Update on 6 Month Lydiard Style Base Training for a 17 Year Old

Yes, after six months of base training giving yourself some variety would be a good thing especially if those aerobic intervals really have been aerobic. You want your muscles having a bit of variety, But it is hard to think what that should be like now given the absence of races and the uncertainty of when there will be racing again. I'd suggest sometime doing things like hill reps, short fast reps in not massive numbers, say 8 x 200 or 6 x 400. A time trial wouldn't hurt. If you can get yourself to it some spontaneous fartlek (to that's a redundant term ) You don't want to do loads of this stuff but I think it would be good to branch out a wee bit.

Thank you so much for the reply! To clarify: I can do this style of base training for as much time as I need and would only leave it to prep for a race? Essentially I want to be able to increase my milage and base while seeing linear improvement.

One more thing: how well would I race off of this plan? Could I just do this forever and whenever a race pops up race and run well? Would the benefits eventually start to disappear and periodizing would be beneficial?

one more thing:

Should I be running tempos?

If you incorporate those little bits of faster stuff and then begin racing regularly you should be able to race very well, whatever that means for you. It's not the sort of thing Lydiard would have considered ideal but his ideal system of peaking twice a year really isn't going to work for high school (especially)and college runners who are racing nine months or more a year. Something like I suggested (and it can be anything along those lines) will have you able to adapt to racing quickly and for a long while as long as you don't overdo the hard stuff. If you're going to stale you need to back away and run easily for a few weeks. Craig Mottram trained along these lines and so did Ann Audain (more wins at road races than any woman in history in case she's too far before your time.) Mottram once said that he was never more than 2-3 weeks away from top form.

The time to stop with the faster stuff is either when you start feeling stale and racing slower, as I mentioned, or when you decide you want to work on getting your volume up.

RunnerWithoutAnAerobicBase wrote:

one more thing:

Should I be running tempos?

At a time when there is nowhere to race I would not get too structured about what I'm doing. Those aerobic intervals you've been doing have probably been having a similar effect. But we used to do "tempos" all the time without knowing the term or giving it much thought. Usually you'd be in the second half of your run and you'd naturally pick the pace up if you were feeling good. You really cannot do too much of that sort of thing if you allow it to happen rather than forcing it to happen.

Thank you!

So if I understand this correctly,

I can effectively build up an aerobic base and maintain neuromuscular fitness so that I will always be ready to race. Then I can peak during XC/Track season by going through the more traditional strength -> anaerobic -> speed -> taper.

My plan would be mostly easy runs with a tempo, aerobic intervals, long run, and a time trial every month. If the time trial doesn't improve then I should drop down into doing just easy miles.

Also, final question:

Do you recommend this style of training if my goal is to peak late fall, or is repeating the Lydiard 16 - 24 week cycle training style more effective?

Many thanks!

Honestly, I think we need to see what's going to happen in terms of when there will be races. It seems you're in high school so let's assume there will be an outdoor season maybe starting at the very end of March. I'd have you do all of those things you mention but not all in the same week and also have something like the 200 or 400s in the mix. I might have you do one day of those, a second day of one of the other things in alternating weeks, maybe the time trial happening every other week, the long run, and easy runs on the other days. On those runs if you're feeling it let the pace pick up.

Once track season is done, have a wee break, either time off or reduced volume and maybe by late June or early July start building up mileage, preferably a bit more than you've done before and nothing eles (you can still pick the pace up if you're feeling it as the run goes on but nothing formal) until cross country starts at which time I assume you'll do what your team does.

If spring track does not happen would this style of training work well?

My fear is that I will get to XC season with the ability to run for a long time but no ability to run faster for longer.

RunnerWithoutAnAerobicBase wrote:

If spring track does not happen would this style of training work well?

It should. If track does not happen maybe you should do more time trials, get some teammates together for some informal races and then build up the miles for cross country. The reason I like the 200s and 400s in low numbers is to have something fast in the mix but not enough to have you go stale. Really this is all so unprecedented that no one has anything to draw from in figuring how to approach it.

This sounds great!

I will continue with mostly easy miles, but:

Wont be afraid to up the pace at the end of a few easy runs if I feel strong.

Will add in a few short aerobic intervals and light fartleks to preserve neuromuscular function, but not enough to go stale.

Will do a time trial once every few weeks.

Increase my milage by 2 miles every week.

This will allow me to build up my base while not losing (and hopefully improving) my speed so that I can go to XC season being able to run faster for longer.

Does this sound good?

Many thanks!

It's good but don't be afraid to run those short reps fairly fast. You want to do some faster, anaerobic work after a long stretch of base building. But make them a supplement, not the focus.

Wait, are the short reps anaerobic? Should the be done during or after base building?

Also:

Would this training be as effective as Lydiard, Bowerman, Daniels?

Thank you very much!

Well, you're kind of at the end of base building now, or should be after six months of it. If there were races it would be time to move on and get ready for races. One of the benefits of doing this is that you begin stressing other physical systems. Lydiard would tell you that once you'd done a certain kind of training for a while you've gotten about as much benefit as you could and it was time to do something different. Then once you'd done that for a while go to something else eventually cycling back to base building again. When he talked about doing base training for "as long as possible" he did not mean for years. He was talking about an extra few weeks. So I was looking to get you to another kind of work.

It's also a mistake to think that his guys only did distance runs during the base phase. They all ran for clubs and ran in their clubs' races year round. They just didn't take them seriously and trained through them. But between those races and picking the pace up in the second part of 10-12 mile runs they did some faster running. And the runs were on hilly couses.

If you want to go more classically Lydiard, and maybe I should have started here, add a couple sessions of hill reps each week for the next four weeks with some strides at the top and bottom after each rep. After you've done that switch over and do the kinds of things I mentioned earlier. But when you get to the short reps, yes, you want to run them fast and with a full recovery.

Thank you very much for the reply!

Just a note: I am 7 weeks into the base building process.

I will start to add a few quick days here and there as I mentioned a few posts ago and then in 6 months start to progress into more specific training. Between a few time trials and some aerobic intervals, I should be ready for more specific work in 4 and 3/4 months, if I am understanding you correctly.

At seven weeks you could keep at base training until late next month. Then you could do the hills and strides for a while. By then you might know if there will be a track season.

Thank you very much for your time!