Arthur Lydiard's Lecture - PrepCalTrack

rartfrom, say,40ml/kg/ min. in the first year to50ml/kg/min. in the second year, I canimprove the performance level with thesame anaerobic development. It is the aerobic threshold that governs it; not anaerobic development. It is the aerobic threshold that can be improved year by year withcarefully planned marathon training.So I try to explain to my athletes,"You don't make yourself great doinganaerobic training, you make yourselfgreat doing aerobic training." Remembertoo that you have to understand when toback away from the anaerobic training.You can do too much of it and affect yourphysiological condition adversely.Talking about aerobic development,I've found that if you work on a time,rather than mileage basis, you get betterresults. This is particularly true in young,developing people. For instance, if we saywe are all going for a 25-kilometer (15mile) run, some people might finish a halfhour before others who aren't quite as fitand haven't done as much backgroundtraining. Commonly, these people start todo too much training on a time basis. Inother words, some people would only takean hour and a half to run 25-kilometers intraining, others might take 2 hours. Theimportant aspect is that they run an hourand a half in relation to the fitness leveland background training.When you are working with youngpeople, it is also important, before they gothrough the fast growth fpurt, to understand that their ability to use oxygen incomparison to their body weight is greaterthan adults. They are, therefore, betterequipped to run long distances. If we lookat the Mricans - Kenyans, Tanzanians, andEthiopians - who are now beating mostpeople in the world, we'll see that it's notbecause they have scientific laboratories totrain and test athletes but simply becausethey do a lot of running - they run toschool and they run home again. We haveto encourage our young people to do a lotof aerobic running and not to race toomuch. At that age they have highly sensitive nervous systems and can't stand a lotof anaerobic training or pressure.We must also look at natural abilityiardand basicspeed. In your country; Japan, likemy country, we are not very fast . We'retoo slowfor the 100 and 200 meters in mostcases.Even our fastest runners, though theyare nationallOO-meter champions, in theworld listings they are way back in the hundreds. Success at the national level oftenclouds the scope of the international scene.A runner may prefer to run the 100 metersto be national champion, instead of looking at himself as a potential800-meter runner, which owing to his basic speed, wouldprobably allow him to have more successatthe international level. We've got to makeour good athletes think internationally, notnationally.I put my athletes through years oftraining to find out how they can maximize their speed potential. You can't makea slow person fast but you can improvetheir speed. I use times over 200 meters toascertain which event a particular runneris best suited for. I use 200 meters becauseat the 100 meter distance a sprint start canhave a big influence and at 400 metersendurance plays too big a part. In 200meters we can get a good indication of theathlete's basic speed.For instance, if you have an athletewho can meet 22 seconds or better for 200meters, he is fast enough today to be agreat 800-meter runner at internationallevel. If he is slower than that, however,there is little prospect that he will have success at that distance and it may be to hisadvantage to look for longer races. If youlack speed, you lose the economy of running action while trying to maintain pace.Anaerobic CapacityLet's talk about anaerobic developmentand our understanding of it. Anaerobicdevelopment determines the ability tocarry out a workload that requires moreoxygen than our body can assimilate,transport and use. The net result of thisactivity is the buildup of pyruvic and lactic acids. After a heavy workload of anaerobic training, the body can require 48hours or more to recover. If we carry outthe anaerobic training properly, we canensure that the pH level of an athlete'sblood hits a low during exercise. In suchtraining, it pays to pull the level as low aspossible, allowing it to return to normalbefore repeating the activity. Carrying outhigh levels of anaerobic developmentinterspersed by 2 days complete restachieves this.An athlete that trains poorly, eitherwith people who are too fast for him, orunder a program that covers too muchanaerobic work, will maintain a lowerthan-normal blood pH level for long periods of time. If you examine the blood testsof such people, you'll find that theirplatelets will be very low. Recovery timesare slowed and because of the effects onenzyme functions, the immune system canbe adversely affected. Usually, athletes whocontinually get breakdowns, muscle pullsand other injuries and are continuallydeveloping coughs and colds will beundergoing an excessiveamount of anaerobic workouts.(4)Too much anaerobic training can alsolead to 'staleness.' Symptoms include nervousness, loss of appetite and insomnia.These are psychological products of thephysiological reactions brought about bymaintaining a lower-than-normal bloodpH level for a sustained period of time. Iwant to stress again: when we use anaerobic training, we must be very, very careful.An understandingof the processesinvolved is essential. It's better to underdo such training than over do it. Most people massively over do it.Remember too that once you startdoing anaerobic training, you've got tomaintain the program. If you start doingit too early in the season, you'll create animbalance in training by trying to develop the ability beyond the level at which thehuman body is comfortable. Also note thatthe day you start doing anaerobic trainingand stop your aerobic conditioning is theday your performance levelhas been determined for that season. IS)Now, it's important to realize thatthere is no one in the world that can determine the precise amount of anaerobictraining an athlete will need. You can'ttrain to hypothetical figures. Too often Isee coaches take their athletes down to theContinued on page 22AmericanTrack&Field·Winter2007 2 1

r--IartiardContinued from page 21be right in saying he can do fifteen 400meters in 65 seconds with such-and-suchinterval. The main thing, however, is toexplain to the athlete not only how to trainand what to do, but why he is doing it. Itis important to convey the physiologicalreactions the runner is aiming to bringabout with his training.Once achieved, these reactions serveas a valid indicator of when to stop. It isthe athlete that should determine when hehas hit the wall and needs to finish, not thecoach. The key to training is to train toyour individual reactions to the training.It's important to realize that, in termsof volume, a good deal of training will needto be done. In say to an athlete out on thetrack, "I want you to complete 5 circuitsand every 100 meters sprint 50 meters ashard as you can," the athlete will probablybe out there for about 8 or 9 minutes. (6)After this time his legs will be extremelytired, starting to suffer neuromuscularbreakdown, in which his muscles no longercontract. Now if we take standard bloodtrack and say something like, "I want youto run 15 laps at the rate of 65 seconds alap," without the athletes having any sayin it. Coaches usually set their athletes around figure like 10 or 15 or 20 repetitions. Now if the athletes went to thecoach and said, "Coach, why do I have todo fifteen 400-meter reps?Why not 12 or13 or 17?" the coach wouldn't be able totell him. He decided upon 15 simplybecause it was aesthetically pleasing. Theathlete might very well get tired on his12th repand decide he's had enough.However, he is going to have to do 3 morecircuits simply because the coach wrotedown a round figure.One of the reasons why Americansdon't-produce velYmany good middle-distance and distance runners, with millionsof people there running, is simply becausecoaches determine with hypothetical figures exactly what athletes should do inanaerobic training. Yes, as a coach, youmay be able to determine pretty closelywhat your athlete can do. You may even22 IVinter2001 AmericanTrack&Fieldsamples from the leg muscles of this athlete and an arterial sample from his earlobe, there will be two very different pHreadings: low in the leg muscles; not as lowin the arterial blood. As an analogy, if! wereto get down and do 50 push-ups, my armswould get tired. I myself am not tired butmy arm muscles no longer contract. If weare going to get an effective reaction, wetrain for longer periods. (7)Now suppose I say to the same athlete, "I want you to go out and run 800meters 6 times, alternately running andthen jogging laps." Doing this he will berunning with lower anaerobic effort butincurring an oxygen debt, which in turnwill create lactic acid and start to lower thepH level of his blood. His legs, however,won't become fatigued so rapidly and hismuscles won't get so tired generallybecause he will be getting more recoverytime. If that athlete runs six 800 meter repetitions, alternating the pace in the waydescribed, he'll be out there for a half houror more. If we then take blood samples

/artagain, we will find that the pH of bloodtaken from the ear lobe will be much closer to the low:,:rlevels we wish to achieve.If we are going to do anaerobic training then, we must ensure we do a largevolume of it to be effective and realize that weshouldn't train at full tempo. (8)Through trial and error, I have foundthat if athletes do hard anaerobic training 3days a week for a period of 3)2' to 4 weeks,they develop they anaerobic capacityto nearmaximum. Note that the coordination train-//ing which follows brings in developmentraces,which are another short, sharp anaerobic workout. If it hadn't been developed inthe preceding time, these will ensure themaximum anaerobic potentiality is fulfilled.As we approach the end of our 4weeks of hard anaerobic training, we arefaced with something of a dilemma: if wecontinue at such a rate, we'll pull our condition down. If we under-do it or stopdoing it, we'll lose the development thatwe have. To solve this problem we can dowhat are called "sharpeners."These are circuits in which we sprint100 in every 200 meters or 50 in every100. Becausethey are short and sharp, theyhelp to maintain anaerobic development.If athletes stop when they have hadenough, this can be done without adversely affecting conditioning.Every athlete is different. In thes.::;i-ledctle I write I include hypotheticalfigures, of course, but these are only forguidance, and I explain to the athletes thatthey are not compelled to strictly followthem. I think too many coaches are toodogmatic and they are determined to maketheir athletes do things as they've written,instead of taking into consideration whatin my opinion is more important: the reactions of the athletes themselves.Now let's move on to the coordination of training; the last 6 weeks in a 10week program.CoordinationWhen we compete, we have to accustomour body to what we expect it to do on theday of the event. That is, run a certain distance in a certain time. (9)At 6 weeks prior to competition I usually get an athlete to run the distance atiardnear racing speed, on his own, with nowatch and without calling out the laptimes. By noting them down myself andlooking at the overall time, I'll get an indication of where we are exactly with thatathlete at that stage of training. One thingI've learned is that it's very easy to sharpena well-conditioned body to racing pitch. (10)Once sharpeners and faster workouthave been introduced, we see these timescome down very rapidly. In wake of this,try to gradually increase the tempo of workin the last 6 weeks. Go out and see how fastyou can run in those first few weeks andthen gradually increase the pressure sessionby session.(I I) Say,for instance, that we havea 5-kilometer runner and he runs his firsttrial in 15 minutes, without the watch andwith no competition. We know where weare exactly with that athlete at that stage.Now about 3 days later, we'll send him outfor another 5,000 and this time we'll givehim lap times and we'll have him run a little more quickly than when he ran 15 minutes. Progressively, each week, we'll havehim increase the tempo, gradually gettingthe athlete to run faster.(12)Depending upon the reactions of theathlete, we can determine what training touse in conjunction with these time trials.Under-distance or over-distance fast runswent out and ran fast, had a rest, ran fast,and had a rest. When it came to the actual race, they were still looking for their restperiods! Halberg, however, was able to runstrongly all the way. I told him that whenthere were about three laps to go the pacewould slacken while the other athletesattempted to have a rest. During this timehe could put in a 60-second 400-metersand blow them away! He got an 80-meterlead on the field in one lap simply becausethey'd been trai"ed to have a rest and hehadn't. That won him the gold medal. People said to me afterward that they couldn't understand h,JW in the Olympic final,in front of 80,000 people, the rest of thefield just watched Halberg run away andwere unable to do anything about it. Theanswer is simply because they'd beentrained incorrectly. AT&F(1)For Lydiard,sprinting,peed,or purespeed,fromis differentanaer-obic speed devewped by doing intervals or repetitions.(2)These morning runs ate(OJLydiaI'd used these figures to simplifjrerolleryjogsat easiereffort.the nature of oxygen tkbt.Recent studies suggest, however, that the limit of oxygen debt inhumans is closer to 4-5litcr.(. Dr. Peter Snell, who trained underLydiard and is one of the ka:li"g experts in exercisephysiology, hiltproposed a new and more :'atid formula.Please referto fOotnoie(3) in chapter 2 in Arthur L)'ciiard's Athletic Training.(4)Most metabolic actions and reactions,the alkalinecondition.if notall, are performed inWith lxcess lowering of blood pH level,enzyme activities will bl! afficted adversely.(5)This does not mean that you arm't going to improve your times forthe season anymore. In fict,w'th all the sharpening and coordi-nation training, this is where your times would start to come down.can be prescribed after communicationbetween athlete and coach. For instance,if we have a young runner who comes inafter his 5,000-meter run and says, "I don'tknow, coach. I'm not tired but I couldn'tgo any faster," we'd know he's not sharpenough yet and that he would likely benefit from some under-distance races andfast trials. If an athlete runs powerfully overthe initial stretch but begins to tire at theend, it will be beneficial for him to carryout some over-distance fast runs. Now allathletes are different in their reactions, soyou'd have to be a little experimental in thelater stages of training to determine exactly how to coordinate things but in general the trials serve as a good rubric.Just to explain this coordinationwhen I trained 5,000-meter runner Murray Halberg in 1960, he ran strongly andevenly over 5,000 meters at near-racingspeed. Now in those days, all the athleteshe ra against were interval trained. TheyHowever, because your performance!evel is governed by your aer-obic, not anaerobic capacifJ once you stop working on its development, you will have tkterminedson,(61your performance ftr the sea-These circuits are known as "sharpeners" and play an importantrole during the coordinationphase in maintaininganaerobiccapacity without affecting good conditioning,('ILydiard is refireing to the muscle groups that are involved in thatpartieuhractivity - in this eilte. kgs. Because of short, sharp sprintswith littk recovery hetic acid will build up very quickly in theworking muscle groups. With a better understandingof intervaltimes and repetitions, hetie acid build-up in the kgs can be suppressed, alwwing it to build up through general fttigue,bringingdown bwod pH throughout the body.!')If the intervals/repetitionsare performed too filtt. or without sufficient recovery you may have to finish the workout prematurely.fiiling19ito achieve an overall lowering of pH throughout the body.Its important to accustom your body to continuous effort. Lydiardintroduced the time trial because he realized thatif yousharpenwith repetitions alone, your body will expect a ''recoveryperiod"during the actual competition as well,If you have ftlwwedthe LydiaI'd program and done wts of bilte-building aerobic training with strict control over speed and anaerobic tkvelopment,quickly.1f,your body will react well, becoming sharpenedhowever, you hck a good aerobic base, all these stren-uous time trials will soon ruin your conditioning.(lJ)With all the quicker workouts, times should come down naturally. not be ftrced to get filtter. You should not try to squeeze the timeout too quickly by trying to run these trials filtter.(2)AmericanThis is a cldssie exampk of the ''Date Pace/Goal Pace" concept. Youcan draw a graph line from the first trial toJour target goal timeand tktermineexactly how much filtter you should be runningeach session you train.Track&Field·Win'"2007 23

artiardPart 2Arthur Lydiard's LectureTranscribed. edited and footnotes added byNobuya ''Nobby'' Hashizume, who wrote:Many peoplefiel thatArthur Lydiard wasa man who knew everything there was to knowabout running. He could help anyone, in anypart of the world, run faster and ftrther becauseof his understanding of the "hows" and ''whys''of training. His athletes'success in the 1960Rome Olympics, where Peter Snell and MurrayHalberg won gold medals and Barry Mageewon a bronze, focused his attention on theircoach, a shoe-maker from Auckland, NewZealand. Many countries offered him a rolecoaching not only their athletes but also theirtraining staff, wanting him to overseeafull athleticsprogram. During a spellasFinnish national coach, his influence produced three goldmedals (Lasse Viren, Pekka Vasala, Tapio Kimtanen) and a bronze at the 1972 Olympics inMunich, with a set of next generation athletescoming tofruition in the 70s and 80s. Lydiardwas awarded the White Crossfor his efforts the Finnish equivalent of a knighthood - andis the only non-Finn to have receivedthis award.Meanwhile, his training methom were adoptedallover the world. In 1990, Lydiard conductedclinics in Tokyo and Osaka. What follows is anedited transcript of the Lydiard seminar inOsaka in April 1990. Thefirst part of this article appeared in VoL 14, No.7 of AT&FRacing Beginsmorning very easily. He raced 6 races in 7days and won two gold medals. On the lastday, when he won the 1500 meters, it wasvery easyfor him. It was like a training run!He won by 40 meters. He said afterwardshe didn't feel that he had run hard. Whenwe used to go to the track during the daytime we'd see other athletes still traininghard. Providing you make sure that youallow sufficient recovery time followinghard races and providing you have goodbase conditioning, you can hold your formfor a long time once you are fit.Speed DevelopmentNow we are going to talk about speed: anarea that is crucially important and, fromwhat I've observed in the last few days, onethat's not emphasized enough by Japaneserunners. Most middle-distance and distance runners do a lot of conditioning.They think anaerobic repetition work, likerunning 200 meters or 400 meters, develops speed.2 In actuality, it counteracts it!When you see people doing a lot of repetitions, invariably they start t

Arthur Lydiard's Lecture Transcribed. edited and footnotes added by Nobuya "Nobby" Hashizume, who wrote: Many people feel that Arthur Lydiard was a man who knew everything there is to know about running. He could help