Reddit reviews The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing

I believe in his book Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing Maffetone is pretty adamant that you cannot run anaerobically at all during this period. He does say that you can throw strides in occasionally, but these are 20ish second bursts, not full runs outside of the aerobic zone. He also calculates these efforts by using his 180 formula.

I think the impact on improvement will more depend on you individually as each person is so different. For me I feel the Maffetone method helped by allowing me to increase my volume with little stress on the body, but did not help me equally in all distances. With this training being completely focused on low intensity, I never developed the speed to improve in shorter races. For example, I ran CC in grade school for one season yet I still haven't been able to beat my best times even though I was doing three or four times the volume.

To get back to your main question, if this is a way for you to add more miles and keep running enjoyable I wouldn't stress over whether it's going to be as beneficial or not. I think there is a lot of sound advice in his method, but there's more than just the angle he is preaching that matters.

The Maffetone Method is the single best program I’ve ever used for increasing endurance and stamina. It involves moving slower (at first) to build efficiency, which will translate to moving faster with less effort. The best part is that it’s specifically designed to be paired with a ketogenic diet!

The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing is a fantastic resource, or you can use the MAF website I linked previously.

This method does require a heart rate monitor, but that’s a small investment for a program that pays off in huge dividends!

If you need the live tracking with your iphone you'll need to spend more than $100. I have the Garmin FR620 and couldn't be more happy. If you are serious about heart rate training read this. The book goes into A LOT of detail but the training is based solely on heart rate training.

Essentially you take your age and subtract is from 180. This number, +/- a few outher things is the heart rate you should be running at FOR EVERY RUN. It's very challenging to run this slow, but the idea is over time you will be able to run with a fast pace but with a lower heart rate than everyone else running the same pace.

For all the people that downvoted me... There are 1,000 examples of this method working. Please read Dr. Phil Maffetone's work and the results of dozens of triathletes, winners of Ironmans, Olympic Athletes.

Here is a page: https://philmaffetone.com/180-formula/

He worked with many famous athletes and helped them improve.. along with normal middle of the pack runners.

Here is one of his books: The Big Book of Training and Endurance

I really like Phil Maffetone's The Big Book of Endurance Training. I almost purchased the training bible, but I felt it was too technical for me right now (training for my first sprint). I purchased the 12 Week Triathlete instead. Very easy to read and understand. I am using the training plan (intermediate sprint) in the book for my first sprint.

I read this book last year, I gave it a try to train with this method and I felt a positive difference in my season.

The book is all about training with a low heart rate (or your maximum aerobic function) and you will be able to go farther or faster with less effort. I really liked it because at the beginning you have to run or ride keeping your heart rate at certain beats and you feel that you're going very slow but at the end of the workout you feel fine and not super tired, of course as you train your times get better but you never feel exhausted.

> I dont really care a whole lot about fat.

For long term health - this is the most important macro you should care about. Inflammation, hormones, fat oxidisation (aerobic fitness capacity) etc. etc. - all comes from fats.

As Nightshade originally said, there is no one fit for all diet. I can however tell you with great conviction from years of research that the HFLC diet is the best for health. In my opinion, this should be the base and then you should experiment with how many carbs you need to 'feel ok', because everyone's carb tolerance is different.

Here's an article where Chris Froome (last years Tour de France winner) dropped carbs significantly and went on to win that year: http://uk.businessinsider.com/chris-froome-weight-loss-tour-de-france-2016-7?r=US&IR=T

I highly suggest you grab this book (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Book-Endurance-Training-Racing/dp/1616080655) and read through the chapters on nutrition and how the macros relate to sport. I think you can get it for free now - if you want it, message me and I can provide it to you.

You did say you were vegan, which has another set of challenges with perfecting a diet for long term health and sport. But to be honest, I know there are a lot of branches of vegan and Im not sure what food groups you're restricting exactly so I can't comment on this further.