Special thanks to everyone for all the responses to the last post by Mystery Coach (we'll have to have a contest to come up with a more "creative" name for him in hopes that he will reveal himself). Please keep the comments and discussion going, as I think it only adds to the general understanding of Arthur Lydiard's methodology.
The coach has kindly typed up the third in his series of posts on how to implement Arthur's training, and I think those of you who have questions on the correct training intensities/paces with regard to building stamina will find this very informative. My thanks to the coach for this post, now on with the show.
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Planning a stamina build up:
There is one part of Arthur's teaching that most runners skip over in their rush to get to his 100 mile a week schedules. I going to quote it exactly here:
"Determining Your Capability
First you have to find your own basic capability. The best way to do this is run an out-and-back course for, say, 30 minutes. Run out for 15 minutes at a steady pace; then turn and run back again, trying to maintain that pace without forcing yourself. If it takes you 20 minutes to get back, it shows you've run the outward leg too fast for your condition If you're back inside 15 minutes without apparently increasing your effort, you haven't run fast enough to begin with. Next time, you should adjust your pace according to your insights about your condition and capability, so that you return in the same time as the outward journey. It's good discipline , and that's something you have acquire early because you're going to need a lot of it later." - Running The Lydiard Way
If you want to get the best out of your training you must take this first step. By not determining your capability most runners spend years "hypertraining" (an excellent Jack Daniels, PhD. term that describes overtraining) in hopes of pulling up their condition. If your log says "sore", "stiff", "need a day off" you're training over your capability.
Since most who read this blog are marathoners doing a good volume of running the next example is geared toward this level of running (beginners and those with less mileage could use 2 or 3 miles as a test). To find your base level; for the next 21-28 days run 7 miles a day over the same course as fast as you can, making sure that you can recover from the effort ( generally it will be about one minute per mile slower than your 5K pace or about 10-15 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace ). This test works the most easily recruited fibers (1-5) and test their output efficiency and recovery ability. If you find yourself having to slow down or needing a day off you're going too hard (even a little bit too fast will show up 10-14 days into the test). You are zoning in on Arthur's "pleasantly tired". Heart rate monitors users will want note the relationship between this level of effort and their heart rates along the run.
It is from this point that you should start your build up, this is your base level. If you have done it correctly with good discipline and control you now know a workout load that you can recover from day to day. Now you could stay at this level for a long time just gradually speeding up the pace and the 1-5 fibers will get very efficient but we need to get to those fibers on the next levels and work them to give them better efficiency and recovery ability.
Let's say you find that you can run 7 miles every day at 6:20 pace. What would be an equivalent workout for 10 miles, 14 miles, 20 miles? Here is a general rule that you can use: If you run 3% slower ( 6:20 + 380*.03 (11.4) = 6:31.4 pace ) you can run 1.5 times further ( 10.5 miles); 5% (19 seconds ( 6:39)) slower 2 times further (14 miles); and 8% slower ( 30.4 seconds ( 6:50.4 ) 3 times further (21 miles).
Just because they are equivalent does not mean that you have conditioned yourself to do them yet. As you go longer and longer you will fatigue the easier recruited fibers and require the next groups to come on line but you want to do it gradually so that the important long lasting changes can be absorbed by each fiber set. You could jump ahead and try to run that 21 miler at 6:50 pace right away but you would end up over whelming fibers 6-12 and set yourself back.
Next, where do you want to be at the end of your conditioning? Use the equivalents above and set your goals:
M 11 miles @ 6:50 pace (recovery day ( a full load would be 21 at this pace))
T 7 miles (with 2-3 mile evaluation run( easy before and after the faster run))
W 14 miles @ 6:39 pace
T 7 miles @ 6:30 pace (recovery day (a full load would be 10 at this pace))
F 13 miles @ 6:39 pace
S 7 miles @ 6:20 pace
S 20 miles @ 6:50 pace
You are going to start easier than your full load which you have discovered to be the seven miles @ 6:20 pace so working backwards from your goals the start point looks like this:
M 7 miles @ 6:50 pace
T 7 miles (with 2-3 mile evaluation run( easy before and after the faster run)
W 7 miles @ 6:39 pace
T 7 miles @ 6:30 pace
F 7 miles @ 6:39 pace
S 7 miles @ 6:20 pace
S 7 miles @ 6:50 pace
Now from this point by adding a mile every week to your long run and a mile every 2-3 weeks to the other buildup days you will get to the goal week after 14 weeks (see chart below).
Week #
1: 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7
2: 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 8
3: 7, 7, 8, 7, 8, 7, 9
4: 8, 7, 9, 7, 8, 7, 10
5: 8, 7, 9, 7, 9, 7, 11
6: 8, 7, 10, 7, 9, 7, 12
7: 9, 7, 10, 7, 10, 7, 13
8: 9, 7, 11, 7, 11, 7, 14
9: 9, 7, 11, 7, 11, 7, 15
10: 10, 7, 12, 7, 11, 7, 16
11: 10, 7, 12, 7, 12, 7, 17
12: 10, 7, 13, 7, 12, 7, 18
13: 11, 7, 13, 7, 13, 7, 19
14: 11, 7, 14, 7, 13, 7, 20
I know it seems like slow progress but it will bring the load gradually to the higher level fibers. One thing to remember a build up should not be 13 weeks of surviving every week. Too many runners read what some athlete did during a build up ( which usually comes from the final or best week) and use that for a model to be followed for all 13 weeks.
A couple of things to note: The faster Saturday run loads the 1-6 fibers which in turn makes the 7-12 fibers recruted earlier during the next day longer run. You can add easier running at any time (maybe 2-3 miles easy before the 7 milers and another couple after) but running the main part of the workout is the priority)
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Training: 12 miles, 1:22:22, 6:52 pace