Aussie,
Look across the Tasman Sea for wisdom about volume and quality.
http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300,1-0-0-1963,00.html
Long runs and mileage help develop basic speed and in conjunction with lactate threshold work lay the foundation for improvement at all distances. Read up on it.
--trackhead
Peter Snell
by Rich Englehart
At the Rome Olympics in 1960, the 800 meters was won by an unknown New Zealander named Peter Snell, whose coach Arthur Lydiard was known for revolutionizing middle distance training
At the Rome Olympics in 1960, the 800 meters was won by an unknown New Zealander named Peter Snell. In 1962, he won the half-mile and the mile at the British Empire Games and set world records at 800 meters/880 yards (1:44.3/1:45.7), and one mile (3:54.4 on a 385 yard grass track). And in 1964 he broke the world record for 1,000 meters (2:16.7) and the mile again (3:54.1). His coach was Arthur Lydiard, whose training methods took even middle distance runners away from the track for long, slow runs, and were considered revolutionary at the time. After retiring in 1965, Snell eventually enrolled at the University of California/Davis, where he earned a BS in exercise physiology, and then a Ph.D. from Washington State University. As proud of his academic career as of his athletics, he is a faculty member in the medical school at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he researches human performance. He has written a book "Use It or Lose It", a practical guide for people who want to get or remain fit as they get older.
Runner's World Daily: What are distance runners in western countries doing today that is better than what they did in your prime?
Peter Snell: Nothing at all! The times certainly suggest that they aren't. They have the best university scholarships, the best facilities and the best exercise physiologists in the world. And the times are really no better than what we were doing. My 800 meter time would have placed second at Edmonton in the World Championships, and that was not a tactical race. It may have been that I had wonderful talent, but I don't think so. I think I had talent, but did the right training.
RWD: It seems that many, if not most, of those physiologists preach low volume, high intensity work, and think that Lydiard's methods are outdated.
PS: Even in New Zealand the feeling is that his ideas are passe. I can't believe it! I still hold the record there for 800 meters. It's forty years old. You'd think after forty years they might have figured out that they aren't doing something right. Most physiologists are trained on the idea of specificity, and simply can't understand that slow training makes you faster.
RWD: How?
PS: When you run at a moderate pace, your slow twitch muscle fibers are the first ones recruited. But if you run far enough, they become glycogen depleted and can no longer contract, so eventually the fast twitch fibers are recruited. As a sidebar, I was recently at a conference in Las Vegas sponsored by USATF to discuss reasons and suggest solutions for the lack of medals won by U.S. distance runners at Sydney and Edmonton. Because U.S. runners are often buried in the last lap, it was decided that the problem was a lack of speed. Ralph Mann (Olympic silver medalist in the 400 meter hurdles at the 1972 Olympics), who's now a biomechanics expert, was brought in to teach sprint technique. In my opinion, this will not work. The problem isn't lack of speed. They're running out of gas. Everyone else cruises past them because they've got superior endurance. After my presentation, John Chaplin (head coach at Sydney) said, "you're only rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."
RWD: Do you think the U.S. high school and collegiate system, with its emphasis on frequent racing and little time for coaches to get runners ready, inhibits long-term development?
PS: I'm surprised that Alan Webb went to college. I wouldn't have gone. Alan's very capable of supporting himself with his running. He won't be able to do a decent job on a degree if he's training hard. There is plenty of time to do a degree later, when the studies can have his full attention. I did mine at 34 years old. If his running career doesn't work out due to injury or something else, he can still go to college. The trouble with school is that you have an obligation to show up and compete excessively. That's not always in your best long-term interest.
RWD: So professionalism could work for a runner at Alan Webb's level. What about runners who don't have the same high profile?
PS: When John MacKenzie was chair of middle distance running for USATF, he put on a camp in Maine for "emerging elite" middle distance runners, teaching kids who had graduated recently how to survive without a shoe contract. I asked them, "what can we do to help your running career?" and they replied, "give me a ticket to Europe." I could never get it! Somehow, the perception is that they might get lucky and win some money. What about the idea of staying back and training until you're so good that the promoters are clamoring for you?
You can run 100 miles a week on an hour and three quarters a day. There's no reason you can't do that and hold a job. Once, talking to Paul McMullen, I mentioned that he'd been in Hawaii racing for money while we were having a camp in San Diego discussing strategies for getting better. Runners are tempted to do money races when some other activity might be more to their long-term interest.