Customer Reviews

Healthy Intelligent Training: The Proven Principles of Arthur Lydiard

5 star:		(10)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Simply the best book ever on the training system that has probably transformed more runners into champions than any other.

I got a copy of Running the Lydiard Way in 1978 and it went everywhere with me, 24 hours a day for at least two years, while Arthur's way changed me from an average club hack into a county-class runner. I don't know where Keith Livingstone's book is going to take me, but I've already started carrying it around.

Finally, 30 years on, we get an update and a full explanation of what the Lydiard system really is and how it works. Very exciting!

Even better, Keith writes as a New Zealander born and bred right there in Lydiard land, being himself coached by Olympic medallist Barry Magee, one of Arthur's originals. So here is the true word on Lydiard, direct from original sources.

It's become fashionable to bash Lydiard these days; many of us who had direct contact with the "master coach" have tried and failed to correct the complete tosh that is often claimed as being "Lydiard training" - the most common myth being that he advocated a minimum of 100 miles a week at barely above jogging pace. Here at last is chapter and verse on EXACTLY what Arthur intended, with plenty of real-life examples of how Arthur and his runners adapted the basic system to individualise it for runners of different capabilities.

You'll see, for example, how to use sessions of long slow distance therapeutically, to help recover form. Keith has also done a great job of providing the missing science; although Arthur has been hailed as the greatest running coach of all time, Keith reminds us that Arthur was actually a milkman; he worked things out by experimenting on himself and then with trial and error plus intuition. 30 years on, and with the benefit of the latest research, we can see why Arthur's system works so well -- and also what we need to tweak to make it even more effective.
To that end, Keith brings in the research of Dr Jack Daniels on Vo2 and "V dot" pacing that clarifies what some of Arthur's sessions were out to achieve; he incorporates the "mass-specific" model of strength training developed by Barry Ross; and he includes contributions from Nick Bideau, coach of Craig Mottram, and NZ triathlon coach Chris Pilone, who guided Hamish Carter to 2004 Olympic gold.

A brilliant book, endorsed by Barry Magee and marathon great Lorraine Moller, co-founder of The Lydiard Foundation -- this is a must-have.

This book is a must for everyone who is a runner or who wants to be a runner. Keith's way of putting things in a simple no nonsense,from experience way is very refreshing and makes for a "can't put down read".
I finished it at 4.00am and felt like going for a run. Five stars is not enough!

This is a must have for any distance runner looking for the best way to train. While following Arthur Lydiard's principles, I have already taken my marathon time down from 3 hours in 2006 to a 2:31 this past year. Not to mention, every other personal record that I held. Livingstone makes everything clear and simple.

Having started my professional career as a physical education teacher being responsible for training track athletes in high schools in Australia, England and South Africa, I definitely could have used Keith Livingstone's amazing book. Outstanding athletes need a well directed program of training that will get them to the top.

During my days of teaching and coaching in the 1960's and 1970's, New Zealand athletes were the trend setters.

Moving from training athletes to caring for athletes, after retraining as a Chiropractor in Canada in the mid 1970's, I now see how knowledge of what Keith Livingstone explains in his book would have made me a better Chiropractor for the athletes I cared for.

If you teach or coach athletes or you are a practitioner who cares for athletes I highly recommend you purchase this book.

John Hinwood, DC, Dip PE, Cert LC, FAIM, FICC, FACC
Past President
The Australian Spinal Research Foundation

http://www.flotrack.org/articles/view/767-keith-livingstone-healthy-intelligent-training

Healthy Intelligent Training by Keith Livingstone is simply awesome.

As far as I am concerned, it is the best book written about the Lydiard method of training. Healthy Intelligent Training is written 'layman' enough for those who do not want to be weighed down with heavy scientific tech-speak. However, the book provides enough scientific reference to provide credibility from the technical end of the perspective; the reader gets the best of both worlds.

Should you prefer case studies that are not done in a lab over 3 weeks under controlled circumstances, but examples provided from 10, 20 and 30 year careers - Olympic accomplishments and just outstanding results, then Keith writes it out so everyone gets their fill of what they need to better understand the Arthur Lydiard method of training and physiologically speaking the method matches what the body is meant to do - move!

Although the book is said to be geared towards serious middle-distance runners. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to train to their optimum for middle and long distance, right up to the marathon.

Anyone can hammer away and see improvement as a runner. But as a distance runner, few will have patience to train for many months in order to do what is truly necessary by training all the different muscle fibers required for superior endurance. A great read for runners who can commit to listening to their body as they train for distance. The speed training comes easily after a strong base is built.

Very well written Easy to read and understand, concise and lightened by a series of anecdotes that emphasis the point(s) just made.
A must for all middle/long distance runners to read, and for all those who are stuck in a training 'rut' or are easily bored when running!

This is an excellent book on training and the implementation of the Lydiard program. This book is a very useful training guide but it also offers a history lesson that is very important. How did we get here? What has worked? And what is the underlying principle that guides all training for distance runners? Train the body to do what you are going to ask it to do. Aerobic conditioning. I also read Dan Coyle's "The Talent Code" and found the juxtapostion of these two books remarkable. I liked the fact that D. Livingstone (a chiropractor) is a runner(who over trained) and a coach (who works with all age groups). I found this book very readable and enlightening.

I ran 20-odd thousand miles in training in my teens and 20's - and read running books by the shelf load. This book encapsulates the wisdom that would have enabled me to get better results for my efforts.

Running would be a lot simpler if our bodies were like machines that we could put through a standard program to achieve a repeatable result. However, there is art as well as science to achieving our best performances. Lydiard himself said that a balanced program is crucial to success. This book conveys better than others I've read how to achieve that balance. It does this both by explaining physiology in a practical, clear way (the science); and also by presenting case studies and breaking down the lessons to be learned from them (the art).

The presentation on hill-training is unique in its clarity. Livingstone presents a visual how-to breakdown - something Lydiard didn't do. I grew up and live in New Zealand. Everybody ran mileage but I didn't see runners doing hill-bounds. When I tried them I was never sure if I was doing them right - I just felt like a goose and thought I must be missing something.

While the text may be short on instruction of the type "Do this run on this day and that run on that day", that is not a drawback. That kind of specific is reassuring but doesn't help when injuries or fatigue happen. In the end the principles are more useful than schedules.

The book is targeted at serious middle-distance runners. However I think that anyone running more than half an hour a few days a week and wanting to improve their times over particular distances would get value from this book.

I am a beginning runner with a long-term goal of running a marathon and was recommended to get this book by a friend who uses the Lydiard method with great effect. I was looking to maximize my ability based on Lydiard principles and have an understanding of the components of runs, how far and at what pace I should run, what I should aim for, etc.

The book is a series of chapters (more than 15) on various topics such as an explanation of the Lydiard method, hill training, ananerobic conditioning, nutrition, etc. The beginning chapters explain the physiology of running and as it progresses explains principles. Throughout the whole book are numerous examples of how the techniques can be applied to training schedules.

While there seems to be some good material, the book is rambling and tangential and many of the topics are not explained well. I have re-read the sections on aerobic, subthreshold, and threshold runs and still do not understand what they are getting at. Some chapters reference future material that hasn't been covered and explanations for certain topics later in the book are at the beginning which makes it confusing. Right now I am in the aerobic conditioning phase but I really have no idea for what to aim at from this book except that the 100-mile/week advice is for serious runners and I should build up slowly, increase my runs gradually, and run at a good pace. In fact all of the advice on aerobic running can be found on the chapter summary on page 91 but it is all very general advice and not very specific. Some subtitles in this chapter include Maintain Speed and Technique, Learn about your body, etc.

This book would probably be very useful for an advanced runner looking for an explanation of the Lydiard method, as it covers all of the important topics and many of the examples are advanced such as looking at a training schedule and how some of the champion runners made alterations to their schedule and the results, using a training diary, etc. It is a book to read slowly and muse over some of the principles but it would take someone who is familiar with these concepts to be able to apply it.

I got my best understanding of what the aerobic training phase is from a short paper by Lydiard that one can find on the Internet which I went to in frustration while reading this book. There was more specific information on creating a schedule than what was in this book.

While another reviewer has recommended this book for beginners I cannot do so. I thought about getting Lydiard's book Run to the Top but from reading some of those reviews the book also seems to ramble and is a collection of various Lydiard writings from throughout the years rather than an actual book. This book has the same feel, with a lot of repetitive information and verbose but unclear explanations (at least to a novice). There is certainly a place for some of these books but as a beginner, I am going to try the Daniels' book and once I am a more seasoned runner I might come back to this book to see how to improve what I am doing.