Welcome to the first hero as this series starts. Feel free to suggest heroes on the comments, I'm keen to learn of coaches and athletes who shape our running, track and field training.
Be sure to check the video clips at the end there are gems of information in Lydiards presentations. He has a direct clear way of instruction which is rare to find in modern coaching and reading. For me his continual questioning of 'why' is key to how he developed his method and his athletes and rather than have the luxury of nationwide selection of his athletes he would hand-pick local athletes and train them extensively to great performances.
Arthur Lydiard 1949
Lydiard is a New Zealand running legend. Among his coaching accomplishments he trained Peter Snell to 2 x gold in the 1964 Olympics. Beyond top flight athletes he was a great promoter of the health and fitness benefits of running for everyone.
5 Principles:
Aerobic conditioning - Base Training
Adaptation - Highly customised to each athlete
Feeling based training - training the athlete to feel their performance in order to maximize training benefit and avoid injury, no 'one size fits all' training session. Every lap, km or exertion level should have a purpose in mind.
Sequential Development - focus on training one outcome at a time, endurance or strength, not both concurrently
Peak - ensure the athlete arrives at the race at their peak performance
Lydiard focused on creating a strong foundation through Base Training followed by periodisation towards the athletes priority events in the season. During Peter Snell's base training he ran at least 160km (100miles) per week and training runs included various terrains and gradients.
This varied terrain and gradient helped athletes transition into the periodisation phase which included hill running and springing to build strength and anaerobic conditioning on the strong aerobic base.
Modern demo of Lydiard's Hill and Springing training techniques (Victoria Media Group 3mins)
Lydiards method and it is ubiquitous in modern training with many athletes and coaches knowingly or unknowingly using his method of base training and periodisation.
Resources:
Arthur at Meadowbank Stadium (45mins)
Peter Snell (archives New Zealand 21mins)
Hill Training with Arthur Lydiard (Lydiard Foundation 3mins)