i've heard lsd running works and i've heard it just makes long slow runners. has anyone had success with long slow distance running?
i've heard lsd running works and i've heard it just makes long slow runners. has anyone had success with long slow distance running?
Different things work for different people.
Some people--particularly those who seem to be almost entirely slow-twitch--seem to do very well on long slow distance. Example: Amby Burfoot. Amby raced frequently, BITD, and has said that the racing probably gave him all the faster work that he needed or could benefit from. Now that he races less frequently, however, he has said that he seems to benefit from the occasional injection of faster work into his training; and he's about as slow-twitch as anyone you'd find, this side of Park Barner.
Joe Henderson popularized LSD, with his book of the same name. He adopted LSD after getting completely burned out on track work, chronically aching legs, etc. Sometime fairly soon after making the switch to slower training, Joe ran his first marathon. In the decades since, he's run many, many, many more. What was his fastest? The very first!--when a period of easier running had allowed his legs to recover and feel good, but he still had the strength and range of motion (basic mechanics) that he had developed from training at a variety of speeds.
Joe has had some serious injuries/surgeries while training long-term on LSD (as did I); and I believe that he now prescribes a variety of training speeds for the typical runner (I could be wrong about this--haven't looked very closely at his recent books), though I'd bet the major (but NOT sole) emphasis would be on longer/easier work.
Quite a few runners seem to benefit from occasional periods of (mostly-)LSD training, say for a few weeks to a couple of months--in terms of freshening their legs, and perhaps even improving their race times (as I did, for a while).
I don't know many runners who have stayed with LSD long-term (a year or more, continuously) and have benefited (in race performances and in staying healthy) from it: a few--actually a very few--but not many. Most people seem to require a greater mix of training stimuli than LSD's one-note training provides. And a surprising number have ended up injured from it.
Bottom line: I think LSD is something that almost anyone could try for a while--and possibly improve with, as I did for a while--but something that most people cannot and should not sustain long-term.