Reading 8
The Case for High Mileage
The Case for High Mileage
By Competitor Publishing
In 1960, three New Zealand runners, Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and Barry Magee, packed up their spikes
and went to the Rome Olympics. All three were simple neighborhood boys discovered by a shoe cobbler
(and fitness nut) by the name of Arthur Lydiard, and all three would take medals home from the Games.
After Lydiard, at the age of 87, passed away in December of last year, Magee talked at the funeral about the
start that Lydiard gave him in the sport, one that would set him on course to win the bronze medal in the
marathon he earned in Rome. It was around the time that Magee was grieving from his father’s death,
Magee recalled, when Lydiard encouraged him to give running a serious go.
"He changed tragedy into triumph, and he changed me from a nobody into a champion," says Magee.
Magee was just the beginning: Lydiard has a huge and positive effect on runners — and on the lives of
runners — around the globe.
It’s almost startling to recount how much Lydiard contributed to distance athletics, not to mention the health
of ordinary citizens living (and not exercising) in the modern world. Before 1960, Lydiard’s techniques were
being adopted by great milers like John Landy and Herb Elliott (Elliot won the 1500-meters in Rome). Lydiard
published Run For Your Life in 1960 in which he officially introduced the value of jogging (a word coined by
Lydiard) to a world that was softening up from industrialization. In 1962, Lydiard published his first book on
his training philosophy, Road to the Top.
In 1964, he managed Snell’s return to the Olympics, this time in Tokyo, and Snell handily claimed gold
medals in both the 800- and 1500-meter runs using training volumes that reached 140 miles per week. Snell’
s mastery of the middle distances provided the greatest evidence to Lydiard’s theories on aerobic base and
periodization, as Snell spent most of his training time logging miles and distances that marathoners were
only known to embrace. By this time, Lydiard had achieved a guru status with runners and coaches
everywhere. In due time, his consultant work with coaches in countries like Japan and Finland would inspire
a new generation of distance runners to new heights. Perhaps the greatest of the great was Finland’s Lasse
Viren, who peaked for no more than two track meets, the 1972 Olympics in Munich and the 1976 Olympics in
Montreal, winning the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races in both years.
"I got a lot of criticism," Lydiard was recorded as saying in a 1987 interview, talking about the early years of
his coaching career (among others, Lydiard was criticized by England’s Roger Bannister, the first to crack
the four-minute mile). "People said, ‘You're coaching a middle- distance runner, and he's running 100 miles
a week in the evening and maybe jogging 40 miles a week in the mornings, and the guy has to run around
the track just two or four times.’ But what they didn't understand was that your performance level is really
governed by your aerobic capacity — your ability to assimilate, transport and utilize oxygen — not by your
anaerobic development. Your anaerobic development is a limited factor — you can't turn all your blood into
lactic acid. But these people didn't realize that if we're going to improve our performance level, we've got to
improve our endurance, our ability to withstand higher oxygen debts and not get tired.
"So, I try to get my athletes into a tireless state, so they can run and run and run. And when they get near to
100 to 250 meters to go, they could kick, they weren't tired; whereas the other guys, even though they had
very good speed, they couldn't kick, they were too damn tired to kick. So that was simply the principle of it."
That, in a typical nutshell, described Lydiard’s essential thinking on how to build a great distance race from
scratch. He credits his coaching philosophy to the years of experiments he conducted on himself in a quest
to get in shape after getting beat in a five-mile run. In the 45 years passing since the Rome Olympics, he
remained steadfast in the essential ingredients of his training approach: Start off with an aerobic base phase
that lasts a minimum of 12 weeks, preferably much more. Then build strength and speed with a phase of
bounding up hills. Begin to polish up the work with a phase focused on sharpening speed and racing; and
then, with the goal race or championship event at hand, taper and sharpen for the big day. The first thing
Lydiard might do in counseling an athlete is to get him or her to take out a pen and a calendar and work
back a minimum of 28 weeks from the target race.
The breakdown Lydiard talks about in his books goes like this: Three months for aerobic conditioning; eight
weeks for hill bounding, faster tempo runs and speed development; six weeks for sharpening; and 10 days
of tapering in preparation for the goal race. Overzealous beginners, excited to see quick results, often skip
the base phase in many of the training programs offered in books or running magazines. Speed training is
far sexier, and base training looks relatively dull by comparison, so it gets skipped. But as Lydiard spent his
life arguing, it doesn’t matter how fast your kick is if you don’t have an aerobic base to ride on.
It wasn’t just beginners who passed by Lydiard’s message. Mysteriously, after the great success achieved by
American runners —names that spanned from Buddy Edelen to Alberto Salazar — in the 1960s, 1970s and
early 1980s (all relying on the fundamental thought behind Lydiard’s technique: the necessity of a high-
mileage base from which to build on), the later 1980s saw respect for the concept wane in the United States.
Pundits and coaches began to make a case for low-mileage regimens — training programs that relied more
on "speed endurance" and less on "junk mileage," as it was beginning to be referred to. Not so mysteriously,
the number of sub-2:20 marathoners in the United States plummeted, and sub 2:12 American men were
exceedingly rare. Something was missing.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, we have again seen that the best distance runners are dedicated to the ethic
of mileage. Bob Kempainen ran 140 to 150 miles a week, including 30 mile long runs, and snapped his
marathon PR to a 2:08:47 in 1994. Bob Kennedy broke the 13-minute 5K barrier. Most recently, American
marathoners Deena Kastor (bronze) and Meb Keflezighi (silver) brought back the first distance-running
Olympic medals to the USA since Joan Benoit’s marathon gold in 1984. In all cases, high mileage is the air
they breathe.
An Essential Guide to Building Aerobic Base — the Lydiard Way
Three Keys: 1 Three long runs a week. Long runs are at the heart of the Lydiard-base training program.
They should be performed at a comfortable pace, one in which carrying on a conversation is possible.
(Beginners need to build slowly to this initial level over weeks and months.)
2 Finish your runs strong. While the pace should never stray from the aerobic, runs should be executed,
Lydiard says, at a pace that can be increased in the second half of the run.
3 Add additional morning runs for additional mileage. Lydiard was a big proponent of an easy morning run
that served as a warmup for the day. He also advised including some stair running and hill bounding in some
of these extra runs. Stair running, Lydiard wrote, was one of the best ways to strengthen the legs and
prevent hamstring pulls.
Weekly Schedule:
Whether a disciple was aiming to run the 800 meters on the track or a marathon on the roads, the following
schedule is typical of what Lydiard advised in building a base. This should be followed for a minimum of 12
weeks. (Beginners should spend more than a year working their way up to this level.) Everyone should seek
a doctor’s approval before beginning an exercise program.
SUN. Long run that’s 1.5 hours or longer
MON. Recovery run of 30 min. to 1 hour
TUES. Same as Mon.This would be the run that you might gradually increase in intensity into a tempo run.
WED. Long run #2; 1 hour to 1.5 hours
THU. Same as Mon.
FRI. Long run #3; Same as Wed.
SAT. Same as Mon.
Recommended Reading
The following titles will give you a broad look at Arthur Lydiard’s thinking, as well as thorough training
programs for all distances.
• Road to the Top and Running with Lydiard. Two of Lydiard’s enduring works describe in great detail his
approach to peaking for a race. Also included are his many — and often quite enjoyable to read — views on
nutrition, weight training and running shoes. Not a big fan of weight training for the distance runner, Lydiard
tells readers to consider Lasse Viren’s weight- training free body when he was winning Olympic titles. Writes
Lydiard, "He looked like a plucked chicken."
•The Self-Made Olympian by Ron Daws. The late Daws recounts how he made the 1968 Olympic team
despite lackluster talent, using Lydiard’s techniques and guile to beat more talented runners. Long out of
print, it’s worth the effort to hunt it down — particularly if you’re a young runner aspiring toward greatness.
• Run with the Best by Irv Ray and Tony Benson. A modern-day and popular program sculpted from the
training philosophies of legendary coaches Percy Cerutty and Lydiard and polished through modern
approaches and technology, Run with the Best is one of the most thorough and specific approaches being
followed today.