Road Racing for Serious Runners (Paperback)

~ Peter Pfitzinger (Author), (Author) "It's fair for you to ask at the outset why you should read this book..." (more)
Key Phrases: pure endurance training, key workouts for the week, two important workouts, Basic Week, Properly Structuring, Bill Rodgers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

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""Grounded in impeccable exercise science, this book nonetheless retains a warm, conversational tone that encourages runners of all levels of ability to keep reading beyond their specific areas of interest. The material is extremely well-organized, with charts, schedules, and checklists guiding the runner in organizing her or his training. Beyond just giving instructions, the book imparts knowledge and wisdom, teaching the performance-oriented runner to think rather than just do.""
Gordon Bakoulis
Editor-in-Chief
Running Times

""This book provides an excellent, comprehensive look at training for competitive long-distance racing. Coaches and athletes can use this book as an outline to prepare for competitive racing. It helps remove guesswork since it contains information on all variables affecting successful racing-from human physiology to actual nuts and bolts workouts.""
Mark Conover
1988 Olympic Trials Marathon Champion
Cross-country and Track Coach, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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Product Description

Improve your racing performance through multispeed training! Whether your distance is 5K, marathon, or anything in-between, this book tells you how to train smarter and run faster. Pete Pfitzinger—a world-class marathoner, distance running coach, and exercise physiologist—teams up with former Running Times editor Scott Douglas to teach you how to

• design a week-by-week training program,

• determine the right pace to run during speed workouts,

• get the most out of long runs,

• taper training before an important race,

• detect and avoid staleness and injury,

• determine the best strategy for each race, and

• achieve the optimal mental state to train and race.

Included with each of five training schedules are racing tactics, mental tips, and lessons from world-class runners. Whatever distance you plan to race, Road Racing for Serious Runners will guide you to peak performance!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics; 1 edition (October 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880118180
• ISBN-13: 978-0880118187
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #73,582 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Train smarter, train easier, June 21, 2002

By	Ed Fager (Kernersville, NC USA) - See all my reviews

Pfitzinger's book finally delivers on what I always want from a book on a complex subject, simple explanations and simple solutions. Why write 800 pages when 188 will suffice. If you are only looking to train for 5K's then you can skip the section on 10K and marathon training and get even more concise explanations. This book gives short, simple explanations to the key elements of a training program. We now know everything we need to know about VO2 max and lactate threshold training, their relative importance, how to improve them and how to incorporate them into your training program. Pete indirectly points out how most of us are doing no lactate threshold training (by running most of our daily runs to slow) and doing all of our interval work to fast. I recommend this book to anyone looking to improve his or her racing times.

I would also suggest buying "Daniels Running Formula". I bought it last summer and my 5K's times went down from 19:40 to 18:50. I bought "Road Racing for Serious Runners" to basically get a second opinion on Daniel's theories. Actually these are not opinions or theories. These are time-tested methods back by sound science. I'm 43 years old and I'm living proof that random training will yield random results. Both Pfitzinger and Jack Daniels book will eliminate the "lets try this" approach to training. Both books cover the same topics and both authors come up with the basically the same training program. Daniels book breaks his schedule into 4 six-week phases while Pfitzinger has a 10-week and an 11 phase. When you look at both plans it becomes obvious and almost laughable on how easy it is to improve on your racing times (and in my case actually cut back on the training intensity).

I would buy both books so you can really feel good about your new training methods. Pete's book is simpler and has separate schedules for some of us low 20-40 mile per week folks. Daniels book has slightly more science and covers more topics. Daniels also has been around longer and has trained more athletes. There are only a few contradictions in Pete's book. He states on page 21 that your volume of Vo2 max workouts (your hard intervals) should be 1 workout per week with a total distance covered of 4 to 8K with the possibility of adding a second lower volume session each week. This corresponds with Daniels book where he has 2 Vo2 max sessions each week (or 1 Vo2 Max and a race). But when you get to the detailed 5K schedules for the 20-40 miles per week you only see 6 Vo2 max workouts scheduled in 21 weeks, despite them being listed as the number one priority. Also only 5 threshold workouts are scheduled in the last 11 weeks for the 20-40 mile schedule. I guess Pete is no dummy. He knows that Bill Rodgers may not use his book and that it will be geared towards people like me. He knows that I'm going to sneak in a combination of ten 5K and 8K races this fall before I attempt to peak in early December. The Daniels book just encourages it and has those realities clearly shown on the schedules. Just buy both books, start training smarter and in some cases a little easier. I've bought bad unhealthy lunches for [PRICE]. If you run this will be the best [PRICE} you will ever spend.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb running/training reference, February 16, 2000

By	John Kondogonis (Australia) - See all my reviews

This book is an excellent training manual. It focuses on specific training for specific events (from 5 Km to the marathon) and gives you remarkably predicatable results regardless of your level. I tried a couple of the programs because I was skeptical. The results that they promised were too good to be true given the little amount of training needed. I succeeded every time. I am amazed at how little is required to achieve a goal if you focus on the correct principles at the correct times. The book also gives a detailed background on the training methods and scientific principles involved so you are not just following a training 'recipe' without understanding it. I have been running for many years and didn't think I could run faster. This book has shown me how to do it and also, how to do it with far less effort! This is by far the best running/training manual that I have read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious, Smart Training, October 3, 2000

By	james f. mcgrath (oak park, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Along with Jack Daniel's Running Formula, this book is the best of its kind. It shows you the right way to train and tells you how to do it. This book is great for a beginner as well as an advanced runner. the training programs are easy to understand and they work, whether you race a 5K or marathon. It explains the right pace to use for each workout, whether it be an easy day or speed session. If you want better race times, read this book and train the right way. Use this book as your running bible.