Customer Rating:  
Summary: Great for new distance coaches
Comment:
As a multi events coach in "the old days", I have more or less had distance coaching thrust upon me by some new athletes. Jack's book was suggested by a coaching collegue and I am not disappointed. It has lots of information that I imperfectly understood. Most impressed with the idea of working EASIER/SMARTER when running too fast is actually harmful to your training goals. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Scott Glaspey, Powell River, BC Canada
Customer Rating:
Summary: A solid guide
Comment: Daniels does a good job explaining all of his different ideas: the 4 (sometimes 5) phases in a training cycle, his different intensities (easy, moderate/marathon pace, interval, rep, f pace), and includes some very detailed training programs. He has general training programs, as well as programs for the 800, 800/1500, 1500/3000, cross, 5k-15k, and three marathon programs. Throughout the book he does a good job explaining everything and though at some points it can be "scientific", nothing is over the top and can be understood by probably just about anyone. He also includes helpful sections on topics such as overtraining, supplemental training, what to do during unplanned and planned breaks from running, and race preparation. Overall this is a very thoughtful, well laid out book. However, as Daniels himself says, this is just one approach to training and while he does include detailed programs, it is best to pull ideas out of the book that work for you- you cant just superimpose all of his training ideas onto your own running plan.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent book but for the novice or beginner
Comment: I think Dr. Daniels does a fine job of explaining the purpose of each of the exercises. His explanations of the physiological and metabolic changes that each specific run and intensity is trying to accomplish is helpful for people without a medical backround. However, he definitely slants the book towards collegiate and elite level athletes. As a novice runner, I found a lot of this irrelevant. I won't be running 6-7 days a week with a wife, two small children, and a busy career. I think for the bulk of Americans who run, we run for health and fun rather than to win titles and prizes. I think there are probably 300-500 people in the USA who can really follow his top training plan. For a book with less science explanation and a more realistic training schedule, try Run Less, Run Faster by Pierce , Murr and Moss. It does touch on some of the science but nearly as in depth but I found that it was more applicable to the average American's schedule.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great running book
Comment: I'm an old, but fairly serious competitive runner. Book was great set of routines to get faster without getting injured. Not as encyclopedic as Noakes', Lore of Running, but this is the book I will use to set my training schedule.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Solid, if dry, textbook on running
Comment: 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."
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