The Lydiard Approach to Training and What it Has Done for Me

Jon L

For the past few years, I have experienced some solid improvements in my running fitness.  After my last 5K, our illustrious Flyers president Alan G jokingly demanded (I hope) that I report to the Flyers' medical staff for drug testing.  

Despite his reckless character assassination (my lawyers will be in touch Alan), my later-in-life running renaissance is solely due to finding a better approach to training.   For the past few years, I have been using a training approach that is based on the methods of legendary coach Arthur Lydiard (1917-2004) and I would like to share what I have learned.

Lydiard Basics

The principles of sound training that Lydiard developed in 1960s––based on experimenting on himself and a small group of local New Zealand runners––have stood the test of time as the scientific studies have caught up to validate his approach.  Many of the principles that are part of the Lydiard system are found in coaching and training systems in use today, and nearly every successful athletics coach or athlete consciously or unconsciously emulates Lydiard's training system by laying an endurance base and making use of periodization for peak performance.  

Initially, this culminated in sending Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and Barry Magee to the medalist’s podium at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.  Subsequently, too many runners to mention have used Arthur Lydiard’s approach to achieve an impressive array of Olympic medals and race wins throughout the world.

Lydiard based training is based on five critical principles:

1. Aerobic Conditioning – At the start of any Lydiard training cycle, there is a long phase of aerobic running to build endurance and lay the base for a strong performance on race day.
2. Response Regulated Adaptation – Trying to run at training paces that are not aligned to your current fitness level is not a recipe for success.  Lydiard plans adjust your effort levels based on how you are responding to training stimulus to optimize your fitness improvement.
3. Feeling Based Training – Learning to accurately interpret the language of your physiology allows the runner to stretch the training envelope while avoiding the perils of overtraining.
4. Sequential Development – Unlike many running plans that seek to develop multiple facets of running fitness at the same time, Lydiard training is based on a philosophy of developing the building blocks needed for a good race day performance individually over a longer training cycle to allow optimal fitness development.
5. Peaking – The later phases of Lydiard training are designed to guide and sharpen the runner to a point where they are in peak condition on race day in an excellent position to run the best race possible.

The Lydiard Training Pyramid

A typical Lydiard plan includes five distinct training phases over 22-24 weeks:

Aerobic conditioning – a period of aerobic runs (run by overall time, not mileage) at a variety of paces to develop stamina and a base of conditioning.

Hills – Develops the leg power and flexibility that will be needed to support faster running while continuing to develop the aerobic base.

Anaerobic – Adds faster running (tempos and intervals) to prepare the runner to be able to handle race pace.

Coordination – Race distance specific tuning and sharpening including shorter distance time trials.

Taper - Final preparation for race day.

While it is a longer training cycle than what you may be used to, the length of the cycle allows the safe development of running fitness as each phase builds on the previous one.  The individual runs are not significantly different from what you might find in another training approach; it is the overall structure and flow of the plan that sets Lydiard apart. 

My Experience Using Lydiard

After wrecking my right knee playing contact sports in high school, I was told by my doctor to never run again.  A couple of decades later, I decided to give it another try and have been running steadily since early 2009.   In my much younger years, I was a middle of the pack guy (4:42 mile, 18:22 XC 5k) and never really knew how to train properly.  

Upon my return to running, I decided to focus on longer distances and made a study of a number of different training methods. While I did achieve some success based on the fact that ANY running is helpful for a novice, I quickly hit a plateau where my fitness stopped improving as quickly, and I began to struggle.   

After I made a mess of a marathon and ended up in the medical tent after the finish line, I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of one of the founders of the Lydiard Foundation (Coach Nobby Hashizume).  He reviewed my training logs and helped me to understand that simply running a bunch of miles in an unstructured way was not the path to success.  With his encouragement, I embarked on a training plan for a half marathon using a 22 week Lydiard based plan.  The result:  I took my half PR from 1:47 to 1:37 and ran a very strong negative split race. 

I followed up my HM phase with a training effort focused on bettering my 5K time.  In December 2012, I ran a 21:23 to set my baseline for training.  In May 2013 after a 22 week training program, I ran a negative split 19:49 that was a strong effort to the finish.  

In both the HM and 5K training phases, I have seen strong benefits from following the Lydiard method:

• Aerobic Base – In both races, I had the capacity to push the pace in the later part of the race.  This contrasts sharply with my non-Lydiard races where I was typically trying to hold on to the pace at the end and "survive" to the finish.  This capacity was developed in the first phase of the plan through a healthy dose of comfortably paced miles.  Some running friends were a little incredulous at a 16 mile long run when training for a 5K but I have come to understand that you really cannot run a fast race without a solid foundation of easy aerobic running.
• Peaking – In the lead up to both races, I felt a strong surge of fitness in the later phases of training.  There was a tangible shift from focusing on trying to maintain the pace on training runs, to a mode where I had to consciously hold back to avoid peaking too soon.  Lorraine Moller of the Lydiard Foundation refers to it as ‘having wings on your feet’ which I think is a very apt description.  I have never felt this peaking effect with any other training method, and arrived at the starting line for both races in excellent condition with legs that were itching to run hard.
• Pace awareness – The ability to understand the signals from my body has enabled me to race more effectively.  For my recent 5K, my plan of monitoring my Garmin to stay on goal pace was ruined by the loss of satellite signal just as the race started.  Faced with no other option, I made the snap decisions to run by feel and focused on running at a hard but sustainable pace.  I will not soon forget the feeling of seeing “19:xx” on the clock when I was simply hoping to see “20:xx.”  Taking 94 seconds off my master’s PR is not something I expected to do and I credit the awareness of effort level that I learned using the Lydiard approach.
• Injury avoidance – When I started using the Lydiard method, I was nursing a couple of injuries including a nagging case of Plantar Fasciitis.  As I trained through two Lydiard cycles, I have noticed that my injuries have gone dormant even though I am now running more mileage than I was before.    I attribute this to the overall structure of the Lydiard approach that builds intensity gradually, and carefully prepares the runner for each successive phase.

As I have learned more about this method, I have also become involved in a community of runners that use the Lydiard method.  This group is littered with examples of the success that is achievable with this training method.  A recent example would be the 48 year old runner who just bettered his 1994 lifetime marathon PR by running a 3:09:40.  I have also been certified in this training method to further my understanding of this method to help others and to allow me to train as effectively as possible.

Lydiard Certification with the Principles of the Lydiard Foundation

Coach Nobby Hashizume, Lorraine Moller 
(4 time Olympian including Bronze in the Marathon in Barcelona), and Jon L

More information

Are you interested in learning more about this training approach?  The Lydiard Foundation has setup a website (click HERE) to maintain the legacy of Arthur Lydiard and his training methods.  They have also set up a plan generator (click HERE) that will create a training program for you based on the Lydiard method.  If you would like more information or have questions about this approach, I would be happy to go for a run with you and discuss it further.  

-Jon L.