Ekiden star wrote:
Very interesting on how Pat Sidon trained:
:
"I never considered running the magic 100 miles a week, the most I ever did was around 70 miles" Pat says. "We trained under the same system as the great Czech athlete Emil Zatopek which included long, slow running for strength but plenty of quality repetition work as well. We used to do a lot of speed work with Alex on the Corstorphine ground in the dark, carrying torches to enable us to get round. I often used to do 24 quarter-mile reps alternating between fast and slow. You read a lot about the tremendous mileage young runners are doing now under the "Lydiard System", but I wonder how many of them are following the system accurately" Pat says.[/quote]
http://www.cavershamharriers.co.nz/our-club/pat-sidon[/quote]
Pat Sidon was truly a cross country runner. Loved it, reveled in it. He ran the roads because they back-ended cross country season. Used track season as his recovery period, like college kids use summer break. So his hard, intense running was limited to 6 months a year, if even. His coach, Alex Barr, mostly followed a Lydiard system, but wasn't a total devotee to the 100 miles per week, although he did buy into the periodization thing, particularly for track runners.
Hope this helps. Pat was a true gentleman, by the way.
