EXCITING NEWS; I SIGN UP WITH BARRY MAGEE TO COACH ME UP TO NEXT YEARS LONDON MARATHON

After 16 years of self coaching I decided to get serious and get a really good coach, and who better than legendary runner and outstanding coach in his own right BARRY MAGEE, Barry was one of the original Arthur's boys from the 60's who went on to great success and knows more about LYDIARD'S training methods than anyone else! I'm very excited to train under him! Training starts monday!
BARRY'S TRAINING TIPS
Interview With Barry Magee
Wed 3rd
BIRKENHEAD PARK 5 MILE, 28.48, 19th place
Its been a long time since I raced here [2002], the new course is very fast, I was feeling tired after over doing my training on Monday night [ things should improve once I start to follow Barry's program, watch this space!]

The first thing I noticed was they have done a lot of work to restore the park to its former glory.

Birkenhead Park was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. His concept was to create an idealised countryside landscape of open meadows and naturalistic woodland belts.

And it is said that Central park in New York was modeled from the Birkenhead design!

Anyway back to the racing, I travelled down with Jon, the race Didn't start on time due to cars parked on the course it was almost 8 pm by the time we got going [ start time should have been 7.45], one interesting concept is they put on races for the juniors before the main race.

Conditions were almost idea sunny and no wind but maybe a little to humid for Jon!

The race was over 3 laps of the lower park, it was really fast, just one short hill each lap, I went through one mile in 5.37 feeling ok, 3 miles 17.04, I was hoping for sub 29 mins maybe 28.30, I think I ran 28.18 some 7 years ago!

I was in a good group as we went into the final lap, I could now start to feel my energy draining away, up the hill for the last time and I started to fade, runners were starting to pass me by as I slipped back through the field helpless to do anything about it, finally I reached the last endless 200 m, It was like one of those dreams where your trying to run but feel like something is pulling you back, at last I cross the line and glance at the watch, 28.48 for 19th place! I didn't feel good!

I jog back and wait for Jon, he's having a bad time, the heat has got to him, after a long wait he comes into view, I shout "200 to go" and he puts on a sprint finishing in 43.27.

I was surprised no other SWAC member turned up, its a great course in nice surroundings.

MAD FOR IT JAPANESE MARATHON RUNNER,[Ewen's favorite!]
READ THE STORY HERE

RYAN HALL on Mental Training;
RH: I am still learning a lot about the mental side of training and racing. What I am focusing a lot of lately is just being in the moment. I, and I think all runners, have a tendency to think too much. Whether it is worrying about Heartbreak Hill, thinking about what a competitor is doing, or get flustered because the last mile split was too slow, we all have a tendency to have our mind cluttered with a lot of junk. I am learning to clean out the trash and just be where I am and poor myself into the step I am about to take. I find that I get more out of myself when my mind isn't cluttered with so much garbage.

RUNNING PERFORMANCE AND AGING

Thanks Mike for your question on yesterdays post, i thought it was worth replying here as its a pretty interesting subject;
Mike said...

Wow Rick, that's really impressive. Do you find that you're putting in more miles nowadays than say 8-9 years ago or is it about the same?

15 October 2008 22:55

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Hi MIke, I've tried many different types of training over the years,i can see that from looking at my training logs that the years when i put in a high mileage base are the years i ran best.

After 15 years running and before that 10 years cycle racing I'm happy to say that a high mileage type program works best for me and the times when my running has gone downhill are when i have moved into intense interval training and low mileage.
On aging and performance; at 30 i thought I had peaked out and started to lose interest in the sport of cycle racing, at 33 i took up running, at 39 i had a great year but then had 2 indifferent years, I thought I had gone passed my best, but then I increased my mileage and then went on to set new p.b.s over all distances from 5k to marathon at age 42-43.
I did not really know about lydiards methods until last year.
i started training his way last summer 2007 and went on to have an awesome winter and spring, getting close to my best! but I blew it this summer by over doing the anaerobic stuff! I found Lydiard was right to say you only need 5 weeks of intense intervals.
I now intend to follow Lydiards program for masters starting in November as I want to run a great London marathon.

Thanks for your comment Mike , taking into account that you are only just getting back into running you should have many years of improvement ahead of you, enjoy!

16 October 2008 00:51

Enjoyed my run!

I was highly impressed to read of the p.b.s set by THOMAS, GRELLAN AND MIKE, its a great feeling when every thing starts coming together and all the hard work and dedication pays off!
As for me, well at last i started to feel better, the virus and the marathon took its toll upon my body and I had a dreadful feeling that i might never enjoy running again.
Thankfully I started to feel stronger today, finding myself hitting Marathon Pace even into a strong head/cross wind and it felt comfortable , Ah yes, this was more like it.
I headed for the rugby ground and did Arthur Lydiards leg speed session, 10x 150m at faster than mile pace. I then headed back with the wind reaching 10 then 11mph for a while!
Deciding to extend my run, I took an excursion into the sand dunes. I guess you could say I enjoyed my run today, which at the end of the day is what its all about! = 1.07

5K tempo run

For next years LONDON MARATHON I intend to follow ARTHUR LYDIARDS training program
'DISTANCE TRAINING FOR MASTERS', I'm going to follow the last two weeks of the programme before my next marathon on the 21st of this month. Today called for a 5 k TT at a hard but not race pace, I used the marine lake loop as its almost spot on 5k. I ended up running around half marathon pace which felt about right 3.1 miles at 6.14 pace. 19.22
= 38mins

ROAD RELAY WIN!

I ran a 7.5 mile loop before meeting up with the club for Robs session.
Rob told us that we would be running an unofficial club relay, he split us up into teams of two .
ROB and super vet STEVE JAMES, TRACEY AND PAUL and me and STEADY EDDIE.
We were to run a half mile loop round the Fisherman's rest pub, taking it in turns, each of us would run a total of 6 laps, so each team would cover 6 mile in total.
We set off, rob shooting off like a scolded cat! I dug deep and just about managed to hold him, with a 100m to go i was a few strides behind him, but gave it every thing to sprint up to him at the change over point, now STEVE JAMES and STEADY EDDIE sprinted off with TRACEY just a few yards behind!
We jogged around nervously waiting for our team to come into view, Eddie had put in a fantastic effort and pulled about 5 secs out of Steve, as Eddie came along side me I sprinted off on my second lap, Eddie had got us the psychological advantage, this time I felt the pressure of not wanting to let Eddie down. i tried to relax and felt much better hitting 12 mph on the slight downhill sections, with a 100m to go i sprinted all out, keeping Rob in second place!
At last I got ready for my last lap, Eddie came into view with a good lead, as soon as he came along side I sprinted off, I knew Rob was still a danger and as I reached the last corner I could hear rob's foot steps closing in on me, one final all out sprint and I held our lead over the finish line!
1st team Eddie and me, 2nd rob and steve, 3rd tracey and paul.
i reckon we covered the 6 miles in about 33 mins, It was a great idea of Rob's to hold the relay and turned the interval session into really good fun!
Maybe next time , seeing that we are running the loops starting and finishing at a pub we could have a beer and road running relay, drinking a pint each time we finished a lap, now that really would be interesting! hic!!!
6x 1/2 mile
= 1 hour 45 mins

TRAINING FOR;

ANGLESEY MARATHON 2008
Sun 31st
Easy run with Jon round the sandhill 6 loop = 1.03
Sat 30th
Steady run inc 6 big hills and almost 2500ft of climbing, finished feeling a bit stronger than when i did this run 2 weeks ago. 23 miles = 2.58
Fri 29th
Core training
Thurs 28th
Robs session, 1/2 m 2/55, 1m 5.50,1m 5.47,1m 5.48,1/2m 2.50, run at about 10 mile race pace on the Selworthy hill loop=1.15
Wed 27th
run over the big sandhills at steady pace = 1.25
Tue 26th
Easy run sandhill loop = 35 mins
Mon 25th
Arthur Lydiard leg speed session, 6 x 150m then easy run on the sandhills = 1.45

Felt tired at the start of the week after my 14 mile time trial, but finished the week strong and was very happy with my 23 mile hill run.

PLAN WHAT PLAN !

ANGLESEY MARATHON 2008

My next race is the ANGLESEY MARATHON on the 21st of Sept, which team mate Rob Ashworth won last year!
I now have the tricky task of recovering from summer racing burnout and at the same time getting in shape for the marathon in only one months time!
My plan if you can call it a plan is to follow Arthur Lydiards advise when dealing with staleness , ie cut out intense interval training and just do steady runs with some leg speed sessions.
I don't expect to run my best ever marathon but hopefully I can get to the start line feeling fresh!
HAVE I BITTEN OFF MORE THAN I CAN CHEW ?
Is this going to be a spectacularly disaster or an amazing triumph over adversity!
Sat 23rd
ARTHUR LYDIARD TIME TRIAL, 14 miles at 6.31 pace
I have never tried this type of session before and was not sure I would be able to run at marathon pace in training, as it happened it went very well, running a two lap course I averaged 6.31 pace, reaching 14 miles in 1.31
QUITE PLEASED THE WAY THINGS WENT AND CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THIS TYPE OF SESSION WILL HELP ME IMPROVE!
14 MILES IN 1.31 + 35 MINS EASY RUNNING

Thurs 21st
ROB's club session with Tracey, Paul and Rob, 2 x 5k round the marine lake at marathon pace 9.3 mph av, felt quite hard running into a strong head wind for the last 2 miles of each loop but pretty much ran within my self holding back a little. =1.10
+ 17 min run with my wife niz
Wed20th
Steady run on the roads of parbold and harrock hill, feeling a bit on the tired side after two days of feeling really good! = 1.43
Tue 19th
enjoyable steady run over the sandhills = 1.02

RETURN TO THE MASTER

ARTHUR LYDIARD LEG SPEED SESSION
6 X 150M running with the wind on my back, working on max leg speed, Max 14 mph.
Ran down and back at marathon speed, felt much better than of late. = 45.30
WORLDS FASTEST RUNNING SHOES
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White Man CAN Run--Jon Brown Interview

Lydiard Foundation Blog

In: News Releases -- Posted: 8/11/2008 11:08 PM -- By: Nobby Hashizume

Chris Kelsall had interviewed great Jon Brown of formerly Great Briton, and now Canada, twice for FloTrack. They are definitely a must-read...

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When I first came to the US, I was really excited to read all the articles about all the great runners in various running magazines. The very first English running magazine I picked up was "The Runner" magazine with Kenny Moore on the front cover. I still remember; there was an article about running economy/form written by none other than Frank Shorter! The more I read, however, the more I realized that perhaps the most variable articles we can find are interviews or ones written by the actual athlete/coach. Often articles written by reporters can be dramatized or interpreted wrongly. I remember one interview with Ron Clarke; he was talking about training 3-times a day. He said something like; "I tried it once and didn't like it so stopped doing it..." In Japan, the source said, gloriously, how Clarke trained 3-times a day, everyday... This is why I loved legendary books by Australian, Brian Lenton; he's published several books, all interviews, such as "Through the Tape" and "Off the Record". These are absolutely priceless--these are "their own words".

Today, this is what Chris Kelsall of Victoria is attempting. He's been interviewing many coaches and athletes; many of our own Lydiard Foundation people like Lorraine Moller and Rod Dixon. I particularly enjoyed the ones with Jon Brown (Part I and Part II).

We came to get acquainted with Jon when Rod Dixon and myself flew to Victoria, BC, to conduct Lydiard Part I Certificate Program last November. Jon Brown of England had been spending quite a bit of time in Victoria, training, and Chris, as forward as he is, "dragged" Jon to come join us for thte clinic. A big running enthusiast like myself knew all about Jon Brown--in my opinion, Jon Brown is probably one of the most unrecognized and unappreciated athletes around. Having finished fourth in thte Olympic marathon twice in the recent years; that itself is as great of a feat as it can be! May not have brought a hardware; but it takes a very special individual to peak so right, twice, and fought his guts out against some of the best African runners (in Sydney) as well as some of the speedsters (in Athens). He was also one of the finalist in the epic 10,000m in 1996 at Atlanta where Gebriselasie of Ethiopia and Kenya's great Tergat fought the Titanic battle. Jon, in my opinion, deserves hell of a lot more recognition and appreciation.

At first, I was somewhat spectical to invite him to the Lydiard clinic. I didn't want to bring a Big Name just because he/she is a big name. This is Lydiard Foundation event; we need someone who would represent Lydiardism. A few weeks before we were to fly up to Victoria, Chris called me up and said that I'd be on the radio with Jon Brown. I was in New York for the NYC marathon/U.S. Olympic marathon trial. So I was to call in and my talk be recorded while Jon would actually visit the studio and they will put our talk together. That was the first time I actually learnt details about Jon Brown's training (though we have exchanged a few e-mails to make sure he's not particularly "against" Lydiardism). I could not believe how "text book" Lydiard his training philosophy was! Trust me, we did not do any rehearsing to "be politically correct" or do "ne-mawashi" to make sure we'll say the right things. On the clinic day, the same thing, I was actually amazed, aside from how down-to-earth and such a gentleman Jon is, how straight forward same principles his training was with Lydairdism. Long aerobic running first to build the foundation--hill training to develop power and flexibility--then limited but well-calculated quality training (anaerobic/speed training) to sharpen up and peak on the right time... There's nothing magical about it. Lydiard has already laid it all out for us. All we need to do is to understand the principles of it and excute it; and the results will follow.

There are people out there who get all bent out of shape and say, "But look what Bekele is doing, or Abera was doing--that's nothing Lydiard!" Their thinking is; so Jon Brown "only" finished 4th in the Olympic marathon. Therefore, we need to follow what Abera was doing--less mileage and high quality (though none of us really know what those Ethiopians are doing). Well, all the power to them. Lydiard always said that, we don't need to look at what those champion runners are doing today. What we really need to learn is what they were doing 10 years ago. The story of Jon Brown is, once again, text book success story, as far as I'm concerned. He was already a very good runner at 19 with 13:30 for 5000m. Then he shifted his focus to more "physiologically sound" training principles. He not only ran 13:19 and 27:18 for 10,000 as well as sub-2:10 marathon, he also improved his 1500m time as well! This says something. If you still think you need to run 60-second 400m repeats (like Bekele does, some claims...) day after day after day; all the power to them. But I'd rather look at the sound training program so we can improve upon where we are today. "If you want to find someone very talented, it's not that difficult," Lydiard used to say. "You can go do some local races and pick the kid who finshes first." No brainer. "But to make something greater out of ordinary runner, it takes sound training program and good coaching." THAT is what we are interested in.

By the way, we have the recording of Jon Brown's opening statement at last November's Victoria clinic as well as Nobby/Jon Brown radio gig on our audio-library. They will be added to soon-to-come audio library on this website; so stay tuned!

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BACK IN THE GROOVE

It feels good to be building up the miles again, yesterday I ran down over the sandhills to meet up with the club. Brian set us a session of 20x 30secs. I ran the efforts at about 4.30 pace, after the session I ran back with rob and Mike over the sand dunes and then along the coast road, I finished with 2 hours 6 mins, job well done!

IT WAS ARTHUR LYDIARD'S BIRTHDAY ON THE 6th OF JULY
READ MORE

RYAN HALL

America's Next Great Runner

Finishing fifth in just his third marathon ever, Ryan Hall, 25, announced to the world on sunday that America's next great distance runner is a force to be reckoned with ! Hall crossed the line one minute and two seconds behind the winner, Martin Lel of Kenya, who finished in 2:05:15 - a new London Marathon record. But, as the New York Times reports, it was ten miles before the finish line that an obviously strong Hall pulled up next to Lel and fellow Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru and asked the two leaders to pick up their pace.

"I thought: 'This is a classic move. I tell the pacemakers to go faster and they drop me,'" Hall said afterward. READ MORE;

CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY OF RYAN HALL

THE TEN GOLDEN RULES OF RUNNING, CLICK HERE

RUNNING

Sun 16
Easy run with jon over the sandhill loop = 59.46
Sat 15
Run with Tracey over the sandhills, through the pinewoods and out to formby point and back. = 3.07
Fri 14th
AM, Easy run with tess the mad sheep dog, over the sandhills
= 40 mins
Thur 13th
Rob got us to work hard with 15 x 20secs sprints with 20 secs easy, we then had 2 mins rest before sprinting another 10 x 20secs with 20 secs easy, max speed 15.1 mph
= 44 mins
Wed 12th
steady run round parbold and ashurst inc 1800ft of climbing, 15 miles =1.54
Tue 11th
run with Niz over the sandhills easy 38 mins
Mon 10th
ran down over the sandhills to meet up with the club for Brians speed session
10x short hill, ran back home with tracey = 2.10

Arthur Lydiards infamous 22 mile waitakere mountains run

On Saturday i ran with rob round parbold and ashurst beacon for a total of 1800 ft of climbing, inc 4 main climbs, the longest of which is ashurst beacon at over 2 miles of uphill.
we ran for 15 miles and over the coming weeks we are planning to build up to 22 miles as in Arthur Lydiards infamous waitakere Mountains [ see graph above ] run.which included 1650 ft of ascent.
at the moment rob and me are fairly equal in fitness but almost 20 years ago rob ran 1.19 in his first ever 1/2 marathon, what is remarkable is that rob did this on only ten weeks of training, an impressive start and it shows that he has a lot of natural talent. he went on to run 1.15 a few years latter on very little mileage.
Now on the come back trail it will be interesting to see if rob can get close to that 1.15 1/2 marathon time.
after our 15 mile run we took sarah and niz on a run along the canal bank then up the fearsome quarry climb [ as used in the Ashurst Beacon Fell race ] coming out at the top of parbold, we then decended back down to parbold village. Sarah is in training for the up coming parbold hill race on the 16th feb, so this run should have done her the world of good !
sun 27 easy long run with brian 1..55 total for the week = 9.21

running on new years eve

set out over jon's sandhill loop and did 3 x 10 mins fast aerobic, felt quite good and had a good time blasting over the sandhills. =1.17
since i started the ARTHUR LYDIARD training in the summer i've seen good improvements in my running and my motivation,enthusiasm and enjoyment of running and racing have returned !
my best race this year must have been the through the villages race when my body and mind did every thing i wanted of it.i played the race in my mind the day before and on the day it felt like i was replaying a video,i even ran the time i hoped for. it was a very good day.
so thank you once again mr lydiard for giving back my love of running !
wishing every one a happy and healthy new year !

interview with lorraine moller

lydiard trained marathon winner
click on here to view

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

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

hill run, 2000ft of climbing

sat 28
had a really great run, ran over the dirt paths,fields and hills of parbold,total of 5 climbs in all.
i think that maybe even ARTHUR LYDIARD would have been proud of me.
felt quite strong and really enjoyed myself.
this marks 2 months of ARTHUR LYDIARD base training,and i can start to feel the benefits now.at times i have felt very tired,but i've made it through this far.
running is not just about training the body but also the mind to.i think these long runs make me stronger both in mind and body.
link to my run,motion based.
15.96 miles =2.01.43


sun 28th easy run over the sandhills =50.20

Total for week=9 hours 14mins

running into the sun

long steady run over the big sandhills and through the pinewoods.
i guy called DAVE caught me up after i had been running for 2 hours,and he was surprised at how long i'd been out for.anyway thanks for pulling me along for the last couple of miles.=2.23.14

Link to pictures of southport 360 degree image