Arthur Lydiard Quotations

I get more gratification out of getting some obese person who had a heart attack running around and enjoying life within a year. I get more gratification from that than putting a person in the Olympic Games. The Olympic athlete probably doesn't appreciate what you've done, but the other guy does. I think it's really rewarding.

If you want to be a successful runner, you have to consider everything. It's no good just thinking about endurance and not to develop fine speed.

The idea that you can't lose contact with the leaders has cut more throats than it has saved.

I discovered years ago that the best results in this respect could be gained by running 100 miles weekly at my near best aerobic efforts and that, supplementary to this, running as many easy miles as I could

Encourage kids to enjoy running and play in athletics. Don't force them to run too much competition.

No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.

My most frequent admonition to athletes and coaches is: train, do not strain.

Champions are everywhere, you just have to train them properly

Well, no athlete respects a big, fat coach who's going to stand there and rest the watch on his stomach.

When aerobic running becomes a daily habit, strength and confidence follow.

You must realize one thing. In every little village in the world there are great potential champions who only need motivation, development and good exercise evaluation.

There are champions everywhere. Every street's got them. All we need to do is train them properly.

They're very tenacious. They're dedicated. Once a woman decides she's going to do something, she'll probably stick to it. The only problem with women is if there's anything wrong with them, they won't tell you. They'll get out there and run on one leg. They don't moan and groan like a lot of men do.

Athletes need to enjoy their training. They don't enjoy going down to the track with a coach making them do repetitions until they're exhausted. From enjoyment comes the will to win.

It's just a matter of understanding what's necessary and discipline yourself to do it.

I have a saying 'train, don't strain.' The Americans have the saying 'no pain, no gain' and that's why they have no distance running champions. They get down to the track with a stopwatch and flog their guts out thinking that it'll make them a champion, but they'll never make a champion that way.

They have a word in Finnish called sisu, which basically means guts. It’s the strongest word in the Finnish language. You tell a Finn he doesn’t have sisu, that’s like spitting in his face.

Your aerobic development is a gradual thing. It takes years and years of marathon-type training to develop your aerobic capacity to the fullest.