Lee,
for not ever wanting to talk about Maff again you sure do it a lot.
Skeptical means you haven't made up your mind. you obviously have. here i thought you had read his work but you just admitted you didn't. why not? why not give it a try? the time will pass either way. if you make gains, great. if not, move on.
you've also ignored my endless remarks about it NOT being only slow training. had you read my remarks or any of his books you would know that's not true. why would another trainer tout someone else's methods? they're trying to sell their own. read his books and you'll understand.
he is also semi retired from coaching. afaik he's only co-coaching Angela Naithe. she was good but no she's consistantly winning.
Only meant to enter in my quip, based on the new, preposterous and presumptuous claims. Then got drawn into the thread and rehearsing the older arguments. My bad.
I'm skeptical for the reasons stated above. Basically, I did something like aerobic base-building the whole two years I as cycling, except for the mountain passes. You don't need a Garmin or HR monitor. All you do is keep within a tolerable 'feel' for your heart rate and breathing and you can make it through the day. If you're going too fast, you'll wear yourself out and have to stop. As time passes, if you use your gears properly and keep a steady cadence, you get faster and go farther. I've seen the same thing happen with my running last year.
I know he incorporates other, faster forms of running. What I question is the need for a base-building period when all other kinds of activity are forbidden. That sort of Lydiard-type approach seems to be outdated. The trend among the people actually winning endurance events is to incorporate more threshold running at all times, as far as I understand.
I haven't read this book, but I have skimmed his big book, I'm aware of his basic arguments, and also aware that no-one else seems to endorse that model of physiology. What I've seen others say is that anaerobic activity can't interfere with aerobic training, but the converse may be true. I don't have the references handy, sorry.
The other trainers do cross reference each other. What they do is modify the basic LSD-TEMPO-HILLS/INTERAL model, some for individual runners, some as a sort of general plan. You should look into it if you're interested in this sort of thing, and not commit to the first thing you read, especially given your injuries and oft-stated frustrations. Personally, I think I know all I need to know about running at this point, given my humble goals. All I really need is to be more consistent and run hills or fartleks from time to time.