Runningmonkeys

Daniels’ Running Formula Proven Programs 800m to the marathon 2nd edition  (2005)

Jack Daniels, PHD (World’s best running coach)

Human Kinetics

284 pages black and white photographs, graphs and tables

My Score 8 out of 10

This has had to be one of the most useful general running texts I have ever read.  Jack Daniels has been around, training runners for a long time and his experience shows through even more with this second edition of his classic book. 

More than just a book full of programs (as you might guess from the sub title) it contains valuable theory and training science.  In fact it isn’t until after half way that we see the first actual training program.  Up until then he writes about the various different focuses of a balanced training program and what they are designed to achieve. 

He details 5 different levels of training. These are Base, marathon pace, threshold, interval and repetition training. He is usually very precise about exactly what he means by a term or a particular workout, in contrast to many authors who seem to hide behind well known but often misunderstood jargon.

I think the most valuable part of the whole book is his original concept of VDOT.  This is his way of portraying either the condition of a runner or the intensity of a workout in a way that really makes practical sense to me.  This is the bit that is missing from so many running manuals.  How hard and fast should I really be training in this particular workout, given the level I am at today?  VDOT helps us to answer this question and keeps us from doing anything less than (or more than) optimal training over a variety of conditions.  I got my moneys worth with interest as soon as I understood this VDOT concept.  I wish more runners could have this VDOT concept go to work for them because if nothing else it is an extremely useful language to describe our condition and our workouts.   

The programs in the second half of the book are well written and easy to follow.  They seem logical based on the science behind them.  The training program that I am currently running to is a modified marathon program from this very book.

My only criticism of the book is that the index in the back could have been more thorough, but maybe that is just me being picky. 

All in all, I think you are missing out if you haven’t read and re-read this book yet.  Books are only tools on your way to running excellence, but if you use this particular tool I believe that you will definitely benefit.

To see other reviews of the book or to buy it at a discount price, click on the Amazon link below and you will go directly to the Daniels’Running Formula at their online store.