I think the point being John, could they cope with better training?
Maybe Steve is confused, because I don't think a single person is saying this is training that should be used for elites. You would have to be an idiot to think that.
But I do think Steve is maybe a bit out of touch with basicslly what 9-5, shift guys, workers who have a full time life can cope with, recover from. The inherent danger for any hobby runner is when fatigue shifts to be unmanageable. That usually comes with the much harder sessions than this training provides.
That's where I think he's missing the point. The whole idea of this method is it provides you with the best opportunity to run your best, given the constraints that the vast majority of us have to deal with: real life.
If I could train like Jakob. I would. But I can't. If I could run a marathon and do a full Canvoa plan and wrap myself up in cotton wool for the rest of the day and get 10 hours sleep a night, I would do that instead. But I can't. I stand by a lot of coaches, in fact the majority do not take enough of this into consideration. But this was all taken in mind, before he even posted in the thread. That's the difference. That's actually the secret really in a way.
I've even seen sirpoc say himself quite graciously this isn't the best training there is. But I think it's hard to argue with that it is probably the best starting point for just about any hobby jogger who is a bit stuck, wants to improve in the medium to long term, or just wants to try something else. There's zero evidence I've seen that anyone needs to be in any rush to make any dramatic changes anytime soon. I've gone a year and make quite staggering progress just maintaining roughly the same ratio of intensity, but increasing overall volume.
I will admit I thought "there's no way I can run a 5k" after a few months doing this. But the pace is there. And a pace that was much faster than I had ever run before. It's weird to me that despite hundreds of testimonials of people not even running as fast as 10k pace, they think they can't then race a 5k at a pace relative to their new workout ability.
Shoes: Definitely bridging the gap. Also makes the third workout easier.
Something better than CTL, TSS. Didn't Hard2find and sirpoc say they were looking into this? Would be good. But, I do think it does the job if you stick to the same routine week in, week out. But definitely room for something.