Maximal Aerobic Speed

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What is MAS ?

MAS,short for Maximum Aerobic Speed, is the speed at which you reach our maximum oxygen consumption. At this speed, the runner is able to hold it for about 6 minutes. It is possible to run beyond this speed for shorter times but the body must appeal to the anaerobic (without oxygen).

Improve your MAS

Before developing your MAS, it is strongly advisable to determine it with an easy-to-set-up test, the half-Cooper. This will give you a benchmark and will let you see your progress after a few months of interval training.

MAS development has a direct impact on possible performance. Indeed, it is commonly accepted that a certain percentage of this speed can be maintained depending on the distance of the competition (on a 10km, a pace close to 90% of your MAS can be maintained, 85% for a half-marathon and 80% for a marathon). By communicating vase, the more you improve your MAS, the more you will increase your performance. Of course, endurance and racing economy are also important to improve performance even more if the competition distance is long.

If you want to increase your MAS, you will have to go through interval training. We have seen that the MAS can be held for approximately 6 minutes continuously. To improve it, try to run at your MAS speed (see above) as much as possible.

So during training, to be able to run at this speed more than 6 minutes, you have to split it and take rest between each race at your MAS. For example, a well-known and used workout, the 30/30, offers to run 30 seconds at 105% / 110% of your MAS and to rest by trotting quietly for 30 seconds. This is to be repeated several times. A session of 2 x (10 x 30sec / 30sec) will finally made you run 10 minutes at your MAS.

Warning to beginners, you must not start with such a demanding session, you must start gradually! You can for example start with 6 x 30sec / 30sec and increase each week.

Remember to add variety in your workouts and don't just stick to 30sec / 30sec. All short interval workouts allows you to improve your MAS.

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