HENDERSON: Are you saying that
the heart rate should be, say, 130 during the exercise?
LYDIARD: Well, put it this way; you can’t say
it, because individuals are different. When you’re talking about joggers,
you’re talking about age groups, too. You can’t even turn around and say that
50-year-old men should do this or 30-year-old men should do that. I’ll
guarantee there are some 50-year-old men who have never exercised very much but
have worked around and are very active to a degree, as far as their cardiac
systems are concerned, who are generally in better condition than some of these
students sitting around the universities at 25 years of age. So you can’t turn
around and say anything about any individual or any age group. Everyone must be
treated as an individual. Only they know themselves. You can’t set down hard
and fast rules in these things. When I go to your universities, I see on the
wall the training program for the week. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t do
it this way. This is why people have to understand the fundamentals of
physiology and understand exercise evaluation and apply it to themselves as
individuals. This is the only way you’re going to succeed—in athletics or in
jogging.
Very many people understand physiology as people who sit down and study it to
pass examinations. But there are very many people walking around with degrees
who can’t apply their knowledge. They have photographic memories. They can
pass any examination. They can just remember things and write them down without
really understanding the practice and the value of their knowledge.
HENDERSON: You’re firmly
convinced that the basis of all training, whether mile or marathon, is aerobic
running?
LYDIARD: It has to be. You have to get
cardiac efficiency and the only way you can get cardiac efficiency is to do a
volume of training. And the only way you can do a volume of training is if it’s
economic. If it’s economic, it has to be aerobic—it can’t be anaerobic. No one
can argue with this. Hell, it’s physiological fact, simple physiological fact
that applies to every sport and every man in the street.
This interview was published in Runner’s World; July 1970 issue
The last time Henderson (left) and Lydiard
were together: Eugene, OR, in 2004