Daniels' Running Formula - 2nd Edition by Jack Daniels
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Book Reviews of Daniels' Running Formula - 2nd Edition
Book Review: Running Jack Daniels'
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent!! Best running book I have read to date. Great resource. Must have. Good tid bits and helpful suggestionsBook Review: great book
Summary: 5 Stars
Maybe the best running book of all the time,only one minus - there's no plan for half marathon.Book Review: Running book
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent resource for a coach or a serious runner. Easy ride, lots of great info.Book Review: Solid, if dry, textbook on running
Summary: 4 Stars
Every now and again I get back in the running habit. And what with it being so long since I've done any formal training and not being able to afford an actual coach, I usually call on my Brooklyn Road Runners Club buddies to recommend a decent training book.
Turns out Jack Daniels, the author of the book they recommended, lives less than an hour from where I spent my summer in 2006, in upstate New York. Not that it did me any good, as he's almost 80 years old and not taking in new athletes. Too busy taking in new wives, I guess - the newest one is as young as I am and has borne him a child that probably can't remember when her father wasn't farting dust.
But I digress. Geriatric standing aside, he's written the running book I've always wanted to find - very little of the confessional, running-as-spiritual-quest crap or Runner's World-style product mongering of the newest insoles or energy gels - just distance-specific training plans, time conversation tables, and scientific (as far as I know) reasoning for all of his advice.
There is some padding throughout - the "Training Essentials" unit is kind of general and not very useful, he puts runner's profiles at the end of each section that are uniformly dry and uninspiring ("Sara's ability to graciously accept both success and disappointment, her resolve to take one day at a time, and the faith we both share make me a fan of hers," "It's amazing how favorably his lab tests results compare to those of Jim Ryun"), and the "Training for Fitness" seems to have been added after the rest of the book was written just to get people who've never run before started. Come to think of it, some people may get something out of that section; I didn't even read it.
Overall though, a great textbook - easy to read, what's useful is easy to pick out, and the inevitable padding is easy to page through. So, like all good textbooks, the key word is "easy."
Book Review: good for competative runners
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a really good resource for competative runners, especially if they are self coached. It really covers what you need to know with respect to training. It is not a book for beginning runners, and it does not cover gear, injurys etc. in detail. Some caveats. Some of the most important statements in the book are not emphasized adequately. Daniels is a first rate coach with years of experience. He makes statements to the effect that different runners respond differently to different types of training. To an extent, it seems obvious, but the book presents training regimens and times, without adequately pointing out that these are suggestions, and you may have to work out what works best for you. I found that I responded better to slightly longer and slower long intervals than he recommends in his book. I tried his recommendations, and found I was more tired and sore, and most importantly my racing times went up or were flat. He clearly points out both that training has to be individualized, and that the bottom line (race time/place) is the bottom line. But I think he overemphasizes the science, such as it is, and underemphasizes his own knowlege of coaching. (I also strongly agree with his recommendations concerning younger runners.) Also, the training theory he discusses is not as clearly proven as you might think: we are still discovering new issues with respect to lactic acid, for example. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter: the training principles work, even if the underlying theory is less certain. Overall it is one of the best guides out there to give an overview of training for competative runners. Some modest changes in organization and emphasis would make it a five start book. Buy it, use it, read and re read it anyway.