MIFUYU:  What do you think of the domination of Africans runners in middle distance and distance races in Seoul?
LYDIARD:  They’re only doing what we did years ago.  They’re doing a lot of mileage.  They’re running to school and running home.  They’re not on the track with that damned stopwatch all the time.  They are not getting their best athletes, putting them on the track and running the guts out of them all the time.  That’s basically what they’re doing.  And what we’ve got to do is get back to it.  We’ve got a New Zealand girl now who is getting back to it; she’s running 190 kilometers a week and she’s suddenly emerging as a (gold medal prospect) for the Commonwealth Games.  Half the New Zealand runners just aren’t doing enough mileage; therefore, they don’t have that high oxygen uptake level that’s important in winning races.  The Africans are doing that.  They run to school, they run home; they do big mileage and they’re developing the potential of their young people.  They’re probably eating better food than we are; natural food, instead of processed food and, consequently, they’re getting better results.
When I set out the training for Richard Tayler—he won the Commonwealth Games and still holds the Commonwealth Games record—we beat the Africans then; we can beat them again.  But if we’re only doing half that training the Africans doing, and half that training is weight training than conditioning work; then they’re going to beat us every time.
I know if I was to get hold of the Japanese team of marathon runners and prepare them for the next Olympics, I know they could win probably.  But, you know, there had to be something wrong with their program there.  It’s just a question of being right on the day; evaluation and watching what they do.

MIFUYU:  Why do you have interval type anaerobic training only during a limited period of time in your program?
LYDIARD:  There are physiological reasons for it.  You’ve got to understand how to control anaerobic training.  This is the important thing.  You’ve got to think about anaerobic training; when to start anaerobic training and when to stop the heavy overall anaerobic training; when to get into sharpening phase and when to freshen up.  You’ve got to understand that.  This is where a lot of people fall down.  Quite often, you’ll find a lot of these athletes will overdo the anaerobic training.

This interview was conducted by Mifuyu Komatsu, who translated “Running with Lydiard” into Japanese in 1992 and brought him to Japan for 3 clinics in 1990.  The interview took place at Lydiard’s house in Beachland, New Zealand, in 1988. A part of the interview was published in the Japanese translation of “Running with Lydiard”.

 Lydiard on Japan Lecture Tour in 1991