Becoming a better runner takes more than just putting in miles of varying intensities on the roads, paths, or trails.  Sure, you can follow a stock training plan from the likes of Hal Higdon and make significant improvements in your race performance over time.  However, every runner is different, with varying physical attributes and histories that provide for general strengths and weaknesses; truly maximizing your performance involves understanding yourself and finding training approaches that best suit your unique challenges and advantages.  This, in turn, requires study of various disciplines related to running, including physiology.

I’m ashamed to admit that I have been delinquent in such pursuits during the first 20+ (on and off) years of my own running.  However, I’ve taken steps to rectify that the past three months, and, when aspiring to do so, the best place to start seemed to be with one of the acknowledged authorities of the field, coach Jack Daniels, PhD, via his Daniels’ Running Formula – 2nd Edition.  I read much of this book on flights two and from Portland, and it is interesting enough that I could fight off the double-tendency to fall asleep while flying and reading. While there are a few fair criticisms of Dr. Daniels’ approaches, which I’ve come to appreciate a bit more having gone through over a month of injury recovery, there is little doubt that this book provides a solid foundation for understanding more about the nature of the runner, and how to improve performance.

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One of Dr. Daniels’ strengths is his background as a professor of exercise psychology, and this shines through in the first chapters one and especially two.  Dr. Daniels discusses the physiological attributes that dictate a runner’s potential performance, and defines the aspects of training approaches that address each of these attributes.  So, for example, he discusses the nature of of the cardiovascular system and how long easy runs best target improvements in your blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity, or how tempo runs help increase your lactate threshold.  Now don’t get me wrong here – other authors also cover such topics, but Dr. Daniels provides the in-depth physiological analysis that justifies his arguments for specific training approaches.  This can get a bit technical and difficult to follow at times, but is well worth taking the time to understand – even if he later in the book provides a simpler model for understanding how to establish training objectives.

It is chapter three where Dr. Daniels discusses what may be his biggest contribution to the field of knowledge about running and simplifies all of the physiology he has discussed in the first two chapter of the book into a single number – your VDOT.  VDOT reportedly stands for the beginning of “V-dot-O2 max”, or V̇O₂max, which Daniels and other coaches cite as the key factor in determining your race capabilities at any given point in time.  To perform a true V̇O₂max requires equipment well beyond the reach of most recreational runners, so Dr. Daniels has developed a system whereby using a recent race result of any distance, you can determine a “score” that helps define your target training times (as well as predicts other race results based on your current fitness, and assuming you have trained sufficiently for a race of that distance).  It is the discussion of VDOT and how to use it in your training, that is the most valuable chapter of this book from a practical perspective.  Note that a handy VDOT calculator can be found online as well, but by using this you miss out on some of the background on why VDOT matters and how to adjust your VDOT in light of time off from running (like I will have to do – from my late December VDOT of 54).

In the next several chapters, Dr. Daniels delves into each type of training he discusses in chapter two and describes how to apply them to your program, and what portion of your overall weekly mileage they should make up.  Such training sessions include, in order of reducing distance and increasing intensity, easy (E), marathon pace (M), threshold (T), interval (I), and repetition (R) runs.  These sections are very useful for those who want to design their own programs or make modifications to existing stock training routines.  Furthermore, the discussions of the various workout types provide some insights that may impact your view of such workouts as Yasso 800′s – Daniels seems to recommend against them for most runner, arguing that it takes two minutes to reach the right HR to improve your V̇O₂max, and thus, if you run 3:00 800′s, you waste two-thirds of your interval time just getting to the appropriate level of exertion.  He thus advocates doing fewer but longer intervals lasting around 5:00 which, depending on your speed, means something between 1200m and 1600m.  Dr. Daniels also discusses “supplemental training” in a dedicated chapter, reviewing ideas for stretching and strengthening exercises, emphasizing their potential value for injury prevention while arguing they hold little direct benefit for runners (other than perhaps enabling you to run greater mileage injury-free).

Two chapters are devoted to base-building (of four different levels) and race strategies – the book can probably do without the latter, though you may find some helpful tips on selecting races and setting goals, as well as mental tricks or mantras to help you focus on gaining satisfaction from your race.  Finally, Dr. Daniels provides training plans for races ranging from the 800m to the marathon, and in each case there are a couple of different levels available.  For example, for the marathon, he has an “A” program for those targeting improved performance and reaching new personal bests, and “Elite” program for, well, elites, and a “just finish” (I’m paraphrasing here) program for those looking to, well, finish.

Now for a few criticisms of the book.  The first is a practical matter – I had the Kindle version and the tables ranged between difficult and impossible to read. In fact, the “A” program for marathon training, which I would have been most interested in, was nowhere to be found.  Maybe these technical glitches have been noticed because when I checked just this week, the Kindle edition did not seem to be available any more (does that make my “copy” more valuable as a “limited edition”?).  Therefore, I’d definitely recommend the paperback edition, as this is the kind of book you’ll want to dog-ear and pull out frequently to look up tables or specific discussion points on different types of training runs.

As far as content and approaches are concerned, Dr. Daniels’ background as a college cross-country and track coach certainly colors his view of training programs.  First, he is used to working with younger runners who have greater durability than those of us over 30 (fine, 35) who need to exercise a bit more caution and balance between pushing ourselves and recovering.  This is reflected most significantly in his view on how to manage injuries – if it feels better when you run, then keep running.  This may be appropriate for a college athlete with a finite time horizon (the track season, leading up to a league championship, for example) but is not necessarily wise for those who are running “for the long haul”.  But it also inhibits his discussion of “supplemental training,” and it is easy to see he views this as a necessary evil at best, something that should not come at the expense of mileage.  For many runners, this is a tradeoff that does need more closely considered.  Dr. Daniels emphasizes his desire to provide programs that help you avoid injury, but the specific approaches in this book seem best suite for those not particularly injury-prone – the young and already-well-trained.

This background also raises the third concern about the book, at least from a marathoner’s perspective – it is too broad in its scope to provide solid marathon-specific advice.  To just have one “A” program that is scaleable from half-marathon to marathon-level training seems an example of vast overreach in the name of convenience.  Additionally, other coaches such as Mr. Pfitzinger would argue that Dr. Daniels places too much emphasis on V̇O₂max improvement through interval training, which Mr. Pritzinger argues is somewhere around priority #5 for the marathoner.

Despite these limitations, Daniels’ Running Formula is a worthwhile read for nearly any type of runner, as few authors explain the physiology behind improving your running performance like Dr. Daniels can.  That being said, if you are more of a recreational runner as opposed to a college athlete, and focused primarily on half- or full-marathons as your goal races, and face limited time with which to study this great sport, the next book I review, Advanced Marathoning – 2nd Edition by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas, may be your better option.

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Tags: book, intervals, mental, purpose, Training

Posted in Books
5 Comments Posted by Greg