Arthur Lydiard's Tables of Effort and Workout Scheduling?

If your athletes are really going to run the right pace according to Lydiard's tables they will definitely need more recovery!

I have read somewhere that Snell ran one and then jogged one when doing 400's - he would even take 3 minutes recovery when running 60 sec. But you shouldn't consider those tables very helpful - just run the workouts and see what happens.

1/4 effort on a mile for a 4 minute miler would mean running 4.20 min and 1/2 effort 4.13 min! It takes absolutely terrific stamina to be able to do that only with 2.30 minutes recovery!

In the 800m schedule (I have the 67 version) in the fourth week he writes:

Run six 880s (the first 660 yards at half effort and the last 220 at three-quarter-effort in each).

For a 1.55 min 800m runner that will be about 1.35 min for the first 600m and 30s for the last 200m! Which means running 6 x 800m in 2.05 min for a 1.55 min runner - that's insane! In that case it's much better to think about it in terms of modern training and doing the first 600m in approximately 3000m pace and then speed up a bit in the last 200m.

Also running 20 quarters at 1/4 effort means about 60 sec for a runner being able to do 52s in competition. Even though you adjust your times to suit the time of the year the tables are basically too tough to follow - in my opinion anyway. The 20 x 200m is very easy to do compared to the longer stuff and time trials!

You will get the best answer about Lydiard's intent by posting the question here:

http://www.lydiardfoundation.org/

From all I've read, Lydiard wasn't all that concerned with details like specifying the recovery interval. This would be deferred to the athlete, who should take more rest, if he needs it. The paces might be too fast for some, and to slow for others, so recovery should be adjusted accordingly, if the workout is simply too demanding.

One "main" Lydiard criticism is that Lydiard didn't "do intervals" right. He was too relaxed and vague about such details.

But for this specific workout, you have to think in terms of what you are trying to achieve. You are running the first two 1-mile reps "slowish", and then the last one a bit harder. At this point in the training, does it make more sense to run that last one fresh, or are you training to stimulate a fast finish when you are tired?

Do the athletes know they are being used as lab rats.

I don't know -- does any athlete?Why do you ask me?

What??? wrote:

Do the athletes know they are being used as lab rats.

Bill Baillie's guide was "short interval/long rest, long interval/short rest." If your athlete needs a long recovery in that 2xmile at 1/4 effort session it's likely that the effort was not really 1/4 regardless of what the times were relative to his/her race time. As the effort rachets up you'd increase the recovery, but even the half effort reps shouldn't require a really long recovery and again, if they do then they really weren't half efforts. Remember that effort and pace are different things.