Review of Lore of Running - 4th (Paperback)

If you have a top notch personal coach who tends all your needs, you don't need any book to improve your running.If you are like me who have the passion for serious running, enjoy reading and analytical thinking while having a full-time job + other professional activities, this book is a must-have.I got one for me and two as presents to my friends.Using this book as the major reference to coach and heal myself, I qualified for the Boston Marathon at my marathon debut after about one year's training, took 10 minutes off in another year and I am on my way to beat NYC marathon qualification time for guaranteed number.Running programs are everywhere."Individualizing" has become a cliché. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms and principles behind body and training is essential to derive a healthy and effective training program that adapts to the body's response. Lore of Running distinguishes itself from other running books by offering a large volume of solid evidence to support the principles concluded by the author.The readers have the freedom of utilizing these materials, often presented in interesting ways such as stories about famous runners, to make their own conclusions.I feel like having a very pleasant academic discussion with the author who is convincing, but not dictating while reading the book.The background of the author - ultra-marathon athlete, researcher and practicing sports MD is perfect for writing such comprehensive running book.
This book is certainly not a quick recipe.It takes time to digest the material.If you enjoy reading, it is a plus.I have read some section multiple times.Another very good running book that takes much less time to read is Daniels' Running Formula by Jack Daniels that is geared more toward elite runners, but still very helpful for midpack runners like me.

Product Description
Now revised, expanded and updated, Lore of Running gives you incomparable detail on physiology, training, racing, injuries, world-class athletes, and races.
Author Tim Noakes blends the expertise of a physician and research scientist with the passion of a dedicated runner to answer the most pressing questions for those who are serious about the sport:

• How your body systems respond to training, the effects of different training methods, how to detect and avoid overtraining, and genetic versus trainable potential
• How to train for the 10K up through ultramarathon with detailed programs from Noakes and several leading running experts
• How to prevent and treat injuries, increase your strength and flexibility, and use proper nutrition for weight control and maximum performance

You'll also find a candid analysis of supplements and ergogenic effects and training aids. The book includes new interviews with 10 world-class runners who share their secrets to success and longevity in the sport. Features on legendary figures and events in running history provide fascinating insights.
And that's just scratching the surface. Lore of Running is not only the biggest and best running publication on the planet. It's the one book every runner should own.

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Review of Run Strong (Paperback)

In Run Strong 13 writers, with expertise and experience as coaches, trainers, exercise physiologists, physical therapists and runners (four Olympians among them) contribute 12 chapters covering all the topics essential to achieving success in middle-and long-distance running.

As a runner who has been competing for over 30 years, and as a certified running coach for 17 of those years, I believe that in order to be the best runner you can be, you should incorporate a number of other factors in your training besides running farther and faster.Once you understand the importance of efficient running mechanics, both for injury prevention and enhanced performance (well presented by several of the authors), you are prepared to include the activities that lead to theneuromuscular coordination that good form requires: core-strength; running-specific strength; balance; and dynamic flexibility through the full running range of motion.You are willing to learn as much as you can about fueling your body, allowing it ro recover from training and racing, and maintaining it should injury or illness strike.

Run Strong covers all of these essentials, and does so in manner easily accessible to the non-scientist.It includes a generous supply of photos illustrating key strength and stretch moves, tables summarizing recommendations, and sidebars adding interesting highlights.The editor has done a good job of cross-referencing chapters when the authors mention areas covered in another chapter.And yet the chapters can stand alone, so that the busy runner/reader can pick one topic here, another there, and come away with useful suggestions to be tried in the next workout or program design.

As a long-time coach, I have many how-to running books on my shelves, not to mention all the running fiction, biographies, autobiographies and combinations thereof.Run Strong will definitely find a place on the shelf nearest my workplace.


Product Description
Run faster and longer with less effort than ever before! Putting in the miles is only one part of the training equation. You can become a much stronger overall runner by improving leg turnover, efficiency, body alignment, muscle balance, and running-specific muscle strength, and by finding your most effective range of motion.
Expert coaches and runners show you how to assess what you need and implement these training methods into your current program. And if you're returning from injury, you can bounce back stronger and faster than ever before.
Make your base miles pay off by improving your efficiency and economy. With Run Strong you'll maximize your current fitness level and see results at the very next race!

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Review of Advanced Marathoning - 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Advanced Marathoning (AM) by Olympian Pete Pfitzinger and former Running Times editor Scott Douglas is packed with high-value training advice that should benefit every serious runner.AM is not without its problems, but none are serious enough to detract from a work that is well written and philosophically sound.

From the beginning Pfitzinger and Douglas make clear the basis of their views: "Advanced marathoning has to be based on more than common sense and running folklore.Advanced Marathoning, therefore, is based on exercise science."This declaration puts Pfitzinger and Douglas in the camp of exercise physiology, and, quite obviously, separates them from mainstream running authors. It's also a mild reproof of the mainstream and their penchant for ignoring the rapidly expanding world of exercise science.

Squarely on the side of science, AM begins by listing lactate threshold (LT), maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max), running economy, glycogen storage, recovery time, and muscle fiber composition as the key physiological variables that govern performance.The authors' claim, quite correctly, that "lactate threshold (LT) is the most important physiological variable for endurance athletes."They go on to say that "Contrary to many runner' beliefs, high levels of lactate (lactic acid) in your muscles aren't what make you sore for several days after a hard effort."Indeed, lactate, once considered metabolic waste, is "...produced by your muscles and is used by your muscles, heart, liver, and kidneys."Since the marathon is run at a speed slightly below LT, marathoners have a vested interest in raising LT.AM tells us how:"The most effective way to improve lactate threshold is to run at your current lactate threshold pace or a few seconds per mile faster, either as one continuous run (tempo run) or as a long interval session at your lactate threshold pace...."It's here that I have to quibble.Tempo runs are good LT workouts, however, recent research (Rusko, Billat, Anderson, and others) indicates that intervals at 3-K to 10-K speed with fairly long recoveries are better.Tempo runs definitely have their place, but not to the exclusion of faster LT sessions.

As for the other key variables, maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max), not as important as LT and only a rough predictor of performance, is also worth some attention.Pfitzinger and Douglas are right on the money again when they report "The most effective running intensity to improve VO2max is 95% to 100% of VO2max."This speed is normally close to 5-K pace.They wisely recommend work intervals of two to six minutes with rest intervals of equal length or slightly less.This is the standard, scientifically sound VO2max workout.However, it's interesting that velocity at VO2max (vVO2max) is not mentioned as another critical training intensity.Daniels, widely quoted in AM, has much to say about vVO2max, yet AM is silent on the subject.If recent work by Billat is correct, vVO2max could be a training intensity equal in importance to LT.This omission could be due to the long lead-time (sometimes 18 months) in getting a book published.AM may have gone to press before Billat's research was available.

In addition to physiological variables, Pfitzinger and Douglas have plenty to say about shoes, tapering, fluid replacement, nutrition, pre-race activities, post-race recovery, heart rate, periodization and a bevy other topics.They also present three very reasonable training schedules based on low, medium, and high mileage. Their only serious error regards altitude training.AM tells us that "Other than by training at altitude...the hemoglobin concentration of your blood won't increase with training."It should be well understood by now that living at altitude, not training at altitude, confers the benefit--hence the live high/train low protocol.Scores of endurance athletes are training at or near sea level by day and sleeping in hypoxic tents at night.Rusko (1998) has even constructed an altitude house.(See Gamow, Snell, Stine, Poronnet, Rusko, and Levine.)

All things considered, AM is well written, fairly well researched, and aside from an obvious typo in the first sentence of the third paragraph on page 18, also well edited.AM's puny bibliography was slightly disappointing.One would expect several pages of references in a work of this size.Nevertheless, AM is a worthy treatise, unfettered by the "folklore" so popular with the commercial running establishment.I give it a solid four stars and recommend it to every serious marathoner.



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