Lydiard/Wetmore Talk Recap

Lydiard definitely has some funny remarks.

How old was the wife he brought with him this time? Or is he on the prowl (Lydiard, that is)?

It was a good experience to see lydiard in person, but if you read his book and seen those tapes before then it was pretty redundent.

On the video that demonstrated hill work...both men were wearing spikes...when doing bounding and knee kicks, are you supposed to wear spikes?

if you are on grass yes

I'm on grass at all times, so should I always wear spikes? OOOHHH... you mean running on grass. Well, forget it.

If you are goiing to race in spikes, you should be training in spikes.

He spoke of thick rubber soles and flexable shoes. This is what our shoes should be like. My trainers are spikes that I had a thick rubber soles attached to. Grind off the plate, attach the sole. There are your trainers for dailt running. If you are on grass, go ahead and use the spikes for traction.

Great talk tonight, just confirmed many of the things that I have been implementing into my training.

Also did a good job of debunking some of the tricky #'s games that too many people chase durring training.

the best non physiologically related moment of the night was when lydiard was talking about how he went up to korea to show them his methods, and said, "i tried to eat their food, but it looked like a bowl of snot."

the second best, slightly more related to running, was when he was semi-debunking the theory of training by heart-rate, specifically always taking your morning pulse, and said (something along the lines of) "it'll fluctuate from day to day, depending on who you slept with that night."

ahhhh, arthur.

Some of what I gathered ... paraphrased by me, feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong.

Miles, miles and more miles.

2-3 hour long run every week.

Don't worry about buildup ... just get out and do it.

No off days, recovery time between seasons - easy running for a couple of weeks.

Listen to your "internal coach".

If you can't do the mileage, slow down, intinally, then increase the pace.

As LaWoof mentioned, minimal shoes.

You should run your hard runs at a pace where you know that you could run faster.

You can't race well if you are training hard.

*It was incredible to see so many good people all gathered in one place. Many undisclosed Letsrun.com folks.

Many thanks to Fleet Feet in Boulder, what a great event!

Many thanks to coach Glenn for not giving me too much grief for failing to mention his training group.

2lapmaster wrote:

"Excuse me if I sound hoarse, but I have a head cold. Usually head colds are due to changes in the weather, but in my case, it is due to a change in attitude on letsrun.com"

whow..letsrun taking over the watercooler WORLD?

metioned everywhere?

Apparently Lydiard doesn't have much respect for blacks or Koreans.

Damn, I do not know a korean dish that would resemble snot...korean food is awesome.

Main korean dishes:

Dang Jang - soybean paste that resembles fresh shit - the paste is used as a soup base.

Kal Bee and other marinated meats...

Kim-chee - fermented spicy cabbage

Nang-myeun - buckwheat noodles in cold fish soup add vinegar and horseradish for taste

The only thing i would say is that he mentioned to just go out and start doing it, but he also mentioned several times how it's a process and how you can go in expecting instant results.

During the marathon training phase he mentioned that you should start with 20 min of easy running and increase every third day, making sure to return to a shorter run the next day until you get up to his base marathon training program.

So, while I think you are right about getting out and doing it, I think Lydiard recognizes the need for a build-up, especially when just starting out.

"Excuse me if I sound hoarse, but I have a head cold. Usually head colds are due to changes in the weather, but in my case, it is due to a change in attitude on letsrun.com" -Wetmore

_______________________________________________________

Once again, I have a small penis and Im sorry.

Some pictures of last night's events:

http://boulderrunning.com/gallery/lydiard

Does Ritz follow Lydiard's training methods?

Arthur didn't bring his wife on this trip. She is 38, he is 87. They've been happily married 7 years. He says "if you want to be young, get a young wife". She (Joannie) is a pretty good marathoner.

The great love of his life, his Finnish wife, Eira, died 20 years ago, Nov 23,of cancer. He was at my house on that anniversary and I can tell you, he still misses her terribly.

Regarding spikes and the hill training: He says you need good traction for those workouts, so wear spikes if doing them in the grass. He says he and his boys did them on the roads because the New Zealand grass was usually too soggy from the frequent rains.

As far as I can tell, he has nothing against Koreans or Africans as people. He doesn't like Asian food, which is why he sent others to teach his training there. He believes the Africans are great runners because of lifelong aerobic development (running to school, etc.), not because they train so much better now. One bit of evidence he sites is that a successful Kenyan coach (sorry don't remember who) was hired by Finland to develope their runners, but was unsuccessful there - The current crop of Finns did not have the longterm aerobic base that the Africans had. That is why he says "Anybody can coach a Kenyan" - they have been running good mileage for their entire lives.

Thanks to Kathy, Greg, and the rest of the gang at Fleet Feet-Boulder for organizing the talk and for hosting Lydiard while he was here.

By the way, last night drew between 380-400 people and the ground floor of Boulder High's auditorium was packed. Previous large crowd was in Chicago that had about 220 people.