Daniels' Running Formula

by Jack Daniels

Get in the best shape of your running career with the scientifically based training in Daniels' Running Formula. In the book that Runner's World magazine called "the best training book," premier running coach Jack Daniels provides you with his proven VDOT formula to guide you through training at exactly the right intensity to become a faster, stronger runner.

Choose from the red, white, blue, and gold programs to get into shape, target a race program, or regain conditioning after a layoff or injury. Race competitively with programs for 800 meters, 1500 meters to 3000 meters, cross country races, 5K to 15K, and half-marathon up to the marathon. Each program incorporates the right mix of the five training intensities to help you build endurance, strength, and speed, and Daniels' intensity point system makes it easy to track the time you spend at each level.

The formula can be customized to your current fitness level and the number of weeks you have available for training, and it provides the perfect solution for short training seasons. Get the results you're seeking every time you lace up your shoes for a training run or race with the workouts and programs detailed in Daniels' Running Formula.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports, Fitness, Health, Reference, Science, Self Help

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

Reviews

[Michelle Curie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Running is my weak spot. I can't even say why, but I count picking up running a few years ago to the best decisions I have ever made and now can't even imagine a life without it. Having that said, I'm not an athlete. I run and that's all I do. I don't train. But then I realized I actually did want to increase my knowledge on that subject and get more into the scientific bits. And that was when I was recommended this book!

Jack Daniels (not related to the whisky, but I wonder how often he gets jokes about it) is a professor of physical education and a coach of Olympic athletes. He mentors and coaches some of America's top distance runners and has spent 60 years in the sport. Here he is:



This man knows what he's talking about. The book is structured into different sections, in some of which he explains training principles, running technique and aerobic profiles. I found these to be extremely insightful and definitely learned a lot! A lot! One thing for example was, that you don't have to train at your maximum to get the maximum out of it and sometimes you'll benefit more from easy runs or even taking a break. It might seem obvious now, but it wasn't to me.

He also provides specific training plans, which will be useful for people training for a specific event, whether that may be a 1500 race of a full marathon.

I'm genuinely happy about the knowledge I gained from this book, yet I would only recommend this book to people who take running seriously and are eager to improve their performance. Because it's so densely packed with facts and science, I would imagine this to be pretty overwhelming if you're only starting out.

[Simen Næss Berge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simply amazing. I read it, followed one of the 26-week marathon training plans and dropped my marathon time by over 50 minutes in less than a year. From 3:55 to 3:03 after doing the 41-55 miles (66-89 km) per week plan.

The book does a good job telling you why you do every run as you do. It tells you what paces to hit for each run also. The plans are easy to follow and they are easy to customize to fit your life.

The only critism I have is that the long runs are too easy/slow. While the book prepared me good to run for a long period of time, I feel that I could have been better prepared to run fast/hard for a long period of time. I would have liked more long runs at marathon pace or close to.

Get the actual book and not a digital version. You will want to have all the tables in front of you. When I followed the marathon plan I looked up something in the book almost daily.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a recreational runner I found this book very helpful but also pretty advanced. It is definitely a resource that I will continue to utilize as I continue to improve in my running.

[Mai Anh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Một cuốn cẩm nang cho runner để tạo training plan trong ngắn hạn cũng như dài hạn.

[Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

#FirstSub4FM #Running

One size fits all, đó là ý nghĩa cũng như tiêu chí được đề cập ngay tựa quyển sách.
Nghĩa là dù bạn là người mới tập chạy, chạy một năm, 10 năm hay cho đến là vận động viên đỉnh cao quyển sách cũng chỉ ra được công thức/bài tập để bạn có thể tự tập một cách hiệu quả.

Điểm mấu chốt của phương pháp này là xác định được chỉ số chạy bộ VDOT hiện tại của người chạy, chỉ số này dựa vào thành tích chạy tốt nhất gần đây. Dựa vào chỉ số VDOT, người chạy có thể xác định các tốc độ tương ứng cho từng loại bài chạy: easy, tempo, interval...

Sau đó, người chạy có thể chọn các giáo án tương ứng để luyện tập từ cự ly ngắn 800m, 5km đến cự ly marathon... Các giáo án có thể chu kỳ 5 tuần cho đến những giáo án dài hạn 3,4 tháng tùy thói quen của mỗi người.

Tự nghiên cứu và luyện tập theo giáo án sau 3 tháng miệt mài, mình cũng phá được cái PR marathon tại HCMC run 2020, vẫn sẽ tiếp tục luyện tập theo phương pháp này trong thời gian tới.

[Henri Hämäläinen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Daniels is a professor of physical education, coach of Olympic athletes and olympic medalist himself. That was proof enough for me, to take a closer look on his ideas.

For me there were two important things in this book. First one was the idea of training load. I've understood that there is different load for different type of exercises, but this book got me to understand more about it and quantify the loads to some extend. I took that part directly in to use on my training diary and will use it for this training season to know if it really works or not.

Second important thing in this book was the different running speeds and the VDOT index for those. VDOT wasn't totally new concept for me, but since it was invented for this book I got to understand all the background information behind it. Other than just running speeds, it gives pretty good tips for different type of running trainings.

Running speeds in VDOT are Easy, Maraton, Threshold, Interval and Repetition. From those, the separation between Interval and Repetition was not clear to me at all before this book. No it is much more obvious that those exercises and speeds are for different purposes; Intervals for training VO2Max and Repetitions are for speed and technique.

Big part of the book is also training programs. There are training programs from elite athletes to first time runners. Training programs also varies from short 800m runs all the way to marathons. So there are training programs for everybody, except for triathlons. For me the best thing about training programs was to get some good ideas what kind of exercises could be done.

From content point of view, book was excellent. It's filled with good information and ideas about running training. Then from editorial point, it was bit messy. It wasn't as easy and pleasurable to read as it could have been. I blame publishers for that one. They should have put more focus on readability.

I still recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand running training. It gives such a good information about the endurance side of running training, that it is valuable to read. It's also quite quick to read, so I recommend to get it in to your hands and at least scim it through.

This review was originally published in my blog here

[Lüc Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daniels is a genius. At times almost a little too smart. I do not recommend this book to anyone who's never run at least a 50 mile week at one point or another. Most of his techniques don't apply to people not hoping to qualify for the Olympics.
His methods are cutting edge (especially 30 years ago) and this book is a must read for anyone who spends a great deal of their life in their running shoes.

[Dylan Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book about training I've ever read and it will influence how I run for years to come.

[Joseph Siefers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Done them all...Hansons, Pfitzinger, etc. The Daniels 2Q marathon plan is the right fit for me (your mileage may vary).

The 2Q method is wonderful and roughly follows the 80% easy 20% hard rule of thumb (which in my opinion is a far more sustainable way to train). I love how each Q is unique (some have a long warmup, others short, some marathon pace Qs have a break roughly halfway, others don't, tempo Qs sometimes have rests, other times, recovery intervals). With Hansons and Pfitzinger you were basically running the same quality runs every week, just progressively longer and longer, which gets monotonous. Another interesting feature of some Qs is that the warmup and cooldown on intervals was REALLY LONG (11 total miles on my level). What would normally have been a really short but fast run turns into more of a long run. I think forcing your body into a depleted state with intervals and then following up with a long easy run is a great way to elicit positive adaptations.

One final note is that I think 2Q is more flexible for busy people. With Hansons, I basically had no choice with scheduling because I had to get 3 hard runs in per week. If I moved anything around I wouldn't have enough time to recover. 2Q means I can do my long Q run on Saturday or Sunday, and then I have a choice of Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday for the other Q, with still plenty of time to recover for the next weekend Q in any case. If you're going to be away for the weekend and don't have time for a Q, you can even plan ahead and run the weekend Q on Friday morning, then do easy short runs on the weekend.

[Fernando Hisi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bem prático, mais pra aplicar do que pra ler mesmo. Um monte de formula cabulosa de performance, vdot e vomax e o caramba, mas a maneira que ele trata corrida é bem interessante. Esquema de 2 treinos de qualidade por semana e o resto vc preenche com treino leve no tempo que vc tem. Quem sabe um dia dê pra seguir...

[Mark Law · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good tips but I had higher hopes. I appreciate the scientific approach, but sometimes felt the discussion was in place just to talk about the science, rather than enhance the author's premise. A nice structural change would be a bullet point "need to know" at the end of each chapter to reinforce the important points or lessons in that chapter.

[Brian Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many people, I got into running earlier this year during the covid lockdown.

I'd run previously, so I wasn't entirely new. But my last extended bout with running was 5 years ago. Since then, I've run on and off a little bit but I've never been able to sustain things.

This frustrated me somewhat, because I've previously trained up to running a half marathon. That was six years ago, when I was 30, and I just haven't been able to repeat that success. Every time I started running, I'd either get injured, busy, or disinterested.

I managed to keep going from April through the summer, and I was beginning to feel like I was back "in shape." But I wanted to know more about the science of running the philosophy of training. That's where Jack Daniels' Running Formula comes in.

While the running plans in the book were well beyond my ability at the time, the science and philosophy in the book is relevant for every runner. The book tries to strike a balance between scientific detail and simplicity. I think it errs a bit on the side of detail, but it doesn't go overboard. You can skim through some of the more technical sections if you get bored.

But the training philosophy sections are laid out perfectly. Rather than prescribe a set plan for everyone, Jack Daniels describes the philosophy behind his plans and his different workouts. Then, he provides a sampling of workouts that would help build a plan. Finally, while there are some general plans sketched out in the book, he leaves it up to you to piece it together.

The other extremely helpful tool in the book is the VDOT charts. Jack Daniels training system is based on understanding your level of fitness and then choosing training paces and intensities based on that. The charts make it easy to take a recent race performance or time trial, determine equivalent race performances, and identify target training paces. As I transitioned from "getting back into running" to "becoming a better runner," this was immensely helpful.

After reading the book, I feel like I understand the science of running and training a lot better. If you're interested in a synopsis of this, I've written about it on my blog. I used it to develop a training block for myself over the winter, and hopefully it will help me improve my 5k.

As I've read some other books on training, I realize there are some shortcomings to Jack Daniels approach. To some extent, it's "one size fits all," and it depends a lot on VO2 max and measuring intensities against VO2 max. If you're already at an elite level, a more nuanced approach may be helpful to individualizing your training.

But at the end of the day, the training plans and philosophy in this book will be a huge benefit to any novice or intermediate runner. And if necessary, you can tweak the plan a bit to fit your individual needs.

I think this book is perfect for the intermediate runner who is looking to go from "just running" to "training." But the book is certainly still helpful and insightful for beginner and advanced runners as well.

[Peter Bergmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read for learning how and why to train as a runner. Whether you're going for a 5K or marathon PR, this book should be your go-to resource. It does a really good job of explaining the science behind different pace zones and how long you should train at each, which many books try but do not do well. My one caveat is that if you're completely new to running, the training plans might not be quite as geared towards what you might need but if you've run a few races and run consistently for a year or more, I'd guess you would find the advice more applicable. I'd do research on which edition you purchase because it seems like they do end up differing more than I expected (I read the Third Edition) and I recommend buying a physical copy. I read it on my Kindle but I'll purchase a physical copy to keep after finishing the Kindle version.

[Polina S · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a good book for the beginner. Gives you understanding why you need to run low intensive long runs and how to mix it with high intensive. Gives you that base in understanding you need if you were not much into sport in your childhood. For experienced runners it won’t be helpful

[Neko]

read it to one-up adam >:)
kinda interesting sciencey stuff
i think ill stick to 10" easy runs tho

[Igor Flysta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, but not for beginners.

[Hoàng · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phân tích chi tiết và kỹ thuật sâu đến đối tượng giáo án, các thể loại sự kiện đua, cách vận hành công thức đo lường thể trạng: VO2max.
Phù hợp đối tượng đã chạy bộ lâu năm, xem để đánh giá lại hoặc huấn luyện lại cho người mới.

[Luis Ferrao · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 estrelas. Livro dedicado aos amantes da corrida de todas as distâncias.

Composto por vários capítulos e com muito detalhe científico. A escrita é densa e nem sempre permite a fluidez na leitura. Ler a versão original em inglês não recomendada a quem não dominar bem o idioma.

Composto por duas grandes partes. A primeira explicando a fórmula que o autor - afamado treinador americano - desenvolveu para treino de atletas com a explicação detalhada de uma série de conceitos e factores intrínsecos e extrínsecos. A segunda com a transposição dessa teoria para planos de treino.

Leitura altamente recomendada para quem procura melhorar ou aumentar ambição nas suas corridas em tempo e distância.

[Vasilis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way the book is written is very easy to follow and use. I think it's a great helper for anyone who is serious about his training. Now it's time to apply the VDOT values in the road and see if the training programs of the book do make a difference in marathon!

[Hexar Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my entire view on what running training should look like - and it flies in the face of my preconceptions that I've held ever since I started running. The first and most important thing I learned is that I've been running entirely too fast for the majority of my runs - when in fact, you obtain the greatest benefit for the lowest risk when you run pretty slowly (easy pace) for the majority of your runs. The second is that I should be running much more than twice a week - ideally 5 runs per week.

The main reason, in my mind, why this book is called Daniel's Running Formula, is that you can use a recent race result to find a VDOT number which is basically an assessment of current running fitness, and this number shows not only your predicted mile time, but a predicted 5k, 10k, half-marathon, or even marathon race time. And more importantly, based on this VDOT number, you can come up with a good plan for training for any race distance, split into four training phases.

In 2017, I'm planning to do a better job of training for my annual race relay, as well as possibly do another half-marathon, and I have a feeling I'm going to be referring to this book again and again to develop my training plan - and hopefully improve my VDOT in the process.

[Adrienne Twain-witton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too complicated for its own good

There are a ton of variations on plans in the book, but strangely, they still seem inflexible. The plans are geared toward people who do nothing but run. I currently log 40 miles a week, crammed in around work, school, and raising a family. The marathon plans in this book wouldn't work for me - 7 days running, two massive long runs a week, and lots of charts to figure everything out (even mileage) yourself. I think the "plans" are written to be so complicated that you go in the website and pay $70 for someone to sort it out for you.

[Steven Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bible of running. I am subscribed to the V Dot O2 app/website for adaptive coaching, which is a training program based on Dr Daniel's work. The app is based on his principles and gives me a convenient and appropriate weekly schedule of workouts.

This book is the foundation for the training mentioned above, and if one is great with a spreadsheet, they could use this book alone to structure a workout program that involves easy tempo, repetition, interval paces.

I will re-read this excellent book. It's a winner.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

He could have put the “slower paced” VDOT table in the same chart as the original one instead of having a whole section about how running’s gotten more popular amongst the plebs and they are slow 💀

[Quinten Selhorst · Rating 5 out of 5]

If u wanna up ur running game/strategy, this is your go-to book. Liked the scientific approach of his training methods in particular

[Stephen Topp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, of course, mandatory reading for anybody who wants to be serious about their running.

BUT it also drives me absolutely nuts and hits a whole bunch of pet peeves/triggers I didn't know I have.

The biggest ones:
1: It doesn't do what it says on the cover.

The book blurbs all basically indicate that this is a book oriented towards runners - they say some version of "reading this book will make you a better runner".

But this book is not written for runners. It's written for coaches. Most of the book is providing advice for a coach who is preparing for a high school or college Cross Country or Track season, with the associated variety of runners and constraints.

So for most runners who will buy a book on running - adults who run road or trail races 5k and up - much of this book is academic in nature. Reading it will inform you, and possibly help you, but the advice isn't aimed at you.

2: Jack Daniels is allergic to the use of complete words.

I'm not sure if his editor said that the book came in too long or what, but there are no easy runs, there are E runs. Interval sessions? Quality sessions? I sessions and Q sessions. Threshold runs? T runs. Long runs? L runs.

I get it when it's written on a calendar or training plan: Monday - E, 5 mi; Tuesday 9 mi, 5@T

But in a book, in seemingly the majority of sentences? "You may want to run some of your L runs at M pace" ... it's infuriating.

You have a PhD. USE YOUR WORDS.

3: Varying scientific detail

I like understanding the science behind the sport. So while it's a digression that makes no difference to the application to my training plan, I'm cool with Dr Daniels pedantically explaining the difference between VO2 max, VdotO2 max, and vVO2max. I can even be happy to suffer through pages upon pages of graphs that will have absolutely no applicability to my running ever, although in a book that uses "accessibility to the average runner" as a selling point it annoys me more than a little.

But that's VDOT talk, and Dr Daniels is all about the VDOT. Elsewhere? He repeatedly talks about "clearing lactate from the blood". Now, this is wrong - while lactate does accumulate in the blood as we engage our high twitch muscles, it has no negative effects itself. So "clearing lactate" is not a helpful biological mechanism for endurance athletes.

This mistake, in itself, doesn't bother me much. Lactate threshold work is important, and I don't need the biology to be right ...

... BUT ...

... don't go on and on being pedantic about the difference between VO2max and VDOT, only to make an error when describing the biology behind a key element of training and racing (lactate threshold) elsewhere in the same book. These things, side-by-side, look bad.

----

In the end, I'm giving this three stars.

If you coach a cross country or track team, buy this book.

If you run cross country or track, and feel your coach doesn't know what they're doing, or you need to build your own plan, or otherwise adjust your training, buy this book.

If you run road races 5k or over, this book will be useful and interesting, but I'd say that you'll get more from Pfitzinger's Faster Road Racing or Advanced Marathoning. Daniels' focus is clearly on collegiate (and high school) sport. While the popularity of road marathons means that there's a nod to road running and longer distances, you'll be better served from a book that really targets what you want to train for.

[Yuriy Bezsonov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniels' Running Formula - одна из самых известных и самых лучших книг о беге от изве��тного тренера Джека Дениэльса, часто упоминаемого спортсменами как ДД :). Я считаю что это must read для любого кто увлекается бегом - от новичка, до соревнующегося спортсмена.

Одна из важнейших концепций описанных в книге это VDOT (http://www.attackpoint.org/trainingpa...) - расчет тренировочных скоростей и планируемого время завершения дистанции на основе времени других дистанций. Т.е. если атлет пробежал забег 10 км за 43 минуты, то скорее всего при правильных тренировках от пробежит полумарафон за 1 час 35 мин или мар��фон за 3 часа 18 мин. На моем первом марафоне это предсказание было достаточно точным.

Принципы бега ДД:
- у все есть свои сильные и слабые стороны. На тренировках надо развивать слабые стороны, но забегах использовать сильные.
- будь позитивен, бывают взлеты и падения, перегруппируйся, извлеки опыт и иди дальше
- тренировочный план не догма, прислушивайся к себе
- ставь промежуточный цели, для проверки прогресса и сохранения мотивации
- тренировки должны приносить удовольствие
- кушай и спи достаточно - прирост фитнеса происходит не во время тренировки, а после
- не тренируйся когда болен или травмирован. Некоторые травмы можно "забегать", но часто это приводит к хроническим болезням и невозможности бегать.

Принципы тренировок ДД:
- тренировка это стресс, который побуждает организм адаптироваться
- специфичность - что бы лучше бегать, надо больше бегать.
- много стресса приводит к перетренированности, иногда меньше лучше. Восстановление это критичный фактор успеха, особенно для любителей.
- реакция на тренинг зависит от объема, интенсивности, частоты. Разные люди реагируют на разные стимулы по разному.
- у всех есть граница возможностей, её надо сдвигать, но не перепрыгивать через себя. После определенного порога добавление нагрузки ведет не к позитивным результатам, а к ухудшению.

И самое главное, ДД описывает все остальные компоненты, которые нужны бегуну:
- физиологию бега и беговой формы
- типы тренировок: легкий бег, интервалы, темпо, длинные тренировки
- как планировать сезон и микроциклы
- как тренироваться и примеры планов для дистанций от 800 м до марафона
- как поступать в случае травм и возвращаться в бег после перерыва.

Эта книга была и есть моей настольной многие годы. По ней я тренировался к своему первому марафону, использовал данные и принципы тренировок для подготовки к следующим марафонам.

Планы тренировок ДД могут быть сложноваты для восприятия. Например марафонская тренировка может выглядеть как:
19 миль = 3 легко + 8 марафонский темп + 1 ПАНО + 4 марафонский темп + 1 ПАНО + 1 марафонский темп + 1 легко.
Меня лично такая вариативность раздражала, но в реальности она очень полезна.

Важный нюанс - тренировочный планы ДД достаточно объемные и интенсивные и для любителя есть риск перестараться если выполнять из буква к букве. Я для себя иногда брал план в милях, а бегал в километрах. Таким образом я фактически уменьшал нагрузку в 1,6 раза и мог ей воспринять.

[Kyle Bale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in college I had my two roommates Jake and Joey relay me the sparknotes version of this book as I was preparing to run a marathon January later that year. I had been building a base of aerobic endurance the previous 6 months and was looking for some direction in my leftover training. Both gave me the basic idea, and referred me to an 18-week training plan I could jump into.

Fast forward to post-marathon, post Joey and Jake roommates (*dab*), and post-unplanned break from running (laziness), I now find myself wanting to seriously get back into running. Maybe not right back into a marathon training plan right away, but working my way towards something after re-building my base. First order of business in this context is obtaining a primary knowledge of exercise physiology and running science so I can move forward in the most intelligent way possible.

The first half of the book is focused on general running principles and observations Daniels has made over his running career. From the factors that contribute to running success to the philosophy coaches should take with their students, we get a macro-view of the sport. Towards the end, the research becomes increasingly specific to training for individual events, and is better used as a reference guide than a traditional book.

Now that I'm armed with a first-person understanding of the Daniels' Running Formula, I am even more in the camp of 'ol Jack. He did me no wrongs and propelled me to the next level when I was training for my marathon, and his teachings will guide my training for everything between my general aerobic fitness and any subsequent race from here on out. However, I don't think I'll ever be on board with treadmill running... *shivers*. A fantastic book from perhaps the world's most knowledgeable individual when it comes to the sport of running.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughts from a keen, experienced running nut:

- Daniels' training principles, explanations of types of training and intensities, and his VDOT system are top-notch. These have formed the base of all the training plans I have subsequently employed. Pfitzinger's books also draw upon Daniels' knowledge in this area.

- The short to middle distance plans (800m-10k) look more reliable than Daniels' half-marathon to marathon plans. Daniels was a successful college coach, and primarily worked with athletes at the shorter distances. The plans also feature seasonal periodisation that encompasses the typical college racing timetable.

- The half-marathon and marathon plans seem haphazard at times, as if Daniels has chucked a number of variables into a random workout generator ("Q1 = 2E + 8M +1T +4M +1T +1m +1E"... these are marathon workouts you will not find anywhere else, in any other reliable marathon plan) . Compared to Pfitz, it lacks structure and logic. This is even more evident in Daniels' 4th edition, where the chapter on half-marathons has been removed, and a generalised chapter on 15k-30k employing a pointless 'Alien program', where no workouts are dictated--Daniels instead writes "I suggest a type of workout and the runner determines the details of that training session".

I would recommend all runners to read this book. I would caution against using the marathon plans.

[Lynn]

Seems like a good overview on how to train for different race distances. I’m not expert enough to judge if Daniel’s formula is good or not.

It starts with scientific background on Vdot and vo2max that I don’t think I fully understand. I’m not sure I understand the relationship between vdot, vdotO2, vdotO2max and v at vdotO2max. I trust Daniels knows what he’s talking about but ultimately, none of this matters for what a novice I am. I’m also a bit confused by the differences between interval (I) pace and repetition (R) pace. He also randomly uses R to abbreviate race pace at one point which is confusing.

He then goes into some training philosophy that seems more geared towards professional coaches.

Then there are many sample training plans. I might try one of them out in the future. In general, my takeaway is to try to increase total miles per week with easy runs and insert 2-3 quality (Q) sessions per week. Q sessions seems to mostly be I or R intervals with rest in between or longer threshold (T) intervals that are a mile or two each with tests in between.

Overall, a good background book on how to think about training. I personally am way too novice for most of this to matter.

[Jens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: THE BEST coaching book out there. He doesn't go at length about biology or isn't as out-of-the-box as Steve Magness in the Science of Running, yet his system is very clear and easy to use. As a bonus, you have some way to determine your training load or density as opposed to simply mileage. His VDOT tables also allow to compare yourself to others over different distances and taking into account age/gender-difference. I really liked his emphasis on race results as being the driver to up your training load and not the other way around. Races are an even better indication than your speed at which you attain your VO2max. Everyone has seasonal limits, given your obligations and free-time, so you should really aim to build your training over multiple seasons. Also, thinking about your training load in minutes instead of mileage will help to design a better plan for every level, from a (self-)coaching viewpoint. Where I would use Magnes' to plan my season with phases, especially the general speed in the Base phase, the blend workouts as maintenance and the progressions to key workouts. I would rather use the volume per workout and paces from Daniels to plan my week in between those Building blocks from Magnes.