Lydiard training

Dustin is right. You do need to sort things out with your coach.

But Arthur used to say, "We all go to the track. You do 440s. I do 880s. He does 220s. It's all a lot of eyewash. What you want to do is run hard until you've created a big oxygen debt and are really tired."

Translation: If you've got the basewok tended to, the specifics of the anaerobic work are not terribly important. So I'd just do what the team does. You'll have an easier life that way. But, as Nobby points out, US coaches often like to pile on the anaerobic work while they're athletes are racing, and if you're doing short, hard races frequently, you're already doing a lot of anaerobic work. So if I were to fight a battle with my coach during a racing season, it would be over the AMOUNT and FREQUENCY of anaerobic work rather than over the specific content of it.

sorry, that should read "coaches ofetn like to pile on anaerobic work while THEIR athletes are racing." Screwing that up is a pet peeve of mine.

I can relate to the situation of doing too much anaerobic work on top of racing. This track season I was doing 2 workouts a week and then racing over the weekend. (Usually doubling.) Eventually I got to a point where I could not finish workouts. The ones I did finish left me completely exhausted. After a few emails back and forth with Nobby, he also suggested to keep doing the same type of work, but with longer rest and NOT as many repeats. So I talked with my Coach and she thought it made sense, so we gave it a try. After that I started feeling better in workoouts (felt "pleasantly tired") and got my race times back down to where they should be. What HRE's saying definitely makes a lot of sense and there's some proof of it from my story and a ton more from what Lydiard said.

*workouts

-tmk is right about HS kids. I work with several who are in programs that have a history of less than stellar distance running. In Colorado runners can qualify for state by time. The "qualifying" meets are designated in advance (not all meets are qualifiers). One sophomore I am working with started his season running a 2:12, 4:50 and 10:20 triple at his first meet in March. By early April he had run 9:50 (9:57 qualifies), 2:06 and this last Saturday a 4:27 (4:28 qualifies) and I expect to see more improvement by the May 20th state meet. All of his qualifiers were in meets where he also ran the other two distances. We focused on specific distances based on his racing performances (hard time with pace of the mile, next meet focus is the 800, problem with holding pace in the mile, next meet focus running negative splits in the 3200). He also then came back in one meet ran a 9:53 for 2nd while pacing two teammates to 9:57 (qualified for state with that) and 10:08.

The other group includes 3 ladies. Two had broken 20 for the 5 km in cross country, the 3rd was at 22. They started the season running 2:40, 5:45 and 12:20 to 12:10, 5:58 and 13:00. They are now running 2:28, 5:22, 11:30 to 2:38, 5:40 and 12:20. Two of these three are sophomores. As with the guys above, I expect that at least one more of these 3 will qualify as individuals (requires 5:17 or 11:37) and they have a chance of making it in the 4 x 800 relay with these 3 and another 800 runner who is approaching 2:40.

Both sets of these youngsters do weekly runs of at least 90 minutes up to 120 and a second run of 75 to 80 minutes with a 20 minute threshold run in the middle. These are not exceptionally talented kids. They are just doing the running to develop their endurance. Then using a straight Lydiard approach to work toward state qualifiers and when they get there, they will be rested and ready to race.

Glenn

Finally I can post something.

I disagree with 12 on the "Lydiard does'nt work for High Schoolers" etc BUT I note his next statement hits it beautifully. You never leave the principles.

What he posted for a US High School or College athlete is almost exactly what I did when I was in College in the US in the seventies.

Your summers are really geared for the bigger mileage phase and by the time you get back to school you should be jumping out of your skin.

Regarding the Anaerobic work. I just ran it slower than the Coach said (Much to his annoyance)and supplemented it with lots of easy Aerobic work.

Every Sunday I headed out for my long runs as I had done back home in NZ. They were not on the Coaches schedule either.

I had regular contact with Bill Bailie back home and told him what I was doing.and if you looked at what I was running it did not look like one of Arthur's schedules. But if you looked you could see the "principles" being applied being applied.