You site Malmo, who suggests focusing on mileage with limited intensity focusing on thresholds and long rep interval work at a relaxed pace, almost exactly what I said, not what you said, and use that as support for your position. Did you even read what you posted? And yes, arguing for untimed 400m reps with 400m recovery jogs does indeed clearly show you have no understanding of periodization. I find it funny you're acting like I'm the idiot here when you don't even understand some of the most basic principles in training.
As for Daniels, I already cited him, so yes I've heard of him. Most people agree his books and articles are highly valuable (me especially), but for their information on proper pacing and the physiology behind lactate threshold, VO2 max, etc, not for the training plans (which almost everyone agrees are not optimal and are not representative of how elites train). This comes up relatively frquently when discussing Daniels, which you would be aware of if you were at all well read on the subject.
Whoopity doo, you've coached before. And in an unfamiliar area?!? My oh my, you must be a genius given that last point. I've had a lot of bad coaches, and I've known a lot of bad coaches. Simply being a coach doesn't mean anything. I coached myself to a 4:11 1600m in high school and a 29:xx 10k in college and have trained with highly successful runners and coaches and seen how they train and how they've responded to different types of training, so I feel like I have a fair understanding of how to train properly from my experiences, though I've never directly coaches anyone but myself.
Have I ever studied motor learning? Yes. I have a degree in physiology and neuroscience and have studied exercise physiology on my own for about 7 years, though I don't think that's important when formulating an effective training plan.
Different things do work for different people, but if you read all the available literature, interviews with different coaches and athletes, have lived the life, etc, you find the same principles are common to >90% of the successful athletes and coaches out there. Doing a bunch of interval work at faster than threshold pace before the season has even begun is not one of them.
Pardon me for some of my rudeness. I have been rather irriated with the number of people on here recently who think they need to add their two cents to everything even though they have no idea what they're talking about. So I apologize for ripping you a bit.
Anyway, if you're interested in reading more than Daniels (in case you haven't, not saying you haven't), I highly recommend Martin and Coe, Lydiard's "Running to the Top," "Run Strong" (great chapters by McMillan and Kellogg), Tim Noakes' "Lore of Running," and perhaps Brad Hudsons's new book (just bought it, haven't had a chance to read it yet, so I can't give a personal opinion, but I've heard good things.) There are more than those, but those are the most helpful in my opinion (along with Daniels).