Excellent thoughts in these 2 posts!
I agree that Sirpoc must definitely be suited to pure LT training, as most runners would at least need some strides or hills at 5K race effort or faster to perform optimally. Kinda makes you wonder if Sirpoc could go even faster with a touch of faster stuff, but as long as he keeps improving, and is enjoying what he's doing, not much sense in that.
I'm a 64 year old retired runner (and current HS XC coach) with 2 total knee replacements, so I no longer run. But, I'm a devoted rower, and have been following an "age-adjusted" Norwegian Method plan for many months. I use a 10 day cycle that includes 2 LT sessions
(one longer reps & one shorter reps), one X-Factor day (what I'd call mile-specific for a runner), and plenty of easy rowing, elliptical, biking, walking on the other days.
The schedule looks like this:
1. Short LT Reps (30-90 seconds/30 sec rests. Kept @ LT effort/HR)
2. Easy Aerobic
3. Easy Aerobic: may insert a few really relaxed 15 second pick-ups
4. Long LT Reps (3-8 minutes kept @ LT effort/HR)
5. Easy Aerobic
6. Easy Aerobic: may insert a few really relaxed 15 second pick-ups
7. X-Factor Day: Generally 30-60 second intervals @ 4 minute race effort
8. Off Day or Easy Aerobic
9, Easy Aerobic
10.Easy Aerobic: may insert a few really relaxed 15 second pick-ups
Repeat....
I can honestly say that while following this schedule, I never have bad days. When I first started doing this kind of training about a year ago, I tried doing a quality session every other day, but found that this led to a lot of residual fatigue (probably due to age). As soon as I started buffering the LT days with 2 easy aerobic days, and followed the X-Factor day with 3 easy aerobic days, I started feeling really good all of the time.
Anyway, great informative thread. Nice that it's continued with posters who are really trying to learn and contribute!