Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although this may be the most highly-esteemed book on Amazon, my experience with it was NOT good. I was a *true* non-runner, 48, 60+ lbs overweight, and sedentary. In the beginning it was okay; I found the book challenging and inspiring, and the gentle 10-step preliminary conditioning plan worked well. I succeeded in the preliminary goal--to develop the ability to jog for 30 minutes without walking. Of course I was a bit skeptical about the steep 16-week plan to follow, but because the preliminary phase went so well, I got my doctor's approval and began the marathon training. After all, the authors say repeatedly, trust us! If all of these people can do it, you can too! One of the authors was 80 lbs above her ideal weight when she began the program, so I bought into it... if she could do it, I could too. The result was an Achilles' tendon injury that took more than 2 months recovery time, a visit to a sports injury doctor, numerous visits to a physical therapy clinic, and hundreds of dollars spent in insurance co-pays. The problem is that the authors assume that once any healthy person can jog for 30 minutes (no matter how slow) they can follow this extremely aggressive program. For me, this meant after a mere two weeks of being able to jog for 30 mins 4x / week (about 7 miles per week at my very slow pace), I was next tasked with a week of 15 miles of running--more than double the mileage! The week after that, 16 miles. There's never a break from ever-increasing distance, until after two back-to-back weeks of 36 miles each! I had to drop out of the marathon, of course, and I'm now training for a half-marathon using Galloway's run-walk-run method in Half-Marathon: You Can Do It, as well as some of the techniques from Dreyer's ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running. Things are going well now. I'm getting very fit and feel I'm on a sane, sustainable course. In addition to the furious training schedule, there are many other problems here: 1. Vital information such as strength training, nutrition, and stretching is scattered throughout the weeks, instead of at the beginning, so users aren't prepared to incorporate them from the beginning. 2. The stretching taught is old-school pre-run static stretching, when dynamic stretching, or even no stretching may be better for many runners. See Dreyer, Galloway, Mittleman, and Maffetone below for more on this matter. 3. The section on running form is a disaster. Heel-striking is actually recommended! It is simply not the way our feet are designed to run. If you doubt how insane this advice is, read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Vintage) by Chris McDougall. Or Runner's World. Or any publication with the latest research on form, feet, and shoes. Yes, in 1998, landing on your heel was conventional wisdom. But it's not wise to follow that outdated and dangerous convention now. The book is *way* overdue for a second edition, with this section completely rewritten. At best, this book is written for those from college age to maybe a decade older, who haven't been running for a few years or who may have acquired a few extra pounds, and for many of them, it is indeed a workable approach, as attested by numerous ecstatic reviews. But even for them, it is not likely the best approach for a return to an active lifestyle of injury-free running. And if you've been sedentary for a decade or more, or are more than 30 pounds overweight, or are over 35, please think VERY carefully before using this program. And if two of those conditions apply to you, you will almost certainly derive far greater benefit and enjoyment from the Galloway or Dreyer approaches above. And if all three apply to you as they did me, run! (away from this book)! ***** Update (September 5, 2010) ***** I've just finished my first half-marathon, and am now training for a full marathon. I've written a review of Galloway's book Half-Marathon: You Can Do It if you'd like more information on the approach that worked for me. I should also mention that I embarked on a weight-loss plan and dropped nearly forty pounds, which helped considerably. ***** Second Update ***** Two weeks ago (March 20, 2011) I became a marathoner. It took 18 months from the time I started running, but I did finally accomplish my goal. Two more books that helped me succeed were Stu Mittleman's Slow Burn: Burn Fat Faster By Exercising Slower and Dr. Philip Maffetone's The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing, which emphasize rebuilding the body's aerobic capacity from the ground up. Their approach is not for everyone, but they helped me cross the finish line successfully. Use your own judgment about what kind of training approach you want to take, but if you are *truly* a non-runner as I was, I urge you to please go slow, and to not over-train and risk injury.