You hear it all the time here at Rogue, from both your coaches and the articles that we post up and send you way – base training is essential, and Lydiard is the way we go!
We try to put it all into plain English and make the philosophy easy to understand, but when there are contradictions within the philosophy itself, things get complicated. This isn’t due to any fault in Lydiard’s methods, but has more to do with the fact that there is no black and white when it comes to running. Although we can assure you that the general idea of Lydiard base training is beneficial for every single one of you, when it comes to the nit-picky details you have to keep in mind that everyone is different and everyone has to take it up on themselves to experiment.
Running Times Magazine published a letter inquiring about this very issue – contradictions in base training theory – and very informative responses from running guru Greg McMillan and Nobuya “Nobby” Hashizume of the Lydiard Foundation. Take a look!
The Rundown 