Upper Body And Leg-Speed (edited)

Upper Body

I recently purchased two books about Lydiard's training. While I am waiting for them I have been reading as much as I can find on his training. I found one article of his lecture in Japan. Here he said a lot of the same, but one thing that struck a chord with me. It was his comments about upper body strength. He said that you should'nt do anything to build muscle since muscle is heavy and you don't need the extra weight in your arms. He mentioned that Lasse Viernen had almost no upper body muscle. So, should you or shouldn't you do pushups? Answer that question in the poll to your right.

My personal opinion is that I notice I run stronger when my arms are stronger, but now that I look at it, I am not running effciently when I run with my arms. I am slightly forceful when I do it, pumping my arms to pick up the pace or kill it up a hill. Lydiard, I assume, would be against this. He calls for a smooth arm swing in which your fist graze the side of you hips while using the least amount of energy as possible. I have been trying this and it is forcing me to lower my hands and this feels a bit ackward now, but I will give it a try. I am going to lay off the push ups for now and stick to core excersises.

Leg-Speed

I have also been wondering about how or when to push the pace during this base phase. I know some runs need to be faster than others, but where do steady-state runs and progression runs fit in? I was reading some things from Mcmillanelite, which is Lydiard based, and he was saying that they (Brett Goucher-I ran against him in the 10k at Jr. Nationals. He lapped me 3 times. He's a good guy I met him when I was visiting Hakon at Stanford.) did steady-state runs and leg speed drills once a week during base, but in Lydiard's lectures he mentions that leg-speed is to be done in the cordination phase. So I am confused. Hopefully someone can clear this up with me, but I will re-read his lecture that I have.

Training:
Sunday:
Duration: 02hr 01min 11sec
Distance: 16-17 miles
Comments: Felt awesome. Gradually worked into my pace. Ran an hour out on the Honolulu Marathon course avg. about 7:30 pace (I am guessing). On the way back my last several miles were 6:23, 6:15, 6:19, 6:23, 6:31 (hill), 6:33 (hill), 6:21. I wasn't pushing the pace just running comfortably.

Monday:
Duration: 00hr 42min 56sec
Distance: 4.5 miles (Very hilly- Aeia Loop Trail)
Comments: Had stomach issues. I'll leave it at that.

Tuesday:
Duration: oohr 30min 44sec (am) 01hr 30min 02sec (pm)
Distance: 3.5 miles (am) 11-11.5 miles
Comments: Morning run was relaxed and slow. Afternoon it took me about 30-45min to feel ok. Ran on the bike path.