Run Faster Running Group: The Lydiard Principle.

"I was thinking...I might have a go at the Marathon next year", and thats how it started. As newly married 25 year old with a full-time job who's done very little exercise in the last few years, I decided to set myself a bit of a challenge. After all, to get round is no mean feat and it'll be something to tell the kids in the years to come.

Having huffed and puffed my way round a 3-mile trail run in 27 minutes, I was having doubts about my chances and thought i should probably structure my training a little better than just grabbing a few breathless miles when I could. And that's when I discovered Arther Lydiard.

As coach to numerous great athletes who held many a world record in distance running, he had pioneered a formula to structure training to a peak for a race or racing season. i won't detail it here, but if you're unfamiliar with it I suggest checking out these links:

 www.lydiardfoundation.org

http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/Special/LydiardResponses.htm

http://www.fitnesssports.com/lyd_clinic_guide/lydpg1.html

So here I am, 1 month into the conditioning phase. The idea here is to log miles (Lydiard recommends 100/week and even ran 250/week himself, but found there was little benefit in this!) at a pace just below your aerobic threshold, that it, a pace where you're a little short of breath but could still utter a few words of conversation and don't get any burning sensations in your legs. At the start, this pace was about 8min/mile for me, now it is about 7.10min/mile. I increase my weekly mileage by about 5-8 miles/week, running about 40+ miles this week. The most unconventional principle of Lydiards is to never take a day off, and I am trying to follow this (I am successful thus far!). Yes I wake up a little achey and sometimes feel like I should rest but this is getting less and less as I progress through the phase, which for me is going to last about 6 months.

This forum is to update with my feelings and progress as I try to follow Lydiards principles for the next 11 months leading up to the marathon. When I was researching Lydiard, I found a few people had done similar things, but had modified the training in someway so it was not an accurate reflection of his teachings. I thought that I would put myself up as a guinea pig for others to learn from and analyse the successes or shortcomings of the principles as I find them.

If anyone else has followed Lydiard and can offer any advice or wishes to discuss, I would welcome such a dialouge.

Yes, I have infact starting incorporating honey into my diet, don't know about the whole lemon thing though!

I'm currently alternating long runs with short runs. Last weeks mileage was: 3-4-8-3-8-5-11 (42 miles). Slowly but surely I feel more able to run everyday, and often change what I plan to do and increase it slightly on the day because I feel I can do more. My 11 mile run was on a very hilly route with 1066ft of climbing and I could average a 7.41 mile. This was a fairly high aerobic effort for me, at this time I don't have a HRM but would guess it was 75-80% MHR. I felt more than 'pleasantly tired' which is what Lydiard suggests but did feel that I could have run further so I think the intensity was about right.

It's now the day after my 11 miler and my legs feel fresh. My weekly mileage as planned for this week is: 3-5-10-6-9-5-11 (49 miles). This is the type of mileage increase I hope to maintain over the coming weeks until either I reach the 100 mile/week or can not fit any more running time into my week! Once I've ramped up the mileage, I will maintain this until the end of the aerobic conditioning phase which for me will be in January '09.

Today is a struggle! I work nights and have had little sleep the last few nights and I feel run down. I feel like just taking a day off but will force myself to do my 5 miles, but only do them very slowly. I also think I have a bit of a cold coming on, so some classic signs of overtraining!

I note the comments about lydiards group being elite, however, Lydiard tried these theories on himself first, and he was just an average Joe to start with!

Hope everyone's training is going well :-)