Just a few words on A.L.
The concensus view in Finland on Lydiard is somewhat ambivalent, but at the end a positive one. During his visit into Finland (1967-1969) when he was almost the czar-like coach there was almost no success and one of the most respected Finnish coaches calling it "an undeniable fact" that his personal training in the country was "a complete failure". It is very telling that the only two succesful Finnish runners in period of 1966-1971 were Jouko Kuha (WR and several NRs) and Juha Väätäinen (EC, NRs). Both men had rejected the offer to participate into Lydiard's program and there was animosity between these two runners and the coach with Lydiard predicting that Väätäinen will "never become a world class runner".
He had also many strange opinions, such as that he didn't think that the weather was an obstacle for training. Try to make a winter training program when there are easily several months with random and unpredictable -4F to -20 F [ie. -20 to -30 C] days and weeks. For one reason or another, almost every Finnish world class runner spent a major part of the winter in a land far-far away.
There were still many positive consequences, such as the introduction of systematic training programs. Many of the coaches who were trained by him and read his "red book" took lessons and ideas from him (Rolf Haikkola, Hannu Posti, Kari Sinkkonen) with still a more or less heterodox approach on the issue. Interestingly many maintain that their main influence was Igloy, who lectured in Finland particularly during early 1960s.
It is also apparent that the high publicity surrounding his hiring and his lecturing tours were a motivation to start the running boom of 1970s.