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| Peter Snell - Gold at Tokyo in 1964 |
'Picture yourself' - Lennon & McCartney
The success of athletes using my
bespoke 12-Week Training Plans, speak for themselves. I’m seeing improvements of
up to 15% in Marathon PB’s and times of 3.40 being slashed to less than 3:10
which are remarkable. In just under 12 months, following my programmes, one of
my clients who was a regular 3.29 runner now runs consistently under 3hrs and
recently set a PB very close to the 2.45 mark. Until being Coached, none of
these people knew what they were capable of and it’s amazing just how much they’ve
improved as soon as a structured training programme was set out for them to
follow.
A percentage of the improvements
come from the Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) that I project, especially the
fact that I believe that EVERYONE can be elite and can achieve far more when
pushed but also from a great deal of LSD.
No, not from ‘Lysergic Acid
Diethylamide’ the psychedelic drug that in the ‘50s, officials at the
CIA thought might be useful for mind control and chemical
warfare… (my how times have changed) - No, from ‘Long Slow Distance’ running.
Long Slow Distance running (LSD)
is the form of aerobic endurance training that I used right from the
start of my own running career and has been the backbone of my coaching ethos
this past 10 years.
The physiological adaptations that
come from LSD training are improved blood volume, increased muscle strength,
prolonged endurance and higher aerobic fitness. Ernst van Aaken, the German
physician and coach, is generally recognized as the founder of the Long Slow Distance
running method of endurance training but I put my own success down to hearing
about the great New Zealand Coach, Arthur Lydiard, from my own coach and mentor
John Martin, who famously ran his athlete Peter Snell 200 miles a week in training before
tapering him down over a four-week period to Double Olympic Gold at Tokyo in 1964.
Back then, I’m not sure how many
of Lydiard’s athletes would have questioned his coaching methods, I know I didn’t
question John’s. I just got on with laying down the foundations of my endurance
training with epic 20 mile LSD runs every Saturday and Sunday morning. It’s
interesting as recently more and more people want to know ‘Why’ they are being
asked to run an LSD, Interval or Speed session and how much to do of each
especially by new runners or people fast-tracking their training for the
Marathon des Sables.
The simple answer is 80% of your
weekly mileage should be LSD, run at 75% Maximum Heart Rate (MHR).
Yes, that’s right, if you are
running 50 miles, 40 miles of it should be LSD. And if you are looking for
faster times, it’s the easiest way to improve yet so many people run these sessions
too fast to get the most out of them. The one-hour, 6-6.5 mile run that so many
four-hour marathon runners like to knock out a couple of times a week, only
maintains fitness and trains four-hour marathon runners to keep on running
four-hour marathons or even worse, get slower.
You see it takes time. I lot of
time and, in reality, to become the best version of your own elite marathon
runner, it’s probably more of a three to five-year apprenticeship with LSD and
it’s adaptation. It took me at least three years to understand my body, get the
right mind-set and break down the barriers that limited my performances. In October
2013, I found out for myself how running 200 miles a week for four weeks ALL at
LSD could make on my level of fitness as three weeks later, I ran my fastest
marathon for 11 years and went on to win the MV50 category at Druid Challenge
in the November.
Now, before you go smashing out a
Long Slow Distance marathon a day, getting injured or losing your job as you haven’t
simply got the time, what you can do is to train smarter and slower in the LSD
runs you have planned over the following weekends and Wednesdays. Yes,
Wednesday’s which are great for an LSD as it takes some of the mileage loading
away from the weekend and is a great way to recover from a Tuesday interval session.
As a guide, LSD are typically run
at an easy pace, 1-3 minutes per mile slower than your 10km pace and if you’re
not sure of how to plan the next 12-Weeks of your training or if you want to
carve chunks off your PB then please get in touch as I’d like to be receiving your
texts on a Sunday telling me you’ve smashed your latest Personal Best.
LSD, perhaps the best NATURAL performance enhancing drug ever...
LSD, perhaps the best NATURAL performance enhancing drug ever...
1,001 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records
Location: Cardiff, Wales
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