Lydiard's books

I bought most of his currently available books on Amazon not too long ago, all of them do a pretty good job of summing up his teachings, here are the 4 that I have:

"Running with Lydiard"

This one seems like it is the primary book, for the most competitive athletes. It includes schedules from everything from the 100m to the marathon, and even some different schedules for different age groups in each event. If I could only keep one I'd probably keep this one.

"Distance Training for Women Athletes"

This book is geared more towards female athletes and includes a lot of references to Van Aaken, who had a lot of success coaching women. I actually like the schedules in this book better than the previous book, they are pretty much the same but seem balanced slightly better. I don't think Amazon has this one right now, but you should be able to find it somewhere.

"Jogging with Lydiard"

This book is thinner than the others and is geared more for less competitive runners who are running (or jogging) primarly for fitness. The schedules are mostly the pattern but the workouts are shorter

"Distance Training for Masters"

The schedules in this book are pretty much the same at the "Jogging" book, but this book is about twice as thick at the "Jogging" book, and I thought probably did the best job of summarizing Lydiards teachings than the other three. This one also includes a Q&A which is very helpful.

Other books that I don't have:

"Running to the Top"

This one didn't seem to have good reviews when I was trying to decide which ones to buy, so I didn't get this one, I may get it eventually though

"Distance Training for Young Athletes:

Not sure why I didn't get this one, but I'm sure the others are probably better.

Those books are mostly more modern, the older ones from the 60's and 70's sound way more awesome, but I don't have any because they are hard to find and expensive. From what I hear they aren't as easy to read (and make sense out of?) so you're probably better off getting the newer ones unless you are really into Lydiard and have money to spend.

You don't need to buy his books. Just go to www.lydiardfoundation.org

Hot damn! I hadn't checked out their site in a long time b/c there was never anything new. Now they have a blog and a forum... good stuff.

I noticed that they removed the training videos from the site (or I just didn't see them) - should one take this as a sign that the training DVD might actually get produced? Nobby, calling you for news...

One of my hobbies here in NZ is picking up some of Arthur's old books.

"Run to the Top" , the original (1962) is probably the best.Over the last 5 years I have picked up around 20 copies

However, to get a copy to the US today you would not see the good side of around $70 (US). I wouls make the cost of a beer on that.

It depends on what you are prepared to pay.