January Book Review Finally finished...

One of my goals this year is to read a book (non-fiction) a month. Which isn't a problem if I focus on one book at a time, but I had three going at once. Regardless, I finally FINISHED my first book. The book was called, "The Runners Complete Guide to Running." Here is my brief review:

There was a lot of sound advice in this book that I took away from the reading. Two particular workouts stuck out:

Sprint workouts are important... In order to increase your speed over a long period of time, you should complete a speed workout a week during your training. (I already knew this, but I couldn't figure out how to determine what kind of speed workout to do), for marathon training, repeat 800's is helpful. Bart Yoos suggests starting with four 800's and adding an additional 800 each week' and then tapering off at 3 weeks before your race. Whatever your goal finish time is for your marathon, should be your time for your 800. Example, if your marathon goal time is 3 hours and 45 minutes (3:45) then you should complete each 800 for this workout in 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Fool proof, and actually works.

Another workout that I liked, that should be done on rest or off days is an embedded circuit training. Many runners don't lift writs and they should. There was a very specific workout listed... 2 miles of warming up, 12 lifting exercises (mostly upper body, but a w lower body) one set, with 30 seconds of stationary bike, or jump rope between each lift and then a 2-3 mile cool down. Because I have a pretty strong weight lifting background, this was fairly easy. However, I did this workout yesterday, and my calves are killing me. Then I realized it was because of the 6 minutes (total) of jumping rope!!

There were a lot of beginner runner tips that were really helpful in the book... How to select shoes, and gear, how to prep for a race, and even a chapter on women runners.

The only disappointment was that most of the training suggestions were for a marathon. I ran a marathon a few years ago, and well, it's not for me, ... at least not right now. I was hoping to get some training advice for a half marathon. Maybe I could just taper each of the training regiments, or find another book. Overall, it was very informative. And I recommend it for beginning runners and those who are interested in marathons.