Arthur Lydiard

Arthur Lydiard ( born July 6, 1917 in Auckland, New Zealand, † December 11, 2004 in Houston, Texas, United States) was a New Zealand track coach, the 17 middle and long distance runners led to Olympic medals. He founded the method of aerobic exercise, which he advocated for the leisure and health sports. In 1961 he founded the first jogging club in New Zealand. From there, the idea of jogging came first in the USA and later in the whole world. Lydiard also heart attack patients treated by long runs.

Achievements

Sports career

Arthur Lydiard took from the mid-1940s to smaller long- distance running part. From 1949 to 1955 he was a famous marathon runner in New Zealand, after he ended his sports career. With his first marathon in 1949 ( 3:30:07 hours), he won the championship of the Auckland region, he was twice champion of New Zealand, 1953 ( 2:41:29 hours) and 1955 ( 2:42:34 hours). His fastest marathon he ran in 2:39:05 hours. As he often coached during his later career as a coach with his runners together, he still succeeded at the age of 61 years with a marathon time under three hours ( 2:58:58 ).

A trainer

In addition to his work as a shoemaker and milk deliverer, he headed since the late 1940s in New Zealand middle and long distance runners.

Lydiard was shot to fame as a treadmill than during the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome in charge of his athletes within half an hour two gold medals for New Zealand outdated: First Peter Snell about 800 m and in the immediately following competition Murray Halberg over 5000 m. Another athlete from the group of runners of Arthur Lydiard, Barry Magee, was third in the marathon.

At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, trained by his athletes won three more medals - Peter Snell two gold medals ( 800 m, 1500 m ) and John Davies Bronze 1500 m.

In later years, Lydiard no longer coached individual athletes, but his method was further in trainer seminars. Be attributed to its 19monatige activity from 1967 to 1969 in Finland, the four medals of the Finns Lasse Viren, Pekka Vasala and Tapio Kantanen at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich ( three gold, one bronze ).

Arthur Lydiard was the Olympic coach in Denmark in 1972 and coach of Venezuela in 1970 and in 1972 and Mexico in 1965.

Lydiards method

His insights gained Lydiard primarily in self- experiments in which he experimented with extremely long distances - 80 to 400 Kilometer per week.

He has developed the core of his method - a several months long anabolic endurance training in a high movement speed in the so-called steady state, the pace of the runners just can hold out long periods of time without fatigue. For optimal Lydiard holds one weeks of 160 kilometers. Purpose of this training is a radical increase in the oxygen supply to the muscles through the formation of new, ultra-fine wire branches capillarization. He thereby creates the basis for a high oxygen debt in the competition, ie run faster than expected, the mere supply of oxygen in the muscles can.

In the training system the long endurance runs, followed by a four - to six -week hill training, and finally, an approximately twelve -week contest preparation through tempo runs and sprint series. In all phases, the endurance training, so running long distances, never gave up. In hill training Lydiard saw one of the main differences to other forms of aerobic exercise such as the Ernst van Aaken. In hill training (mountain high jumping alternating step ), not only the extreme lactate tolerance is trained, but also economy of movement under the conditions of total acidity.

The recognized to the present day endurance method of Lydiard surprised in the 60 years the sports world, because until then dominated the interval method the medium and long- distance running, which was made ​​famous by the Czechoslovakian runner Emil Zatopek in the 1940s and 1950s.

Another endurance training method was developed in the 50s of the 20th century, the German physician Ernst van Aaken. In contrast to the Lydiard system is trained there only at low speeds. Only at the end of each training session there is at van Aaken a tempo run ( " Crescendo " ) to maximum speed.

Quotes

• " The beginning of the running training is very simple. Walk for five minutes in a relaxed pace, you turn around and walk back if you need to return more than five minutes, because you can not keep up the pace, you have exceeded your aerobic threshold and are changed into an anaerobic state. During the next run, you should make sure that you reduce the pace and finish the race as you have started it. "

• " The fastest way to cause a sudden leap in performance is the Hard - Light - Hard - Light system. This system states that in any longer run a shorter, less intense run must follow in order to allow your body to new to the requirements ... done. "

• " As part of my so-called marathon training system, the athletes run controlled 160 km per week. Added to an additional 160 kilometers of renewable jogging when the time and the will are there. "

• " In this way I was with a group of runners of all distances in a position to seek all national titles from the 800 -meter run up to the marathon, and ultimately to win. This I managed every year over a period of more than ten years. "