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  This article excerpt was forwarded to me by another athlete.  Owen Anderson is 
  the editor/founder of Running Research News, a newsletter and website dedicated 
  to studying all aspects of human performance.  The article questions the logic 
  of ubiquitous tradtional base-building training methodology.  

  As many of my training articles suggest, I find traditional endurance training dogma to be
  high on regurgitation value and low on critical analysis.  Multi-sport in particular 
  should be more open to considering more effective training approaches, where
  with three sports training the "endurance" engine there is likely to be unnecessary 
  training redundancy.

  In his article, Mr Anderson cites scientific evidence to support basic M2 
  training tenets:
  * There are more effective ways to build base than the traditional model of LSD
    training.
  * More focused quality training can/should be inserted early in the training
    cycle, using common sense and assuming the athlete pre-posseses a stable
    muscle structure.
  * Long runs will be done more effectively and with greater training effect
    if prefaced with faster quality training.

  Although it is not necessary to see articles like this to confirm what myself and
  my athletes have long known to be true, it is interesting to see research catching
  up with the athletes.

  M2 comments below are in parentheses.
 
  Running Research News
  www.runningresearchnews.com
  Article excerpt

  For runners, there is another kind of oxygen hype: We are reminded constantly, in 
  articles in popular running magazines and in books about training, that we should 
  first build a broad "aerobic base" before we begin carrying out any speed work. 
  The aerobic base, defined as a rather-ample amount of mileage conducted at slow 
  to moderate tempos, is supposed to increase the ability of muscles to utilize oxygen 
  during running. Proponents of aerobic-basing insist that it increases the number of 
  capillaries around muscles, ramps up the concentrations of aerobic enzymes inside 
  muscles, and maximizes mitochondrial densities - mitochondria are the little structures 
  inside muscles which serve as the focal points of aerobic metabolism.

  The trouble with this is that just as oxygenated water does a poor job of hiking the 
  aerobic metabolism of our muscles, moderate- to low-intensity aerobic-base training 
  does a modest job of spiking our muscles' aerobic characteristics. Over and over again, 
  solid scientific research has revealed that higher-quality training - yes, dare I say it
  - speed training does a superior job of upgrading the aerobic propensities of the 
  muscles in our legs, compared with traditional, building-a-base-type training.

  (The above is almost verbatim from M2 Rethinking Base Training article)

  Some advocates of traditional-basing may say that although it is not so good for 
  improving aerobic capacity, it nonetheless builds a nice foundation of strength. We can 
  admit that "aerobic-base" training builds some strength, (very little strength IMO) but 
  unfortunately it is the kind of strength which is needed for ..... carrying out aerobic-
  base training. Strength, after all, is specific to speed of movement, and strength at 
  slow velocities translates poorly to strength at faster paces. In short, the strength 
  built through base training does not necessarily provide strength for the high-quality 
  training which inevitably follows.

  But if we put quality training ahead of volume work, won't that increase the risk of 
  injury? If we begin our programs by attempting to run 20 miles per week at vVO2max, 
  this may well be the case, but if we very gradually expand our quality work, just as 
  we would fatten slow miles with traditional base-building, the risk of injury is very 
  low. Bear in mind that the single best predictor of injury among runners is a prior 
  injury. The second-best predictor is not the number of miles run quickly; rather it 
  is the total mileage run per week.

  Note, too, that starting with high-quality work instead of building a traditional base) 
  would mean that longer runs would inevitably be conducted at faster paces (because 
  underlying fitness would be greater. Thus, the benefits of increasing mileage would be 
  magnified - since average training intensity would rise.
  (The above idea of doing mileage later in the training cycle, having prefaced volume 
  with quality, is discussed in the M2 Article Training Backwards, the Pyramid Turned Upside 
  Down.  Again, this has been standard M2 practice for a dozen + years)

  Unfortunately, just as high-quality running is left out of traditional base periods, so 
  is running-specific strength training (rsst). Resistance training which mimics the 
  mechanics of running improves fatigue-resistance and running economy - and is very likely 
  to reduce the risk of injury. Wouldn't this be a great thing to include in any base 
  period?  Yet, rsst is almost-never mentioned in articles about building a base. (M2 
  practices base training with strength and threshold/quality training – again, Rethinking 
  Base Training article – have been doing this for more than a dozen years now)

  The bottom line? It's true that getting more oxygen to your leg muscles and enhancing 
  the capacity of your leg muscles to utilize delivered oxygen will make you a better runner. 
  But, oxygenated water and traditional aerobic base periods are both examples of oxygen 
  hype. You'll increase the oxidative capacities of your leg muscles more effectively by 
  inserting reasonable amounts of high-quality running into your training program, right 
  from the beginning. Adding running-specific strength training - moves which mimic various 
  aspects of the gait cycle - to the early mix will also be very beneficial, because it will 
  keep you away from injury and will enable you to run at higher percentages of your max 
  aerobic capacity. The latter effect is a proven way to give your leg muscles a sizable 
  "oxygen boost."

  (Multi-sport athletes and cyclists should consider that cycling and swimming are non-weight bearing
   activities, where injury risk is much less than running.  Traditional base-building
   protocols of LSD or simply low intensity training for many months to build a base
   in these disciplines represents significant squandered training opportunity)