stay in it up to your taper.
Only at the very elite level of the top few gifted racers, with 8-10 years under their feet, should intensity work come into play. Byrne finished 7th at IM NZ, and still doesn’t consider himself ready for intensity sessions. Michael McCormack, on the other hand, lives and dies by intensity sessions. But he had been at a high level of competition for many years and was capable of winning an IM.
I would assume, since I have never seen Michael McCormack that he is built a little softer around the mid-section and hips. I say this because IMO it would be impossible to go IM distances living on Cytomax and a couple of bananas as lean as most of the elite guys are now. McCormack has obviously trained his body to burn upwards of 70% of his calories from fat. In order to live on his fat this long in a race going that fast he must have a little bit more than most.
I do wonder how his body is able to recover after such a test given the fact that he has tapped so deeply into his glycogen stores and done nothing (during the race) really to replace it. It is interesting how amazing adaptable the human body is!
I used him as a coach for my first IM two years ago and he was always preaching about teaching the body to use fat for fuel. I practiced this successfully for 6 months under him in training and in the IM. I finished the IM but had a dissapointing race - not due to nutrition.
It’s amazing what you can teach the body to adapt to.
Contrary to popular opinion, the body doesn’t ‘learn’ anything.
Increased fat metabolism is all about raising lactate threshold as high as possible in order to maximize aerobic (i.e. fat) metabolism at sub-threshold intensities.
Being able to go that hard that long does not imply one needs greater fat stores. Even extremely lean athletes have enough fat. This guy must simply be extremely fit with a high lactate threshold.
The problem I have with Maffetone is his utter distain for anything anaerobic. Like lactate is a poison or something. It’s my belief that folks don’t train ‘too hard’. They recover too little.
You all are right, he is ripped! 1,000 pardons for even suggesting he might not be:)
Question for you Hershel since you trained with him, how does he recover and maintain muscle mass after an IM race? You are tearing up tremendous amounts of muscle tissue in order to fuel the body. Fat is primary but other sources are needed to keep this burn going and prevent one from “cracking”. Curious to know his philosophy on this subject.
While I am no expert, what I’ve gathered from reading ‘The Metabolic Diet’ does seem to indicate that the body adapts, let’s say ‘adapts’ rather than learns, to using fat for fuel through a period in which you starve it of carbs.
To be successful on an Atkins-type diet, you need to go through this phase. If you’re very strict, reducing your carb consumption to 30-60 g per day for a period of about two weeks, you can begin to make the transition quickly. It can be very hard for some people who are used to burning carbs. You feel like you eat and eat(protein, fiber, and fat) and are still hungry even starving. That’s the body not recognizing the new fuel source and craving the old.
It can last a few days, but definitely passes for most people. The alternative is a slow carb taper, which works better for some, but is much easier to cheat on.
BTW, from the pictures, I would guess by his body composition that McCormack is a fat burner. It’s very hard for most people, there are exceptions of course, to get that ripped without adapting to burning fat, something that body builders have been on to for a while.
I liked ‘The Metabolic Diet’ since it gives a pretty thorough explanation of all this and also prescribes a 5 day low carb, 1-2 day carbo load cycle after the transition phase.