Lydiard Myth Busters

Why the Lydiard Traiing System is the best in the world.

[@phl0w666]

The weekly plan you show is nothing like Lydiard described it in "Run to the Top" or "Running with Lydiard". Lydiard wants you to run daily at a steady state (i.e. just below aerobic threshold) effort for at least 12 weeks. Steady state is definitely not chatty. Lydiard mentions 3:15-3:45 per km for an Elite runner, slower than that is too slow. He wants you to be able to say a sentence without gasping for air but if you're able to hold up an inner monologue you're going too slow. Now, the jogs (slow, chatty, refreshing) should be done in addition to the daily steady state efforts! Whenever you can spare time, as he writes. As a sweet spot of not too much and not too low volume he mentions 160km of steady state and just as much (160km) of additional jogging per week. Obviously this is way too much for a beginner or mere recreational runner (i.e. Jogger), or pretty much any non-professional who can't dedicate as much time to his running as he'd like to. But even if you don't have the time or experience to run 320km a week you should stick to the daily steady state runs during marathon-conditioning (phase 1), even if you can only manage 15-30mins a day at that speed at first. The nature of a steady state run (with exception of the LR) is such that you should be left pleasantly tired at the end knowing you could've gone slightly faster without dipping into an anaerobic effort. The LR should leave you tired, if not, go faster next time. True, when you follow a modern program, there's no way you could run at a steady state effort daily, and finish the 2-3 weekly hard workouts (LT, VO2Max), at least not for a prolongued period of time. However, since with Lydiard you don't go into alactic or anaerobic efforts during marathon-conditioning, thus don't lower your blood pH, your body - with proper nutrition and sleep - should be able to recover quickly from those daily 60min+ efforts, putting you in the position to run back-to-back long efforts (like Mon-Sun for 60,90,60,120,60,120-180,90 after only a couple weeks) laying the ever so important aerobic base.

[@Moneyalmenial]

Glad you mentioned time. So hard to scale elite distance to an amateur and isolate how much time running and aerobic stimulus this actually is.

[@mstrunn]

@phlOw Of course it's too much for a recreational runner but the principal is still the same; steady state run which has been called comfortable but not comfortable followed by an easy aerobic run for recovery, problem is too many runners do the easy runs too fast which retards recovery.

[@user-ro2ee7]

The Best komment Thanks...

[@olly761]

Wrong. Aerobic consistency with variation. Lydriard woukd have different days of the week at different speed, Monday to Friday at the steady state pace or 3/4. Every other day is at 1/4 effort apart from Wednesdays fartlek

[@zacsborntorunrunningadvent3441]

The Longrun Lydiard wanted optimal fat burning so 2-2 1/2hrs Sunday run allowed improved fatty acid situation and improving capillaries and strengthening/working the Left Ventricle. Arthurs original 2 x 1hr @ 3/4 efforts (which is considered Sub threshold in today's Karvoven heartrate reserve its defined as 75-80%). Relaxed Fartlek with 8 comfortable sprints perhaps 10-15sec each only to avoid acidosis. Arthur wanted 3 Longruns (2 minimum) a wk as in 1hr 45min if the longrun is 2 1/2. The longrun 1/4 Effort today is 65% heartrate reserve goal. The program wasn't daily / 10hrs of 3/4 runs or that = burnout after couple of mths.

[@bulldog3512]

She did a beautiful job describing a peak!

[@wvu05]

When I first saw an old video where Lydiard himself insisted that his program was not LSD, I felt like a victim of a 20-year game of telephone. Thank you for giving people the real deal.

[@zacsborntorunrunningadvent3441]

Great video. So much excellent information here alongside with Dr Keith Livingstone who is passionate about the Lydiard Way and his knowledge on Arthur. Also being advised from Barry...who was Bread and butter Lydiard. I thoroughly enjoyed your Podcast Lorraine on the wings of mercury off Spotify. Cheers

[@mattiabianuccitrainer]

A very precious webinar! Thanks for uploading :) Keep them coming!

[@Shevock]

I really appreciate the discussion about training for time and not miles. My easy pace is up to around 13 min/ mile, and running 22 miles in training is absurd at that pace when the pros are running their long runs in 2 hours. And they generally don't have to go to work on Mondays.

[@mstrunn]

@Dan Shevock To the pros that is their job, 24/7 whether running, stretching, eating and getting sufficient rest, they may take 1 day off, they have sponsors looking over their shoulder, produce or get dropped.

[@zacsborntorunrunningadvent3441]

Jack daniels suggested 2hrs 30min as a cap on time for the longrun. Snell got the undulating 1600km/10wks + 65-80km morn jogging... his longrun got down to 2hrs 4min. 2hrs 20 to 40min at 65-70% 1/4 effort is the fatty acid encouraging. For me this is 144-152bpm.

[@NedLudd717]

Point well made@@mstrunn

[@user-zy4mo3wp5k]

A great webinar! I'm sure we'd be extremely happy if we could download the presentation you're showing. Thanks in advance!