Jack Daniels has been called the world's best running coach. Although there are others who might challenge him for that title, he certainly is one of the best. Thankfully, Coach Daniels is willing to share his knowledge with the public and has published his Daniels' Running Formula, now in its second edition.

Many runners shopping for running books tend to go right to the training plans. Don't do that with this book, you will miss too much valuable information. In fact, the format used for the training plans in this second edition make them difficult to follow for someone who hasn't read the earlier chapters. Unlike other books, Coach Daniels doesn't detail what to run on each day of each week. Instead he describes the key workouts of each week and provides some guidance as to how to fit them in and what to do in between. Most importantly, he describes the underlying logic for the training plans and provides techniques for modifying them for each individual's needs. This is critical. Few runners will find a training plan in print that is ideal for them. A runner needs an understanding of training fundamentals along with an intimate knowledge of what works for them. Jack Daniels can't provide you with that intimate knowledge of what works for you, but he can provide you with the understanding of training fundamentals.

Probably the most well know element of Daniels' Training Formula are the VDOT tables and the Training Intensity tables. These two tables are used to guide runners to their optimal training speeds for various workouts. Soon after you start to use this book you may find it opens to these to tables all by itself.

The second edition of Daniels' Training Formula includes some valuable additions along with some unfortunate typos and layout errors. The most glaring layout error concerns the header of the Training Intensity table. It is easy to recognize the error, but for those who want to know, the headers of the table on page 55 should be the same as those on page 53. Unfortunately, there are a few other minor errors. This is too bad for a book with such quality content, and the editors at Human Kinetics should be spanked. (We are sure there are no typos or grammatical errors on this site, so nobody need volunteer to spank the editor of competitiverunner.com.)

In this second edition, Jack Daniels provides an interesting discussion of Training Points, which is a way to assign points to various intensity zones. They idea being that 60 minutes at a recovery pace (R) might stress us as much as 10 minutes at interval pace (I). The accompanying table gives us the data necessary to make this comparison and to track Training Points along with training time and training miles.

Other important additions to this second edition include a chapter on marathon pace training, a whole section on training for fitness (including a chapter for people who are just starting to train for the first time), a chapter dedicated to 800 meter training and racing, and a chapter for cross country training and racing.

Readers of the first edition of the Daniels' Running Formula will also notice that daily training plans have been replaced with a table of quality workouts (Q1 through Q3). This makes it much harder to simply pickup the book and follow a training plan without first reading the rest of the book. Generally, this is a good change: one should not follow a training plan without understanding how the various elements contribute to the overall success of the plan.

Even though this book has a chapter for new runners, this book is best suited to competitors. Runners with some experience who want to race and racers who are trying to take their racing to the next level will find this book invaluable.

My family members are always finding this book on the kitchen counter. No matter how frequently I put it away, I always pull it out again. But then, it is a "handbook" and handbooks are meant to be a constant source of reference. The Competitive Runner's Handbook covers all aspects of training (from the basics to interval and tempo training), training schedules, and race strategies. It discusses mental preparation, running form, running shoes, nutrition, and injuries.

Because this book is so comprehensive, it is sometimes thin in some specific areas. For example, the chapter on injuries provides only an overview of the common injuries with most injuries getting little more than a quarter to a half page of coverage.

At 650+ pages, including all the tables, this book is a lot to read. But you will probably end up reading it cover-to-cover only once, and from then on you will read bits and pieces here and there as necessary.

If you only want to buy one book on running, this is the book you should buy.

When I first read Explosive Running I sometimes thought Dr. Yessis was a nut and I sometimes thought he was a genius. Lately, I've been thinking that he is much more genius than nut. Explosive Running provides an extremely valuable analysis of running form. Most people just go out the door and run without thinking about how our skeletal frame, joints, muscles, and tendons all work together. If you read this book, that will change. Dr. Yessis picks apart running kinesiology and supports the descriptive narrative with hundreds of photographs. The photographs would be much more convincing, however, if the runners were identified; who are those guys anyway and are they really great runners. The photographs are also somewhat blurred and in a couple instances contradict the narrative.

After discussing running form, Dr. Yessis gets more controversial. The chapter on stretching starts with a four-page rant against static stretching. His opinion...static stretches are worthless at best and harmful at worst. Accordingly, he promotes active stretches. I agree, before a run replace the traditional static stretches with the active stretches he describes. But after a run, when the muscles are fully warmed up, static stretches can still be appropriate.

The next two chapters cover strength exercises and "explosive running" exercises. This is one of the only books I have been able to find that describes strength exercises that are specific to runners and how each exercise helps a specific aspect of your stride. There is also a chapter on nutrition, but my favorite chapter is the one on barefoot running. This is the chapter that made me think Dr. Yessis was a nut upon first reading. Since then, however, I have done additional research and have consequently added in some barefoot running to my training schedule. (Warning, do this very gradually or risk injury!) It has most definitely made a difference in the efficiency of my stride.

One final warning: if you do decide to follow the Dr. Yessis method, you should make changes to your stride and training program gradually. A gradual change will help prevent injury.

The easiest training programs in this book start at about 30 miles per week and peak at 55 miles per week. You will also find three programs that peak at 70 miles per week and three that peak at over 90 miles. So, as the title says, this is a book for Advanced Marathoning.

That is not to say that a beginner would not benefit by reading this book...I think they would. That is, they would benefit if they wanted to know how to structure a marathon training program, rather than to simply follow one prescribed by some other source. Before detailing any of the training programs, Advanced Marathoning explains each core aspect of the training program and why various aspects are included at each stage. In short, this book will give you the knowledge you need to design your own training program if you can't or don't want to follow the prescribed training programs. And that is what makes this a great book.

When I'm training for a marathon, this is another book that never manages to leave my kitchen counter. In addition to providing well thought-out schedules, it contains a wealth of information relative to all aspects of competitive training and racing.

If you are new to marathoning or returning after some time off, this might be the book for you. You won't get as much detail or supporting theory as provided by Pfitzinger and Douglas in Advanced Marathoning, but you get the basics. You also get a laid back apporach to preparing for and running a marathon.

The book is well written, covers all the basics, and provides a number of sample training plans.