Name: Dominic Schaub
Country: Switzerland
Occupation: Student
Training for: Swiss Alpine Marathon <http://www.swissalpine.ch/cms/trailer-4.phtml>

First of all I’d like to thank you for the outstanding book you’ve written! It is by far the greatest book on running that I’ve read. It covers almost everything a runner needs to know and explains it in an easy to understand, yet scientific manner.

After having read the book, almost all the questions I had regarding running training are answered. Yet a few remain and that’s why I’m writing. I’ll just list the questions:

Q1 (Base Training): In your book you describe a sample week for an elite athlete (page 87). Earlier (page 82) it says, that Lydiard changed from mile- to time-based recommendations. However, I can’t find a time-based weekly base schedule. Am I right assuming that it would be (in minutes) something like Mon 60, Tue 90, Wed 60, Thu 90, Fri 60, Sat 90, Sun 120?

Yes, this is about right. I’d try to get the Sunday “long run” over 150 mins, though, and to mix things up a little, have a Tuesday: “shorter medium-long run “ (80 minutes) and Thursday: “longer medium-long run” (100 minutes). Mixing the distances and effort levels up seems to be more enjoyable and productive than just going out and doing 90 minutes a day.

Q2 (Base Training): On Page 93 you write, that “once conditioned well, the athlete often needs just a light Monday’s running to bounce back ready for more work on Tuesday.” On Page 87 however, Monday’s workout is a 1 hour 3/4 effort run (following the long Sunday run). Is this a mistake?

No. If you read on I allude to the fact that Lydiard’s boys would all do this, but personally, I didn’t as I ran my long runs just a bit too fast, often solo, necessitating an easier Monday to recover. But that was just me. This tendency to over-train cost me several possible New Zealand championships. I’d mistakenly try to “force” my aerobic fitness further, even though I was mentally very hard and had the proven ability to win. Lydiard’s personal squad got so well-conditioned with large volumes of easier aerobic running that they could bounce straight back from a long Sunday run and apparently do an “effort run” the next day, but you can be pretty sure that Sunday was a long “float” or that Tuesday would be an easy effort to absorb it all. Personally, I follow Arthur’s basic principles, but am always prepared to ‘fiddle’ with things to get an optimal result: for instance, I’d tend towards a weekly model that has built-in easier low-intensity ‘recovery runs’ of about 60 minutes Monday and Friday, a good fartlek with suitable w/up and cooldown Wednesday, and a sustained marathon-pace/3/4 effort run on Saturday.

So, Dominic, without wanting to confuse you, it’s like this: any rearrangement of these schedules will “work” so long as the general principles are followed. I used to find that a “3/4 effort” run on Saturdays suited me better, with weekday work in an excellent job another priority. So I’d have a big training block each weekend, with time for a good recovery meal and an afternoon nap each day to absorb the work. I couldn’t do this during the week, but I could easily pack in the steady “bread and butter” aerobic training.

Q3 (Base Training): In your post “how lydiard would approach marathon preparation” you give a sample week for marathon base training and state, that “to really get to your marathon potential the Lydiard way, you’d have at least 3 runs a week over 90 minutes, and vary your aerobic distances and intensities in the mix. One of these runs each week would need to be over 2 hrs 30 to make sure you glycogen deplete and use fatty acids.” Earlier in the same post you write “your current weekly schedule has two longer runs, and this is good, but you’ll need three in a Lydiard Preparation, usually with an easy hour jog on in-between days.” You then go on to give a sample week. This sample week however differs quite a bit from the one in the book (page 87). Furthermore, the intensities are described as Easy or Steady. What effort would steady be?

“Easy” would be virtually a (Karvonen) HR in the recovery zones (60-65% max HR), whereas “steady” would be with a HR more like 70-75% of MHR. (Page 54). We never had heart rate monitors when I was training in New Zealand on the Lydiard system, but we all knew what “steady” felt like. As an example, we all knew that if we could get our average aerobic pace in training on the roads comfortably down to 6 minutes /mile (3:43/km), including the long Sunday run, that meant we were aerobically strong enough to perform well at national level. Probably our heart rates were all hovering about 75% of our personal maximal heart rates. This pace was constant enough to put significant pressure on the capillary systems in the leg muscles and cardiac muscle.

The example on my web page is a specific re-arrangement of a training week for Dr Tingate, the sports medicine doctor who initiated the article. He gave me a sample week of what he was doing formerly, and I modified that to get the required work in for him, at the level of training that he’d already successfully reached.

Q4 (Strength Training): On page 176 you write “I found heavy lifting very good to do at night, after any hard running session was over and usually on the night before an easy recovery day. Now this question is somehow related to the ones concerning the basic weekly buildup structure: when, in the “optimal” basic training week would those sessions be done? According to the structure in the book, I assume it would be Mon/Wed/Fri (being either fartlek or 3/4 runs). Tue/Thu would, however, not be so relaxing days (90 mins. If one were to follow the structure outlined in the post I mentioned above, I figure it would be Tue/Thu/Sat for the strength training, with Wed/Fri being easy recovery days, yet Sunday being the long run.

In a base period, no particular running day should be overly tiring. We’re building, not dismantling. But in terms of “loading”, I’d be doing the weights on a Monday/ Wednesday/Friday basis, as these are the days before the longer easy runs that can be worked into steadily if there’s any residual muscle soreness or stiffness. The weekends can be rest/ super-compensation from the weights, while the higher aerobic and long aerobic training demands are met. 90 minute runs shouldn’t unduly tire a good athlete in base conditioning. If that’s the case, the athlete is running his mileage too fast for his level of development, or has other stresses going on that need to be addressed.
Try alternating the stress levels within the weight training sessions themselves, and try mixing them up a bit. You could include bounds, depth jumps, skipping, ‘speedball’ exercises, floor-ceiling punch-bag work.. Plyometrics, etc. I suggest something like
1.a “hard” Monday (3 main exercises: 3 sets of 5 reps >85% 1 RM deadlift,>5 minutes EASY active recovery (walking/stretching),
2.a ‘light maintenance’ Wednesday (1 set of same 4 exercises), and
3.another ‘hard’ Friday.
The warmups should be ‘dynamic’: ie: closely resembling the nature of the exercise to be performed. Things like 10x deep squats followed by vertical jumps, or ‘squat thrusts’, would prepare the body for the deadlift. Several slow chinups without a weight belt strapped on would warm up the specific muscles for the weight-belt chinups to follow. Regular ‘cruncher’ exercises could warm up the system for more intense core work later. You could alternate set 1 of deadlift (include active stretching recovery several minutes) with a superset of core exercise /weight-belt chinups, then follow set2 and set3 of deadlift with similar supersets.Finish off with some other drills as mentioned, and vary to suit your training tastes.

All of the above questions (1-4) concern the basic training structure one should aim for and when to do what for how long. It would be extremely helpful to me, If you could post a “optimal” weekly (time-based) structure including the strength trainings for basic (marathon) training.

OK : Here’s something that would work nicely for most people. Of course, this will be presented slightly differently to the book.
Mon:    40-60 minutes EASY RECOVERY RUNNING (60-65%)             PM:’HARD’ strength session (3 sets x 5 )
Tue:    80 minutes STEADY AEROBIC RUNNING (hilly).(70-75%)
Wed:    60 minutes incl 40 minutes light fartlek:                PM:’MAINTENANCE’ strength session (1 set each)
Thu:    100 minutes STEADY AEROBIC RUNNING (hilly).(70-75%)
Fri:    60 minutes EASY RECOVERY RUNNING (60-65%)                PM:’HARD’ strength session (3 sets x 5 )
Sat:    80 minutes incl 40-60 mins SUB-THRESHOLD (75-80%)
Sun:    150 minutes STEADY AEROBIC

Q5 (Strength Training): This question isn’t about the weekly structure, but rather about the strength workout itself: how can one manage to do the entire strength training in just 30 minutes (as mentioned in the book)? Furthermore, would it do any harm to do the core exercises high-rep and thus going out of the alactic zone or is the acidosis only in the muscles involved in the exercise? Also, would doing supersets be a good way to shorten the length of a strength workout?

I’ve covered some of this above in reply to Q4.It’s very easy to do an effective strength training workout in well under 30 minutes. In fact, 20 minutes including 3 sets of of 3 or 4 basic exercises, including recovery times, is probably all you need. Try it! The idea that you have to train for a long time to get strong is erroneous in terms of the energy systems and muscle fibre types. To get strong, you have to lift HEAVY, in short alactic bursts, avoiding local muscle acidosis that leads to “neuromuscular breakdown”, and totally avoiding the TRAP of entering and staying in the lactate/glycolytic zone till acidosis stops the exercise.

There is ample evidence that lifting low-rep, heavy weights has a very beneficial effect on not only leg strength, but endurance performance, without necessarily increasing oxygen uptake or other parameters usually associated with increased endurance performance. I’ve quoted one such study performed with the type of training I recommend, at the end of Part 9 of the book (see reference for Paivalonen).

The super-fast, super-strong IIB fast twitch neuromuscular system we want to ‘hit’ in strength training consists of huge myelinated nerves innervating muscle cells packed densely with powerful contractile proteins and very little else. No mitochondria. No endoplasmic reticulum to speak of. No weighty, extensive volume of cytoplasmic fluid to dilute acidosis. Their best ‘operating base’ is within high-output bursts of less than 10 seconds, before the sluggish lactate system starts to kick in. These IIB fibres simply don’t need all the organelles that the IIA glycolytic or Type I slow-twitch fibres need, because they don’t need to metabolize fats or carbohydrates: their fuel is the self-regenerating creatine phosphate system, or “phosphate battery”, all well-described in the book. If we’re lifting in the ALACTIC energy system, with over 85% of 1 rep maximum, for several reps within the alactic time zone, then the total “load time” for one set is 10 seconds. This is probably enough time to lift maybe 5 repetitions with a decently heavy weight. Any more repetitions require a lighter weight, and a step down in neurological recruitment (size principle) to the next most powerful fibres, the IIA, and because you’ll be doing more reps, you’ll step over from the safe, non-acidic alactic anaerobic zone into the more dangerously acidic lactic/glycolytic zone.

When I was a gym instructor while working my way through university, I’d observe many people chatting idly between sets, and then going home satisfied that they’d done a “2-hour workout”. They’d do several sets of too many exercises with too little weight, repeated to local muscular exhaustion each time. The actual ‘load time’ total in their “glycolytic anaerobic” ‘strength’ workouts was usually well under 15 minutes, and the rest of the time was chatting and recovery. Most of their recovery time was totally needed because they’d be following the traditional “strength training” dogma of ‘pyramids’ of 12-10-8 repetitions (usually done to local muscle ‘failure’). Many personal trainers and instructors believe the dogma that ‘training to failure’ or ‘feeling the burn’ is somehow necessary to stimulate the desired strength response. What I am saying is that lifting more reps, with a weight well beneath the 85% max threshold for invoking the IIB fibres is a total waste of time. Training the IIA system, with moderate weights and more reps till acidosis stops the function at the neuromuscular junction achieves very little. By not lifting heavy in the first place, you have bypassed the very muscle fibres you’re trying to train, and by lifting to ‘failure’ you have gone into local acidosis which is harmful to the cell metabolism and structure. (All covered well elsewhere in the book!)

Not only have you failed to hit the threshold summation required to invoke the IIB, but you have TRAINED TO ACCEPT NEUROMUSCULAR FAILURE. You have trained your IIA muscle fibres predominantly, and these now have the unwanted payload of increased cytoplasmic volume to deal with and dilute the acid concentration in the cell. Because you have trained this system preferentially, and not lifted enough weight to recruit the desired IIB fibres, you’ll receive exactly what you’ve trained. The athlete will now have a lot of bruised, acidic, swollen IIA muscle fibres that need at least 48 hours to settle down and recover before they can rebuild themselves more strongly to cope. To cope, they need to have more organelles (extra weight!!), more fluid (weight!!), more recovery time required by far (!!) to repair the un-needed damage of acidosis.

By the way, if we cover these over-trained, swollen IIA muscle fibres with spray-tanned skin and a man-kini, they’ll look great on a body-builder, but in terms of strength, it’s “all show and no go”.

CORE: Why not do the basic movements slowly, but intensely, with a weight-plate or kettlebell for resistance, and see what that does for you? OR use thera-bands (variable resistance rubber tubes)to provide extra resistance against a stationary support, rather than doing high-rep work.
ACIDOSIS? Acidosis usually accrues firstly in the local muscle being exercised, unless the intensity is low enough to allow the circulatory system to flush the acidic metabolites from the local system into the general system. As work continues (usually at a lower intensity), it is possible to go from local acidosis into systemic acidosis, as the rate of clearance of metabolites is sufficient to allow that.
SUPERSETS: As the deadlift hits 95% of your musculature, it is highly recommended/preferred. But because so much muscle mass is involved, it probably needs the most recovery, as an exercise, to make sure the phosphate battery gets to near maximum again. (95% replenishment in 5 minutes is a commonly reported recovery figure). So I’d do that exercise in isolation, with up to 5 minutes of easy recovery after each set to allow the local phosphate “battery” to top up again. In the recovery break, one could hold static stretches of calf, hamstring , buttock, and lower-back muscles, before supersetting core and arm/chest work/ chinups.

Q6 (Ultramarathon Training): would the preparation for an Ultramarathon be any different than for a marathon? Would the long run be longer or the overall volume higher? Would more strength training be needed for courses like the UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc) or other very hilly courses?

I recently was in Flagstaff, Arizona, at the altitude training location for McMillan Elite Racing Team. One of the athletes I spoke to there, Ian Torrence, was a prolific ultra winner (49 victories in North American events, including Pikes Peak, etc). I asked him this very same question: my basic premise was that regular, solid marathoning conditioning along Lydiard lines would be enough for the ultra endurance athlete, as the ultra athlete has to maintain high energy reserves and immunity and can’t afford to deplete bodily reserves. I thought that a marathon-fit athlete who wanted to race at ultra distances would be conditioned well-enough for the much slower race paces required, but apparently I was near the mark, but not on it! Ian said that after several weeks of regular marathon conditioning, he would increase the duration of his long runs each weekend out to 5 hours or so, usually on trails. This would train the muscles and connective tissues to absorb the extra loading as much as anything. For him, any more than this duration was very boring, and didn’t seem to provide any extra physiological advantage. So I’d basically do the regular week, but get those long runs out to 5 hour trots on varied courses where you “smell the roses” at very low intensities.

Definitely, strength work would be paramount for an optimal result in ultra mountain racing. Whether this is done regularly by the top athletes is unknown to me, but I’d suggest it would be a good idea.

Q7 (Nutrition): You write (page 96) “fruits and vegetables provide plenty of needed carbohydrates, as do grain based foods, such as bread, pasta and rice.” Is this a general recommendation or would it be better to concentrate on carbohydrate simply for the pre- and post-workout meals and sticking to a “paleo-diet” for the rest of the day (as recommended in “The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Joe Friel and Lauren Cordain)? Furthermore, wouldn’t it be better to eat potatoes/sweet potatoes as high-carb sources, as they alkalise the bloodstream as opposed to all grain- and dairy-based foods (including rice)?

It’s a general recommendation. Whole grains are usually a rich source of B-complex and various trace elements. Potatoes have a high glycaemic index, useful for recovery post-training, especially, but potatoes also have wonderful nutritional benefits if the skin is eaten whole. You’re quite right about the alkalinity and the carbohydrate replacement value of potatoes/sweet potatoes. However: a comment on the Paleo Diet. I’m sure it has to be applied carefully for the endurance athlete. Lorraine Moller in Boulder, Colorado, is trying to coach a lady who has put herself on the “paleo diet”, and she feels that the woman is too tired all day to train effectively. Perhaps this woman has not been making the necessary sub-optimal “modifications” to her Paleo diet as recommended in the book? Our (European?) ancestors are very unlikely to have been flogging themselves for hours to build up their aerobic endurance: they relied on their innate daily life workload for fitness and were probably big protein and fat consumers.(I quote the following from the Paleo Diet website).

“For serious athletes, however, when it comes to immediately before, during, and directly after workouts we need to bend the rules of the Paleo Diet a bit since we’re placing demands on the body that were not normal for our Stone Age ancestors. Quick recovery is one of those demands. This requires some latitude to use non-optimal foods on a limited basis. The exceptions, as described in the book, are included in the athlete’s 5 stages of daily eating relative to exercise:
Stage I: Eating Before Exercise
Stage II: Eating During Exercise
Stage III: Eating Immediately After
Stage IV: Eating for Extended Recovery
Stage V: Eating for Long-Term Recovery
“Training for endurance sports such as running, cycling, triathlon, rowing, swimming, and cross-country skiing places great demands on the body, and the athlete is in some stage of recovery almost continuously during periods of heavy training. The keys to optimum recovery are sleep and diet. Even though we recommend that everyone eat a diet similar to what our Stone Age ancestors ate, we realize that nutritional concessions must be made for the athlete who is training at a high volume in the range of 10 to 35 or more hours per week of rigorous exercise. Rapid recovery is the biggest issue facing such an athlete. While it’s not impossible to recover from such training loads on a strict Paleo Diet, it is somewhat more difficult to recover quickly. By modifying the diet before, during, and immediately following challenging workouts, the Paleo Diet provides two benefits sought by all athletes: quick recovery for the next workout, and superior health for the rest of your life.”

I like the sound of the basic tenets proposed; in fact, I am doing very well on a similar approach that works for me, having “survived/thrived” through a nasty time with a supposedly “inoperable, incureable” brain tumour the last three years. I’m so well, that despite dire predictions, I was able to travel to the USA last month by myself, for 4 weeks, visiting coaches and friends. Most mornings I have a lightly seared Atlantic salmon steak and two poached free-range eggs to get my basic protein needs for the day dealt with. Later on I usually cycle for a solid hour over a rolling course through the local countryside. I also have 2000mg of fish oil 3xday; originally this was for brain function, but I found that this all took the chronic inflammation away that I was feeling in my right knee. So I’ve been able to run consistently again (a bit!) for the first time in several years after having torn the medial cartilage in both knees at different times; the (first injured) left knee was operated on, and the right knee wasn’t; but the fish oil (I believe) has helped the cartilage heal itself. I have raw unpasteurized cow’s milk each day, as this is full of good enzymes, and I have a lot of yoghurt. Gut health IS immune health, IS neurological health. 70% of the nervous system is associated with the gut.

Bill Baillie was one of the all-time greats of New Zealand athletics, winning 15 national titles from 880 yards through to the 6 miles on the track, as well as cross-country and road titles. He placed a close 6th in the Tokyo Olympic 5000m, and also pipped Ron Clarke on the post in an international 2-mile race. Bill set world records over 20000m and 1 hour on the track in 1963; these were broken by Ron Clarke, but they still stand as New zealand records. After 40 laps of 72s, going through 10000m in 29:48, he switched down to 70s a lap for the next 10 or so laps to make sure he set the New Zealand 10-mile track record on the way through. In later years, Bill established himself as a world force in age-group triathlon.

Barry won bronze in the Rome Olympic marathon in 1960, and later that year won the inaugural Fukuoka marathon. Barry won many national titles over 6 miles track, cross country, and road. A career highlight apart from his Olympic medal would be ranking first in the world over 10000m in 1961. Barry won the World Cup 10,000m in Helsinki in 28:51, with a very hard last 800m, and ranked 3rd world-wide over 5000m in 13:39.

Jeff Julian was one of the icons of New Zealand distance running, winning 11 national titles: 4 marathons, 2 cross-country titles, and 5 road race titles. He was famous for his prodigious fast mileage training. Jeff had an amazing year in 1963, when he set world 30-mile (2 hr:47.34) and 40-mile (3hr:53.36) track records in the one race. He also clocked 47:36 for 10 miles, and won Fukuoka in 2hr 14mins, beating a world-class lineup. Unfortunately he couldn’t reproduce this form the next year in the Tokyo Olympics, but his place in the pantheon of all-time greats was cemented by his victory in Fukuoka, often described as “harder to win than the Olympics”.

Other New Zealanders to have won Fukuoka include 1968 Olympic bronze medalist Mike Ryan,(1967, 2hr 13m), and Paul Ballinger (2hr 10min).

Bill Baillie is married to Jeff’s sister Val, who took the photo for coach Randy Smith, who runs the Arthur Lydiard Classic, a high school track meet in Ohio.

Graydon Snider of McGill University, Montreal, has the following query about improving speed.

Hi. I’m a long distance runner looking to gain some extra “speed” for middle distances. ( I can run 21.1k in 70min but struggle to run sub 9min in a 3k). After years of neglecting the gym ( I usually do only bodyweight resistance), I’ve decided to try some weight training appropriate for endurance athletes. From what you and others recommend (in the early pre-season), the goal should be to lift heavy weights (deadlift & 1/2 squats) 4-6 times with good recovery between sets.

Q:

My question concerns what comes next! After successfully improving your 1RM, would you then leave the gym and replace weights with alactic hill sprints, eventually doing the Lydiard Hill circuits?

Or assuming you still go to the gym, do you recommend next focusing on low weight, high rep exercises to improve muscular endurance? i.e. 20RM with shorter rests, then later 30RM with even less recovery. Looking forward to any advice!

A:

Good question, Graydon.

You don’t need to leave the gym! And you certainly don’t want to switch from low reps with near-maximal lifts to many reps of light weights! By doing that you’re going from specifically training fast-twitch fibers to specifically training slow-twitch! ( Why would you do want to do that? ). Those fast twitch fibres need to be stimulated regularly to maintain their development and not atrophy!

Heavy near-maximals should be done in low-rep sets, with plenty of recovery. Start as heavy as possible, after warming up briefly with the exact movement pattern with a much lighter weight. Do your weight training at night, when fully warmed up from the day’s activities, and AFTER an earlier running session. Weights should never replace a running session. If tired and low-energy, “can” the weights session as it won’t be productive.

I used to plan a tough weight workout after a tough running session, having re-carbed and topped my protein in between. My thinking was that the tough training stimulus from the running would fire the anabolic hormone systems of the body, and I could avail myself of them while the blood levels were high, before a (usual) scheduled easy and slow recovery day. The recovery day would flush any metabolites from both sessions away and back to the liver, and allow some resynthesis of new muscle protein.

The best all-round exercise would be deadlift, however failing that, half-squat, with heaps of padding over shoulders. Other exercises can be core exercises. Unless you want to look good on the beach, there’s no need to do excessive upper-body work like bench-press, as the muscle groups involved don’t aid running speed.

The amount of work required to lift your strength to a higher level is much more than that required to maintain your strength at a high level. Initial strength gains will be very good due to neuromuscular recruitment rather than new muscle synthesis. So let’s say you double your 1RM half-squat by the start of your track preparation, and you want to maintain this strength. You want to maintain or slightly improve that right through your competition period. However you’ll also be doing a significant number of “tough” anaerobic sessions designed to increase your efficiency at VO2 max speeds and above. All these tough workouts will increase acidosis and the general stress level or “allostatic load” on the body.

So rather than do lots of light weights with more reps, just MAINTAIN HIGH INTENSITY for FEWER SETS. ie: if you were doing 4 sets of 5 reps with 85% of 1RM pre-season, you might drop back to 2 sets of 2-3 reps with 90% of 1 RM on selected nights in-season. Each week, if competing on Saturday, you might do an intensive 2-set session on Tuesday, and a 1-set version of the same on Thursday night.These short, sharp, high-weight/low-rep sessions will NOT tire one excessively, but will certainly keep those fast twitch fibers firing. Alactic lifting can actually be done 4-5 days a week while maintaining improvement, and it’s “safe” as acidosis does not get too involved. But it all has to be balanced out according to the individual’s other training and lifestyle demands.

Short sessions of hill-bounding, and even hill sprints, will maintain fast twitch activity and leg strength too. One could fiddle around with doing Hill-bounds and hill-sprints in an afternoon session, then later at night doing the alactic weight training.

High-rep low weight exercises tend to train only the less powerful muscle fibers, due to the 85% 1RM threshold not being reached to stimulate fast twitch IIB.

I would not do low weight, high rep exercises to improve “endurance” once I’d improved my absolute strength. Past about 20 reps, we’re getting into training Type IIA fast twitch oxidative and Type I slow twitch fibres and not even getting anywhere near the intensity to selectively recruit fast twitch Type IIB. You’re actually de-training fast-twitch fibres once you start to introduce weights below the summation threshold. A muscle fibre not recruited for weeks will atrophy, and because of the size principle, the best options to keep the IIB fibres stimulated are by

1.lifting very heavy

2.Hill Resistance Exercises/Bounding/plyometrics/ballistic movements that can by-pass the “size principle” and its normal sequential recruitment from Type 1-Type IIA-Type IIB. very fast for a very short time

3.Very fast relaxed sprints over very short distances

4.( Indirectly by exhausting the IIA and IIB fast twitch muscles of glycogen in the closing stages of long runs, and increasing muscle volume that way ).

• Lifting very heavy weights will increase maximal muscle tension capability (strength).
• Hill bounding will translate this into POWER.
• Very fast relaxed runs over very short distances will translate this power into SPEED. (By training increased neuromuscular coordination: the millisecond muscle recruitment switching between agonist and antagonist muscles ).
• Long runs give an endurance capability to the IIA fast twitch fibres so that more anaerobic work can be performed when the time comes.

The way I look at it, endurance is a function of strength. The higher the 1 rep maximum, the higher the rep maximums at each percentage below 1 rep maximum. This seems to go all the way down the strength pyramid. For instance, your 5-7-rep max is about 85% of your 1RM, and your 2 RM is about 95%.However, all the way down the line, a stronger muscle can do more repetitions with a given weight. So I’d say endurance is improved. I’ve also discussed this in the book where a study was done with low-rep high intensity weight training with trained orienteers and it improved 5000m time significantly WITHOUT any change in VO2 max, threshold, etc. Increased leg-strength confers endurance advantages unrelated to measurable cardiovascular change. Some boffin will tell us why, some day, but it’s a fact nevertheless.

Hope that helps! On another note, probably the best running training to get your 3000m time down a lot with your proven endurance base is to do VO2 max sessions once a week leading into competition. These can be safe and effective at 95% VO2 max pace (5k pace) or more intense at 3k pace.

Cheers!

Keith