Hi there,
In Run to the Top (1962) Lydiard talks about and had his guys peak twice a year back then. Back then his schedule called for only 10 weeks of base building. So dramatic were the gains of his revolutionary system of running 100 miles per week in singles at a strong aerobic effort, running a weekly long run of 22 miles, a weekly tempo run and probably most important alternating longer runs with shorter runs that his guys, all from a small suburb of Auckland won 5 medals in consecutive Olympics. Lydiard later realized that extending the base building period would result in even better gains. So by the time he wrote Running to the Top (1995) he advocated base building for 6 months or longer which necessitates peaking only once per year.
So peaking once per year is ideal, but few individuals live in an ideal world and even fewer have idealistic goals. Most people live in a practical world and want to be able to peak twice a year. So if you want to peak twice a year you can, but in a perfect world your two peaks will be a little lower than the one peak.
As far as hills go. Lydiard has reduced the length of his hill bounding program over the years. It is only 3 weeks now in his later books. Most, but not all people who successfully use his methods don't use his hill bounding program. Who is correct? I don't have the answer. All I can say based on science and I am a scientist, it doesn't make sense to me, but I could be wrong. I can understand it for getting ready for XC or a hilly road race or marathon but not a track race. You as an individual has to decide if you need to do it. You may have to experiment and see if it improves your results. Often there are so many other variables it is tough to determine what works best.
As far as two a days goes, Lydiard makes no mention of it in his 1962 book. Later he says he is for 2 a days provided that 100 mpw is at a strong aerobic effort and the second daily run is at a lower effort. By the way, Lydiard hates the term "recovery run" and does not believe in them. His program is about always moving forward. If you need a recovery run during base building, you ran too hard the day before and are not training properly. You should be running at a strong aerobic effort every day, not going anaerobic one day and then being forced to do a "recovery run" the next day.
Snell's first Olympic gold in 1960 came off a base in which he attempted 100 miles per week but usually came up short due to nagging injures.
Snell's pinnacle, his uprecidented 800/1500 double in '64 came off of a perfect base in which he achieved 100 miles every week during the basebuilding phase.
If you read Bugles closely you will find that Snell ran singles before both Olympic titles. There were other times where he ran doubles also.
Lydiard did in fact coach Snell after 1960. They had a falling out in late '63. Interestingly the issue was intervals versus endurance and Lydiard felt Snell needed more intervals and not endurance. They later reconciled and Lydiard did in fact coach him to the the double win in '64. Keep in mind the sign of a good coach is that after several years, the individual doesn't need a coach anymore. I think Snell understood and was heading in that direction.
Phillpot had a great career. I believe he got down to 1:48 back in the early to mid 60s which was a very good time. How many Olympic medalists do you want from the same neighborhood?
You said:
It looks like if you so 12 wks. of base, 4 wks. of hills, and 10 of track work/racing, it looks like most of the work in anaerobic. So if you are doing a 24 wk. base, wouldn't you double the hills/track work?
Indeed!! Lydiard realized this and later by the time he coached Dick Taylor to number one in the world in the 10000 meters in '74, he changed the mix to 6 months base, 3 weeks of hills and 10 weeks of track work/racing. So now the mix was might higher aerobic to anaerobic.
As I said above, Lydiard's ideas were so revolutionary and so successful, that his neighborhood guys were able to dominate the world (of purely interval trainined athletes) with just 10 weeks base work. It didn't take long to figure out that the more base work, the better.
I hope this answers your questions.
JM