Friday 30 November 2007

INTERVIEW WITH THE LIZARD



strawberry fields for ever; the beatles,click to view video

interview by D J HAMMERTIME and RUN MC
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TRAINING THE LYDIARD WAY ?
i have now completed 12 weeks of arthur lydiards base training and its time to reflect on my training,
has the training worked? yes, i am running to a much higher level than the past couple of years.
how has the training gone so far ? quite well,i made a mistake early on by pushing the pace too much on the long runs, i started to get pretty tired ! so i had to back off the pace a little.
what have you learned from this training? the important's of aerobic training and that its still possible to race very well just off this base training.
what advise would you give to any one following arthur's training program;if you want to race at your best you have to get the miles in,there are no short cuts.try to aim for 10 hours per week, stick to the training and you will see results, be prepared to feel tired at times,run within your self and be patient.
the next stage of arthur lydiards training is the hill training where you do the hill bounding,high knee exercises etc,well i have to come clean and tell you i cheated a little by fitting in the lydiard hill bounding exercises into my hill run each week.so i have decided to put in 6 weeks or so of increasing tempo pace work into my training before i move back onto arthur lydiards anaerobic training.
i had my best year running in 2003 when i was doing long runs of an hour and a half up to 2 hours with tempo pace intervals of 5=6 x 5 mins or 5-10-15 mins fitted into these long runs.
i think this will give me a good transition into the anaerobic training next year.

Thursday 29 November 2007

leg speed



MIKE
brought out the interesting subject of the importants of a rapid cadence when running,in his blog yesterday.
most of us lope around with a relaxed cadence and don't think to much about leg speed. look at any top runner and you will see there legs are really turning over, 90+ revs often 95- 100 rpm.
lance amstrong's [ 7 x tour de france winner] coach chris carmichael knew that a faster cadence was more efficient,gave greater speed and produced less fatigue.chris got lance to retrain away from big gears and slow rpm and into very fast cadence and moderate gears,the rest is history!you only had to see lance in the time trials or climbing through the alps to see efficient he was,awesome comes to mind.
ARTHUR LYDIARD knew the importants of good leg speed many years ago and had his athletes doing a leg speed session even in there base training .
how to do arthurs leg speed session 10x 120m
find a good grass area with a slight down hill that will give you at least 150m to run on, warm up well then run about 120m downhill think leg speed,don't worry about your stride length.the idea is to turn the legs over as fast as possible,at first it will feel like you have resistance in your muscles stopping you but with time you will develop faster cadence, not only will you become a mor efficient runner you will also have a fine sprint when it comes to the end of a race.
try this session once a week at first,starting with 6 x 120 and build up to 10x 120m with 3 min between efforts.

Wednesday 28 November 2007

The long and winding road

click here; THE BEATLES"long and winding road"
first long run since my injury, took it pretty easy at the start but got into a steady pace in the second half. revisited some of the old twisting roller coaster roads of harrock hill i use to cycle round back in the 90's.
leg seemed to hold out,which was a big relief !
felt very tired at the end,finished running in heavy rain and the dark with 2 hours 14 on the clock. = 2.14




thur 29th nov

ran jon's sanhill loop,did 4 x 5 mins at tempo pace with 2 min rec.
=1.03

Monday 26 November 2007

INJURY !


In the last couple of miles of the preston 10 race i felt my right calf muscle tighten up,i did not think much of it at the time,but the next day when i went training the muscle felt painful .
i thought the muscle would loosen off as i ran,big mistake! i joined in with the club session and on the second effort i felt something snap [ like a piece of sting breaking] i was reduced to a hobbling walk.
i did not try running again for 5 days. i massaged my muscle did strengthening exercises [ wobble board and one leg calf raises, and gentle stretching .
WHAT WENT WRONG?
i think i had been a bit lazy and missed out the calf stretching exercises,that and the extreme cold and damp plus racing in shorts was enough to cause the damage.
i am now hopeful to get back into full training in the next week.

24 nov sat
first run back, started with walking then tried jogging, calf muscle still felt tight and painful,
was quite upset as looks like injury is worse than i thought.
30 min walking and 10 min slow jog.

25 nov sun
woke up to find calf felt a lot better, did easy run of 4 min running one min walking for a total of 40 mins.
26 nov mon
only slight pain in the calf muscle so managed to run steady for one hour over the sandhills.
still doing lots of strengening exercises and stretching,happy to be running again, you bet !!!

27 nov tue
steady run with 6 x 200 m downhill leg speed
=41 min

Sunday 18 November 2007

preston 10 mile road race


click here to see my race

success, i ran my fastest ten mile time in over 3 years, in very cold,damp and windy conditions, proof yet again that the lydiard training is working very well.
click here for race results; preston 10 road race,

Thursday 15 November 2007

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Monday 12 November 2007

week 11 lydiard base training




it was pretty dam cold and dark out tonight,and it seems summer was only yesterday!
my legs are feeling kind of empty and i feel abit of a wreck right now.
bit worried i might be getting low blood iron like last year,so i've started taking liver tablets as a insurance policy.anyway i think i'll give my body a easy week after next week when i will have done 3 months base aerobic training.
ran down to meet club then ran home the long way to give me 15.22 miles

tue 13th nov
easy run over sandhills with tess,tried to work on recovery = 1.14

wed 14
steady run over the parbold hills = 1.32

thur 15
leg speed session 6x120m 5.33 miles =42 mins

fri 16
core training

sat 17
just a easy short run today as i am running the preston 10 mile race tomorrow.
ran over the sandhill loop with tess. = 38.50

Saturday 10 November 2007

running up that hill

click on link below;
"running up that HILL" music

BEACON PARK X/C
finished 27th today,had a great start as i was leading at 100m ,maybe not a good idea ! found the mud tough going! didn't feel that great today,it felt like i was running just to get round and didn't have it in my legs to really push it.
but still my best x/c result since 2004 when i finished 22nd in this race.last year i came 37th!
got a really strong team as there was 6 of the boys in front of me today,with rob berry 3rd.

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Tuesday 6 November 2007

fire in the sky


mon NOV 5
on a dark windy night its always nice to know that you are going to meet up with your club mates for a training session.as i set off from home i was greeted by loud explosions and flashing,burning lights in the sky.yes it was bonfire night and it sounded like i was running through a war zone.we did a session of 8 x short intervals,both tracey and brian who raced with me on sunday complained of sore legs,me i was not too bad,all my long runs in the hills of parbold seemed to have helped.
ran home with john and rob.
14.36 miles = 2.02
tue NOV 6
easy run in sandhills with tess.
still very windy and getting cold.
oh i hate the coming of winter! =1.26
wed 7th
good steady run over the hills of parbold, felt ok;
13.18 miles=1.45

thur 8th
very windy almost gale force,not a nice day to be out.
10x 120m leg speed=45.51

fri 9th
core training

sat9th
beacon park x/c 27th

sun 11th
easy, run with steve james round pinewoods,then ran home over the sandhills =1.44.07

Sunday 4 November 2007

through the villages 8.5 mile race


had a fantastic run today, with 900ft of climbing over 5 hills this is a tough little road race, i felt strong and smooth through most of the race and was amazed to average 5.57 pace [10.1mph].
there was a high class field of hill runners out today so i was very happy with my 19th place.
our ladies team did fantastic and won the ladies team.
this arthur lydiard training is working so well,and am still only 2 months into his base training.
thank you arthur lydiard for saving my running career.
I RAN THIS RACE SOME TEN YEARS AGO,AND REMEMBER SPRINTING IN NECK TO NECK WITH SOME GUY,I GOT TALKING TO HIM FOR SOME TIME AFTER THE RACE,LATER MY FRIEND SAID DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU WERE TALKING TO? I SAID NO, MY FRIEND SAID THAT WAS RON HILL ! AND I WENT WOW!
8.5 MILES =50.40

LINK TO MY RACE



















click on document to enlarge

Saturday 3 November 2007

willing to win


sat 03
put in a gentle run over the sand dunes.
its THROUGH THE VILLAGES RACE on sunday,which am kind of looking forward to.
it starts with a mile climb then rolls along over the hills,fining back down the hill we start from.
=39.191

Friday 2 November 2007

could you out run T-REX ?

CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO FIND OUT !
would T-REX out run you?













breakfast run!!!
what is the highest speed you have reached?

Thursday 1 November 2007

endurance ,hill run

thurs 1st nov
easy-steady run round parbold countryside. kind of felt tired today,so did not push the pace.
met i guy called phil who ran up hunters hill with me.
got the THROUGH THE VILLAGES race on sunday so am going to cut back on the miles for a couple of days.
12.11 miles = 1.44