from joncane: "For the record, at various times Mr. Allen has attributed his numerous Ironman victories to ..."
Quite true. We should also remember that Mark didn't rise to the top of IM racing by doing long steady work alone. Recall that he LOST Kona to Scott umpteen times while winning at every shorter distance in the world. The guy was already wicked fast. He trained for short and medium course events and tried to win Kona. Didn't work. When he started going long and steady, he got the specific type of fitness needed to win Kona. It is really a simple matter of event-specific training.
Maffetone's (and Lydiard's) idea is to use the long steady base to prepare yourself for your event-specific work. Lydiard believes that the long steady work keeps your body ready to launch into specific training of any sort. He kept his athletes always prepared to enter any distance event with 8 weeks of specific preparation.
If you run the mile, LSD runs will not get you under 4:00. Lydiard had his milers doing 20x400 on 1:00 with 2 minutes rest. You can't go much harder than that workout!!
What Maffetone and Friel and Byrne are saying for IM training is that the steady base building work alone is your event-specific preparation cycle for the IM. Go into your "build" period, and just stay in it up to your taper.
Only at the very elite level of the top few gifted racers, with 8-10 years under their feet, should intensity work come into play. Byrne finished 7th at IM NZ, and still doesn't consider himself ready for intensity sessions. Michael McCormack, on the other hand, lives and dies by intensity sessions. But he had been at a high level of competition for many years and was capable of winning an IM.
Quite true. We should also remember that Mark didn't rise to the top of IM racing by doing long steady work alone. Recall that he LOST Kona to Scott umpteen times while winning at every shorter distance in the world. The guy was already wicked fast. He trained for short and medium course events and tried to win Kona. Didn't work. When he started going long and steady, he got the specific type of fitness needed to win Kona. It is really a simple matter of event-specific training.
Maffetone's (and Lydiard's) idea is to use the long steady base to prepare yourself for your event-specific work. Lydiard believes that the long steady work keeps your body ready to launch into specific training of any sort. He kept his athletes always prepared to enter any distance event with 8 weeks of specific preparation.
If you run the mile, LSD runs will not get you under 4:00. Lydiard had his milers doing 20x400 on 1:00 with 2 minutes rest. You can't go much harder than that workout!!
What Maffetone and Friel and Byrne are saying for IM training is that the steady base building work alone is your event-specific preparation cycle for the IM. Go into your "build" period, and just stay in it up to your taper.
Only at the very elite level of the top few gifted racers, with 8-10 years under their feet, should intensity work come into play. Byrne finished 7th at IM NZ, and still doesn't consider himself ready for intensity sessions. Michael McCormack, on the other hand, lives and dies by intensity sessions. But he had been at a high level of competition for many years and was capable of winning an IM.