Running with Lydiard

2. Marathon Conditioning Training

After the Halberg-Snell-Magee era of the early 1960s, the main evolvement in my approach to conditioning training was dictated by the fact that I did not often see the athletes I coached, so I encouraged them to train on a time basis, rather than on mileage. It proved the wiser approach to coaching by remote control, especially for the faster athletes who, in a 25-kilometre run, would not spend as much time running as slower athletes and would, therefore, miss out on the most important aspect of conditioning - the volume of work they do.

A secondary aspect which favours the time basis is that athletes running over measured courses fairly regularly are inclined to pressure themselves into becoming competitive about it. They want to cover the course faster each time or can be tempted into trying to do so. If they just go out and run for, say, an hour and a half, with the pressure off, we seem to get better results. Keep this firmly in mind when you read this chapter and its references to training mileages and times.

If you have not done the marathon-type conditioning before, you must think deeply about it and try to understand clearly just what you are trying to achieve. You must relate the work you will be doing to the physiological changes and benefits outlined in the previous chapter and make sure you are not confused about the effects the various types of exercise will have on you. Sort the exercises into their various compartments, balance your schedule and get rid of any doubts about the approach to make during each development stage, right up to the climax of your racing season.

Tackle each stage as a separate exercise, distinct and different from all the others, though each is aimed at the same ultimate target. Only when you are positive about the physiological and mechanical aspects of your training will you develop the confidence you need in training if you are to become a champion.

The fundamental principle of training is simple, which may be why it needs repeating so often: it is to develop enough stamina to enable you to maintain the necessary speed for the full distance at which you plan to compete. Many runners throughout the world are able to run 400 metres in 46 seconds and faster, but remarkably few of them have sufficient stamina to run 800 metres in 1:44, or 52 seconds for each 400 metres. That clearly shows the part stamina plays in middle and distance training. It is absolutely vital.

Consider those relative times again - they will help you to realise just what could be achieved by the really fast runners if they concentrated on endurance development and shifted their attention to longer distances.

Peter Snell was basically the slowest runner in the 800 metres final at both the Rome and Tokyo Olympics but he had the stamina to carry him through the heats and then sprint the last 100 metres of the final faster than any of his rivals. They were by then too tired to use their superior speed. Snell was trained to be capable of running a fine marathon but his rivals were not. This was the advantage that enabled him to succeed; it is also the advantage you can give yourself.

Quite simply, it means putting your body into a near-tireless state so that oxygen debts are not created quickly and the ability to recover rapidly is at a high level. The stamina is best achieved among sportspeople by cross-country skiers; the best way after that is by running.

And the best running programme is to cover approximately 160 kilometres a week at just under your maximum steady state, plus any supplementary running, such as jogging, that you feel inclined or have the time to do.

When we prepared Run to the Top in the early 1960s, we based the stamina-building phase on these 160 kilometres a week and many runners adopted this as a no more, no less requirement, which of course, it is not. In this connection, an Australian doctor with an interest in sports medicine once mentioned that the 160 kilometres a week was insufficient and that Australian athletes were running twice that.

He did not understand, perhaps because we had not explained it comprehensively enough, just what my athletes were doing. They were running 160 kilometres a week at their near-best aerobic effort during their evening runs and on a long-duration weekend run, but, like the Australians, they were also covering up to another 160 kilometres in much more easily paced morning and midday training sessions. My middle-distance men, Snell and John Davies at that time, were running the lowest total weekly mileages but even they were covering about 250 kilometres a week.

I asked the doctor if, as a physiologist, he believed a runner could train more than 160 kilometres a week for periods of months at his best aerobic speed. He could not answer because he did not know but I had already proved for myself that no runner could do it. For years, I ran many kilometres trying to find the correct balance for my conditioning training. I knew it was as easy to overtrain as it was to undertrain in both mileage and effort. I ran from extremes of 80 kilometres a week to 500 kilometres a week at close to my best aerobic effort before settling on the 160 kilometres a week; then, when I added the slower supplementary runs at other times of the day, I found that they assisted my recovery from the long aerobic efforts and hastened the rate of my development.

Running is, without question, the best exercise for runners and, as long as we watch the degree of effort, we cannot really do too much of it. Some physiologists have maintained that, unless the pulse rate is brought up to 150 to 180 beats a minute, the athlete gains very little cardiac development. This is absolutely wrong; I have never believed it. If an athlete with a normal pulse of 50 to 60 beats a minute lifts the rate to 100, he or she must get cardiac development, so all supplementary jogging, while it may not impose the pressure on the system to the extent that maximum steady state running does, is supplying extra benefits to the cardiac system while it aids the athlete's recovery.

The long steady running that I term marathon conditioning is designed to induce a pleasant state of tiredness rather than fatigue so that it does not interfere with the following day's programme. You should recover reasonably quickly.

So, first, you have to find your own basic capability - the starting point from which to begin lifting your maximum steady state. The best way to do this is to run an out-and-back course for, say, 30 minutes. Run out for 15 minutes at a steady pace, what you think is comfortably below your best effort; then turn and run back again, trying to maintain the pace and avoiding any forcing. If it takes you 20 minutes to get back, it shows you ran out too fast for your condition. If you are back inside 15 minutes without apparently increasing your effort, you were not running fast enough to begin with.

Next time, aim to adjust your pace according to what the first run showed you. You will run a different distance, more than or less than the first one, but you should this time come back in the same time you went out. It is good discipline and that is something you need to acquire early because you are going to need a lot more of it later.

As you learn more about yourself and improve your general physical condition, you will be able to run both farther and faster but by this time it should be ingrained in you that it is the speed of the running that stops you, not the distance you are running. Running that leaves you breathless and struggling or has you forcing yourself to keep going is anaerobic, not aerobic, and it must be avoided. It is much better to go too slowly than too fast - and if you can recognise the importance of that and discipline yourself to it, you are on your way to becoming a greater runner than you believed possible.

For the psychological reasons we have mentioned before, you should train by time rather than mileage at first. This way you do not translate your efforts into comparisons with the four-minute mile and discourage yourself by getting a quite false impression of how well you are doing. Everyone has different fitness levels and backgrounds, irrespective of age or sex, so there is no hard-and-fast schedule to follow. So the early weekly schedule should incorporate three long runs, for a length of time the individual considers long according to his or her state of fitness. For instance, once the runner can handle 15 minutes a day comfortably, the routine could be: Monday 15 minutes; Tuesday 30; Wednesday 15; Thursday 30; Friday 15; Saturday 15; Sunday 30.

When this, or whatever similarly balanced schedule you elect, becomes comfortable, you gradually add time until you have reached - and you could be surprised how quickly this can be done - a schedule like this: Monday 1 hour; Tuesday 1.5 hours; Wednesday 1 hour; Thursday 2 hours; Friday 1 hour; Saturday 2-3 hours; Sunday 1.5 hours.

All this running must be steady and even, at a pace that leaves you tired at the end but knowing you could have run faster if you'd wanted to.

Most athletes doubt that they can run long distances day after day or even for an hour or more without stopping; particularly when they may feel extremely tired during the initial short-duration runs. It is a hurdle you must overcome if you want to improve and you can overcome it with patience and perseverance. In only a few weeks,...