Wet Coast wrote:
I haven't read through the whole thread in detail, so I don't know if this has been touched on.
So, Arthur Lydiard had no anaerobic interval training during the aerobic conditioning phase for his athletes. This phase could be as short as eight weeks and could be much longer. Some people go up to 24 weeks. When you see diminishing returns, you move on to the hill phase.
One problem Arthur recognized (well before technology) was the human ego. He knew that athletes naturally couldn't help race their own times or training partner's time or their own recent workouts to markers et al. They would go anaerobic and potentially spoil their big aerobic base or its process of building it when doing so-called "quality sessions".
I have had beginners, long-term runners and even very elite athletes say to me, "but you have to stay in touch with your speed."
Sure. Once per week, by feel fartlek training takes care of that. As will doing 8-10 or perhaps more eight second or so relaxed strides once per week on a football/soccer pitch or track or smooth trail. No straining.
So, if Arthur was alive today, he would bristle at Strava as he knew that people can't help themselves. So the ego must be removed before the shoes go on and the runner should consider WHY each run is being run. If he/she doesn't know, he/she needs a coach to explain this. And as Arthur said, "If your coach can't explain to you why you are doing any of your workouts, you need to get a new coach."
People look at Strava and see "so-and-so" ran more kms than I this week and so-and-so has run faster than I or is catching me or is pulling away from me - all ego.
I have a weekly out-and-back run where we warm-up for 3K and warm-down for 3K. In between, we run 30-minutes out as hard as possible without straining and with the expectation of having a minor negative split and return on same path. No pacing, no racing, no looking at the watch, except to see when 30-minutes is up.
It seems so very simple, but even with long-term veteran runners it is almost a brand new concept that they have never heard of and there is actually some real fascination with. It's like reinventing the wheel. With new runners it is a lot easier.
But the ego is powerful....most people have little control.....
Nice workout and all but can you clarify what your point is and what it's got to do with people who use Strava ?