What is Aerobic Training?

Aerobic training essentially means that you are running/training at a low heart rate. It can also be thought of as running at an intensity which would allow you to carry out a conversation. During aerobic running you burn fat as your main source of energy. Aerobic training doesn’t put as much stress on your body as anaerobic training and you don’t need as much recovery time between training sessions, therefore you are less likely to suffer from injury or illness if the bulk of your training is aerobic. Your aerobic system provides a solid foundation for good health.

Aerobic conditioning is a necessary foundation of virtually all training. The longer an event, the more your body will rely on the aerobic system. A strong aerobic base will even benefit your recovery in-between sets of strength training as well as anaerobic interval training too.

How do you work out your Aerobic Heart Rate?

My first recommendation is to get a heart rate monitor (HRM) if you don’t already have one. In theory you could keep track of your heart rate by stopping at regular intervals throughout some runs to take your pulse manually, but a HRM will make it a lot easier to track accurately, and once you understand training with heart rate it can be an amazingly useful tool.

How to Work out Your Current Aerobic Level of Fitness

To find out how efficient your aerobic system is, you need to perform a Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) test. This will give you an objective measure of your current level of aerobic fitness, which you can then retest at various intervals as a way of gauging your progress.

First though, you need to calculate your Maximum Aerobic Training Heart Rate (MATHR) using the 180 Formula.

How do you perform a MAF Test?
  1. You need to perform this test on flat ground. You can use an athletics track, a sports oval, or any stretch of uninterrupted (no traffic lights or pedestrian crossings) pavement or road.
  2. Take note of the ambient temperature and humidity level.
  3. Warm up slowly for 15 minutes.
  4. The actual test is a 5km flat run, sticking as close as possible to your MATHR number. Record the exact time splits for each kilometre.
  5. Cool down for 10 minutes.

EXAMPLE: Mark’s Test: My MATHR is 144bpm.

  • Warm up for 15 minutes making sure that your heart rate is up around the MATHR number towards the end of the warm up.
  • Now go straight into the test without stopping or cooling down.
  • Start your watch and try to keep your heart rate as close to MATHR (144 for me) as possible, for the entire duration of the 5km test. Continue running for the 5km without stopping.
  • Cool down for 10 minutes, finishing with a walk for the last 2 – 3 minutes.
  • Look back at your watch data and get the time splits for each 1km interval during the test.
    • 1st Kilometre – 5:00
    • 2nd Kilometre – 5:01
    • 3rd Kilometre – 5:05
    • 4th Kilometre – 5:30
    • 5th Kilometre – 6:00
  • Record these times. They are the numbers we need to retest in 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks.
  • If your splits do not get progressively slower, it usually means that you did not warm up enough, so repeat the test on another day with a better warm up.

Using my example, you can see that towards the back end of the test my pace drops away. This means that I have to slow down quite early in a run to make sure I remain within my aerobic training zone which means I am not very aerobically efficient.

If I was to maintain my 5:00/k pace (rather than sticking to the 144 HR), then my heart rate would have climbed above 144bpm, which means I would be training anaerobically and putting my joints, muscles and immune system under more stress.

If you train consistently within your aerobic heart rate zone for a period of 3 months, then you should see a significant improvement in your aerobic efficiency.

What this would mean for me, is that by the end of this 12 week base training phase, If I was to repeat this MAF test, I would hope to see my 1km splits change to something like:

  • 1st Kilometre – 4:40
  • 2nd Kilometre – 4:45
  • 3rd Kilometre – 4:55
  • 4th Kilometre – 5:05
  • 5th Kilometre – 5:25

This means it now requires less effort for me to run at 5mins/km, so I can maintain that pace for longer. OR I can now run faster for a given level of effort. Either way, I have become a faster, more efficient runner, and I have improved my endurance ability.

How strictly do you have to stick to the MATHR in training?

According to Dr Maffetone, you should never go over this MATHR number. This means a lot of you will be needing to walk up most, if not every, hill when you are training. You might even have to walk on the flats on a hot day if your awerobic system doesn’t work well.

Personally, I think there is a little bit of “room for error” and it is more realistic to aim to keep your average HR for a run below the MATHR number.

Using my 144HR example. During a 10km hilly trail run my HR might be 135bpm on the flats, but might climb to 160bpm on the hills if I was to run continuously. To keep my HR in the correct zone on average, I would, in this case, run up a hill until my HR reached 150bpm, then start walking, and when my HR was back down to 135 – 138bpm I would start running again. This way I should manage to keep my average HR for the entire run at just under 144.

Does all of your training have to be aerobic?

80% of your total running should be at your “slow” speed, with only 20% at medium to fast speed. At this ratio you are able to get all the performance enhancing benefits of the high-intensity work, while avoiding the injury risk and burnout that often come along with it.

Read this article about the 80/20 Rule to find out more.

Why do you need to record the temperature and humidity?

In order for the MAF test to be accurate, you should ideally perform it under the same conditions. This includes the climatic conditions. Depending on the time of the year this can be very difficult, especially as you head into summer.

Warmer weather and increased humidity will elevate your heart rate, so if changes in weather conditions are unavoidable between tests, then you need to factor this into your results.

Should you perform the MAF test if you have a cold or flu or other illness?

No. Wait until you feel well again. When you are ill your heart rate is generally elevated which will have a significant effect on the results.

To learn more about heart rate training read this article