Athletics Books

This is really a fine histury of the 1936 Olympics in addition to a review of Jesse Owens career leading to the Olympics. This should be required reading for all of the current sports writers and editors. it should be read especially by those that thought that Clay was even close to being the outstanding athlete of the century. It would be a five star book if the author hadn't inserted some of his personal biasis.

We ordered this work for our grandson who was doing a school project on Owens. The text captured his interest and proved a helpful source for his sixth grade research project.

Here we have a mostly victorious investigation into Jesse Owens' historic performance at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany. The story is hugely inspiring and all readers will become fans of Owens for both his athletic prowess and his personal qualities. Jeremy Schaap untangles the pervasive racial politics surrounding this historical episode, as both the Americans and Germans badly over-interpreted and exploited (in many different ways) the presence of Owens and his black teammates at the Olympic games that Hitler tried to turn into a showcase for his regime's hateful ideas of Aryan superiority. Schaap also untangles the legends of Hitler's apparent refusal to personally meet with Owens, which may have been a more complex situation than the simplistic racial snub that historians have assumed in the decades since.

But despite the inspiration offered by Owens and the exciting coverage of his many victories, this book suffers from some serious underlying problems. Most important is Schaap's use of invented dialogue and fanciful constructions of inner thoughts. The Notes section proves Schaap's diligent and frequent use of authentic sources for real historical events and occasional direct quotes, but citations are suspiciously rare for conversations between the persons covered and their supposed inner decision making. One especially worrisome example is the episode in which Owens decided not to show his coach a telegram he had received from the NAACP, in which Schaap gives no sources for Jesse's internal thoughts as presented in the book. Meanwhile, Schaap apparently couldn't decide if the book should be a biography of Owens or a historical account of the 1936 Olympics, leading to an inconsistent timeline, tiresome tangents into related events (like the petty parliamentary struggles surrounding an American movement to boycott the Games), and gaps in the thematic explorations of Owens' true influence on the issues of his day and on the future of sports. Regardless, Jesse Owens shines through for the reader, but Schaap's inability to avoid some of the weaknesses of standard sports reporting leaves the reader wanting more of the man who made history. [~doomsdayer520~]

Take a trip back to the days of World War II in this historical account of Jesse Owens and his trip to the Berlin Olympics.

Very good history lesson. The book flows well and gives a good account of what America and the world was like during Mr. Owen's life. Would encourage the reading of Triumph

This book, if you really read and reflect on it in depth, will deepen and enhance the way you look at the world fundamentally, not only in sports but in all areas of life. There are hundreds of insights here into all types, strengths and weaknesses, preferences, tendencies. *Note: Readers should realize many insights and tips are spread over the various sports' sections, so one should read the commentaries on *all* the different sports, i.e. read the golf and diving sections even if you don't play golf or dive, because there are likely major tips that apply to every aspect of life. I've read this book up and down and continue to refer to it again and again. I find myself watching sports on TV and identifying all the players' types pretty easily.

This is a fascinating book. Jonathan attempts to tie physiology to principles that have been discussed for years as being psychological. It can be liberating to know that people are not being difficult, but they are the way they are because of their "hard wiring" which causes them to see the world differently. One problem is the self testing for brain typing. It can be tricky to pick the correct type even when you've been as honest as you can with the questions. It can also influence your expectations for children's development. This is a seminal work that needs to be developed further by the scientific community.

Jon's book and research, have proven, time and time again, that determining and understanding a person's brain type gives you a great advantage in understanding your own behavior, and the behavior of others. Instead of always wondering why people are the way they are, or, as many do, trying to change the basic behavior of another person, you gain insight on how that person's mind and view of life work. And as you coach, manage and work with others, you can encourage them in area's of strength, or preference, base on their unique braintype.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding and misinformation in the understanding, and utilization, of the Myers-Briggs model. Jon's braintype model helps to clarify, scientifically, what is really going on, inside that mind.

I am a student of this book; and have used it extensively in my coaching and business career. It is one of the best investments a person can make in helping them understand themselves; and others....

Daniel Dyk, ISTJ

Although Mr. Niednagel wants us to believe that the product he is pitching, Brain Typing, is scientifically based, it is really nothing more than just another weary entry from the productive and fertile field of pseudoscience. He uses anecdotes and testimonials to pitch his product with absolutely zero controlled studies that even hint at its effectiveness. The irony of using athletes to promote his product is the common knowledge of athletic superstition.

He has every right to sell a product that relies on the expectations, dreams, and wishes of the buyer. This is what American commerce is all about. But, pleeeese!! Don't try to tell us it has any relationship to real science.

The author is, in my opinion, a lot better at self-promoting than he is at Typing celebrities. The guy made a splash by (in all likelihood) Typing two football players correctly, Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf, when there was tons of dollars on the line. Unfortunately, this single success is being parlayed into a non-scientific snake-oil salesmanship. Better yet: his line of reckless conjecturism is taking the once scientific field of MBTI into the realm of phrenology. Great. Nothing could discredit Isabel Myers-Briggs and David Keirsey's studies more quickly. (though, truth be told, the Keirseys have been getting a lot heavier into pure conjecture lately, and offer less and less empirical backing)
What is even more disturbing, if you check the author's website, is his alarming tendency towards an elitist (and often radically errant. IMO) Typing of US presidents. Apparently, this author maintains, on pure conjecture of course, that only ENTs can ascend to the presidency. Thus does he mis-Type (and now for my own conjectures, which i can back up at least as credibly as this author) ISFJ GW Bush as an ENTJ; thus does he mis-Type ESFP Bill Clinton as an ENTJ; thus does he mis-Type ENFP Ronald Reagan also as an ENTJ. You see a lot of "ENTJs" in his findings, right? (I am betting the author is an ENT himself. Naturally.) Anyway, such purely conjectural favoritism, in addition to resurrecting a kind of phrenology, is, I'm afraid, because the author is also putting forth a form of "Master Racism/Typism" agenda. Very worrisome, should some psychological Hitler ever come along. Think about it.
Of course, a lot of ENTs do indeed circulate in the halls of US leadership--they just should not be confused with the theatrical muppets we call presidents: indeed, those darned NT mystery men are often found hovering around our presidents, in the form of what may be called "The Establishment." You know, the Cheneys and the Rumsfelds and the Brzyzinskis--these guys may indeed be the braintrusts of NT power that the author thinks he is seeing when he looks at the bogus media image that the Establishment and the controlled major media gives to clear-cut Sensors like Bush and Clinton (clear cut when you study their previous actions and speeches, not just the scripted answers these Sensor presidents read to scripted questions by the major media). Anyway, if this guy who sells himself so well can be so duped by the media image of a man, I wouldn't trust much of any of his conjectures.

Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook: 1998-1999 by Chris Dortch braks down all the NCAA top level basketball teams, and looks at the year before. It gives information on positions for players, likely minutes, depth, possible performance and a lot of other information you wouldn't find anywhere else in one source. A top notch work.

I have been buying Blue Ribbon since it was first published. I have every issue and refer to them quite often. Blue Ribbon is by far the "best" college basketball reference guide available. I am a Kentuckian, by birth, an avid UK and college basketball fan!! This "reference" book is a "must have" item for all college basketball fanatics!!!! Go "Blue Ribbon" and go "Cats"!!

I have also bought this book for the last several years and was extremely disappointed that the TOP 44 high school profiles was deleted. That section was the major reason I enjoyed the book - to be able to know the stars of the future. I didn't buy the 2001-02 edition and probably will not in the future.

Blue Ribbon remains the best preview of college basketball in existence. It has comprehensive, well written reviews of every team in Division I, with detailed analysis on every player. However, it has gone downhill this year because it omits the section on high school players, which was always fascinating. In my case, it was often the first way I heard about the future stars of the game. In addition, Blue Ribbon appears to have eliminated its early season update and the NCAA tournament preview (written after Selection Sunday and delivered by Wednesday), both of which were excellent. Nonetheless, if I bought only one basketball publication per year, this would still be the one.

I have gotten this book every year for a while now, but this years edition was terrible because it did NOT have the recruiting profiles of the Top 44 as they have and years past and that they CLAIM they do now.

The book "The Lion in Autumn:A Season with Joe Paterno and Penn State Football" is a good book to be read by a Penn State football fan. The book takes you through the Nittany Lions 2004 season where they finished the disapointing season at 4-7. The book travels through the rough season with an inside look at Penn State football. Week by week the book takes you in depth into what happened during the 2004 season. The book goes in chronological order game after game with recollections of Nittany Lion football pasts along the way. At the end of the book there is an afterword about the Lions next season whre they went 11-1 and finished 3rd in the country. I recommend "The Lion In Autumn" to any Penn State football fan who is looking for something to read.

I thought the book was very good. Would recommend it to Penn State fans as well as any other football fans.

One of the great joys of Penn State football fandom is reading books about Coach Paterno and his program. As both a fan and a reader, any disappointment I had with this one was chiefly due to the limited access given to the author. After a nine-loss season in 2003 that marked the nadir of precipitous competitive slide, and an increasing number of off-field incidents, Coach Paterno was understandably guarded -- even abandoning a longstanding tradition of meeting with reporters over cocktails the night before game day. (Stiffing reporters in this fashion was probably an unwise political move that helped to contribute to the "JoePa Must Go" sentiment.)

What then is a writer to do? One approach could have been to chronicle the growing division within the Penn State community -- former players, alumni, students, and the media -- over the tough times in Happy Valley, using a few colorful and outspoken characters as a catalyst for that division.

Instead, Mr. Fitzpatrick delivers a fairly straightforward chronicle of the 2005 season's aspirations and disappointments. He does an adept job for those readers who may not be familiar with the programs history, but for those readers who are the chapters on glories past provide no new insight and interrupts the narrative of the current season.

Penn State's decline was primarily attributable to lackluster recruiting that produced players unable to compete effectively in the Big Ten, and Mr. Fitzpatrick is spot on when he writes that Paterno was mindful of this: "Other teams had more talent than Penn State. But to admit that too often in public was to demean his players.... [He] understood that the quickest solution to the Nittany Lions' troubles would be to search harder and more selectively for talent." (p. 287)

Once again, Coach Paterno's refusal to publicly contemplate life after football is highlighted, where is prospective retirement activity has changed over the years from collecting stamps to cutting grass. With the almost immediate death of Alabama's Bear Bryant after his retirement, Mr. Paterno is quite candid about his deep seated fears: "I'm alive. I don't want to die. Football keeps me alive." (p. 276) This outlook is quite tragic and perplexing, given his successes off the field as an educator, philanthropist, community leader and family patriarch.

In short, this volume does not quite rise to the level of incisiveness of Ken Denlinger's "For the Glory" or Coach Paterno's decades-old autobiography, which is in desperate need of an update. But it reads quickly and provides and admirable journalistic account of Happy Valley's darkest days in the Paterno era.

I just finished the book a couple of days ago and as it settled it my mind, two impressions came over me.

One is that there is a big part of Joe Paterno who still feels deep inside that he is not as good as his rich college classmates at Brown and how he has to prove to them that he belongs.

The second is that while Saint Joepa Paterno can talk all he wants about the excesses in college athletics, he is not willing to forgo any of the excesses that reward him. You don't see him turning away any of the huge salaries or the other luxuries, do you.

Paterno comes across as a control freak, if he is trying to prepare his players and assistant coaches for the outside world, why does he restrict acccess to them so tightly.

I am a big sports fan of college and pro sports but I have major issues with people glorifying coaches the way they do. They are just athletic coaches. They are not helping solve the problems of the world, just entertainers.

Joepa also comes across as humorless, a man who takes himself way too seriously.

It is a shame that Fitzpatrick was denied access to so many sources. It would have been interesting to find out why Joepa's son is unwilling or able to get a job on his own instead of depending on Daddy.

As noted above, Joepa was influenced greatly by his days at Brown. I would have loved to learn how in the world an Italian kid from Brooklynin the 40s made it to the Ivy League.

This is not a puff piece on the man, that is a great accomplishment by the author.

I hesitated picking up this book because even though it was published only one year ago, it is arguably outdated since Penn State football finally bounced back and had a very good year. That said, I am glad I read it because the book goes beyond the marketed "A Season with Penn State" storyline and provides a very good historical synopsis of Joe Paterno and his role in the history of college football.

Since Paterno has been around so long, people tend to forget his importance in the development of college football. Once he retires, he will undoubtedly be remembered in the same breath as Bear Bryant, Knute Rockne, Daryl Royal, Bud Wilkinson and the other Legends (with a capital "L") of college football.

This book provides interesting insights into his personal history and the development of Penn State University, which Paterno literally transformed from a backwater agricultural school into a well-known and successful state school. I doubt any coach in college sports history has been more important to his school's development than Paterno has been to Penn State.

The parts about the actual season are fairly boring, since PSU was horrible the year Fitzpatrick followed them but it is worth picking up if you are a fan of college football history.

This book is key in begining a triathlon lifestyle. The calculations that are required for the year-round training program seem labourous but once you get started, it is well worth your time. The section on bike maintenance is simple and includes most everything to make you feel like you've been doing the sport for years. Great!

I am a previous distance runner (high school and college) who also enjoys mountain biking and recreational swimming. I have never competed in a triathalon before. For a beginner, this book focused too much on the technical aspects of training for professional triathletes.

Much of the book focused on complex training cycles and tracking methods. I had hoped to see recommended programs for beginners, such as base level resistance training to increase muscle tone and endurance, and base level cardiovascular workouts, followed by guidance for moving to the next level.

I also would have liked a listing of organizations in my area that organize triathalons.

For the most part, this book assumes the reader is already familiar with triathalons and training. I would recommend beginners look elsewhere.

This was the first book I owned on the subject and could not believe the amount of training that the authors recommended one need do to finishi a triathlon. Given that the book is a bit old, I believe that these recommendations are a sign of those times. Nowadays, people know that one can do very well at the sport of triathlon on significantly less training, and I point the interested reader in the direction of books such as "Time-saving ..." and Sleamaker's "SERIOUS Training...". These books are equally scientific, but do not put as much emphasis on having to cover so many miles, but rather inform you on how to spend whatever time you actually have to train.

I would not recommend this book to a newcomer, nor to a seasoned triathlete anymore, but a few years ago I might have...

This is a good book for everyone thinking about triathlons. It offers good advice on choosing equipment, techniques and training programs.
Instead of relying on distance, its programs focus on time and percentage. Since biking encompasses usually 50% of the race, training should focus 50% on biking (unless you're very weak in one of the other legs).

It offers sample worksheets to set up your own program, based on the type of triathlon-sprint to Ironman.

I'm a new transition to triathlons. This book works well for me because I'm prepared to accept the information the book has to offer. The information is objective and the training methods presented appear well organized with technical reasoning backing up the new concepts I learned here. I feel the author is genuinely concerned about the readers success and therefore disagree with other reviewers comments' that the there is too much (unnecessary) training. My thoughts on this matter are that Triathletes need a sufficient amount of training to efficiently compete and I think once again the author backs up the reasons why the training is important . My interpretation of the general training outline presented is that this will prepare one well for the stresses of half ironman competition, but one can adjust up or down from there to suit their racing needs. For a 1994 copyright, this book is well worth the money because the facts, figures, and methods being used appear to be genuine by even today's standards. If you wish to find something exactly for you please visit your local full service health club and pay several hundred dollars for a genuine taylored plan, this is a serious statement for those being extremely serious about this sport. But for the novice like me, this book tells me everything I need to know at this point. See you on the course friends...

This is perhaps my all-time favorite book. The concepts and exercises will help you with every area in your life where you want to accomplish a goal. As a musician I found it to be wonderful and refreshing. It goes right along with "The Inner Game of Music'" and "A Soprano on her Head." Replacing the sports performance scenes with musical performing situations is a no-brainer. It's incredibly helpful to us performers who tend to be very down on ourselves and notoriously dim about mindset, self-talk, etc..

This IS a book for novices. True Taoists would just have a copy of the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching and draw their own answers through introspection of these two primary documents. While I had hoped that this book would provide something of substance, the whole of the book can literally be summed up with, "Visualize how you want things to be and it will be so. Center. Take five easy breathes. Act as if and it will be so." The authors say this in EVERY chapter and with every chapter being template formatted to this mantra it gets VERY repetitive and exhausting. I cannot believe they got 300 pages out of the same text...

I also have trouble believing that the worldclass athletes alluded to within this book are so undisciplined that they need the simple affirmations provided to open their eyes to their true potential, especially martial artists. The affirmations provided get so much to the point of comedy that it is best to ignore them as you push through the book. (They reminded me of the Saturday Night Live skit, "I'm okay and I like me.")

This is a New Age book, not an enlightening text. (Though I acknowledge that once you decide to become enlightened, you are.) If you are an advanced athlete who understands even the basics of Taoism and how it can be applied to ALL ASPECTS of your life, this IS NOT a book for you.

Thinking Body, Dancing Mind: Taosports for Extraordinary Performance in Athletics, Business, and Life

ANNOTATION
Written by a sports psychologist and a renowned T'ai Chi master, here is a guide to enriching all of life's pursuits through the practice of its simple mental tools and wisdom. Using stories of success from athletes and businesspeople, the authors present techniques and exercises to promote relaxation and enhance performance.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Why fight your way to the top when you can rise to it? Let go of the obsession to win - and you will be victorious. Acknowledge your vulnerabilities - and turn them into strengths. Find the courage to risk failure - and begin your journey to success.
That is the secret of the TaoAthlete, and in this remarkable book t'ai chi expert Chugliange Al Huang and renowned professional and Olympic sports psychologist Jerry Lynch teach you the time honored principles of successful performance - whether on the playing field, in the office, or in your relationships. By mastering the unique strategies and mental exercises of the TaoAthlete, you'll unlock the extraordinary powers of body, mind, and spirit that will lead you to victory in any field of endeavor.

I am in graduate school for Sports Psychology and this book hits at the heart of what works for athletes. This is an Eastern-thinking text, so if you do not agree with that philosophy, you will not like this book.
Not only can this book be a reference for the athlete, it is also a reference book for living. I love this book.

This book addresses most of the stumbling blocks many athletes encounter in their quest for excellence. It then suggests specific guidelines for achieving not only performance excellence but also an internal sense of calm and satisfaction with the effort and accomplishment.
The format is succinct and easily used as a reference when specific concepts need to be reviewed. It is not a deeply theoretical book. Rather, it is a very practical and, in my experience, highly effective friend. It has totally changed my approach to my sport (and to my life) with wonderful results.

This book essentially eliminates wasted training in favor of higher intensity, shorter and less frequent workouts. A shorter high intensity work out is the best way to improve actual performance and doing the "junk miles" or LSD just wastes time and energy. This allows more time for recovery and focuses your training time on the developing the speed and intensity you will use in racing. Makes a lot of sense and I'm integrating it in my training plans with good success. I liked his statement that a "recovery run" is an oxymoron - go for a bike ride or swim instead. A very worthwhile book for anyone serious about improving with increased efficiency.

After reading reviews that stated this book was simple to use and had specific examples, I couldn't wait to receive it. I really need time saving training methods and hoped this book would offer solutions. What I found was the usual confusing information on VO2 max, heart rate and other measurements that needed to be taken before you could move on to what you could do to train efficiently in less time. I tried to skip all that and move ahead to the meat of the book and found that pretty confusing too. If I had enough time to read and comprehend this book, I wouldn't need it...I would spend the time training. I am going to give Mark Allen's new book about the same topic a try.

After reading reviews that stated this book was simple to use and had specific examples, I couldn't wait to receive it. I really need time saving training methods and hoped this book would offer solutions. What I found was the usual confusing information on VO2 max, heart rate and other measurements that needed to be taken before you could move on to what you could do to train efficiently in less time. I tried to skip all that and move ahead to the meat of the book and found that pretty confusing too. If I had enough time to read and comprehend this book, I wouldn't need it...I would spend the time training. I am going to give Mark Allen's new book about the same topic a try.

While this material might not be ideal for most beginners, once you've been training for a while, it will be an invaluable addition to your training regimine.

The principles can be utilized and easily expanded to cover 1/2 and Full Ironman programs -- weekdays stay the same, just extend the long weekend workouts and you're all set!

There are better books for beginners (I used Triathlon 101 by John Mora, which I found perfect for my first race), but when you're ready to focus on improving performance instead of simply finishing, this book can help you get to that next level. He explains the technical details, but then generally summarizes in layman's terms. He encourages technical training aids like heart rate monitoring, but also proposes lower-tech ways of estimating. At the end of the day, however, if you want to improve and have a limited time budget, you've got to be organized and be willing to structure your training for greater intensity. It's not easy and it's not going to hold your hand; it is focused on performance

Very helpful book... gives a great overview of the basics, as well as some more specific stuff. Could use some updating, but on the whole a great resource.

This is an excellent book for new and experienced coaches alike. The technical knowledge is great and very understandable.

Although this book has some helpful information, overall I do not feel that it is ideal for a typical high school track program (in Iowa). There is only information on 300m hurdles, not run in Iowa; we run the 400m hurdles in high school. Also the majority of high schools here do not begin track until February or March, and the training schedule in the book is for a much longer season and seems to be geared more for the college level.

I found this book to be a valuable resource. I don't like that coach Wallace offers for you to email him for additional info - and when you do, he doesn't reply. Take the offer out of the book then.

There are wonderful gems of wisdom in this coaching manual. I adapted the information in it to start up a grammar school track and field program and we were highly successful in our first season! Coach Wallace gives you the benefits of his 30+ years coaching and it greatly reduced the learning curve for me. This is especially useful for coaches starting up programs on a "shoestring" budget with less-than-optimal facilities. I would highly recommend it to any track and field coach.

I found the book to be a good reference, but I wish I had a later revision.

This was a very useful book when I bought it in 1999 to pick a marathon for 2000. Now, given how many marathons have changed their routes, increased their support, cancelled, etc., it's become outdated. I don't think there's a new edition out yet--I wish there was.

...now it is seriously out-of-date. It reviews the 1998 and 1999 calendar years. Without an update by the authors it is, for all intents and purposes, useless.

I really do hope the authors get someone to publish an update, because it was (as the authors rightfully state) the ultimate guide back in 1997 - 1999. A shame.

This book provides useful information to those new to the marathon game. While it is not a training guide, it does provide a comparative listing of the most popular marathons in the U.S. and Canada, including course descriptions, logistics, local hotels, and area attractions. Particularly useful is the 1 - 10+ rating system which includes Course Beauty, Difficulty, Race Organization, Crowd Support, and Appropriateness for First Timers. While this system is purely an objective one based on the opinions of the authors, I have found them to be "dead on". My only complaint is that while this book claims the be the "Ultimate Guide", it omits most of the smaller marathons, concentrating on the bigger and more popular races. Overall, this guide is well worth the price.

"The Ultimate Guide to Marathons" is an excellent marathon resource for runners. This second edition was published in 1998 with information current up through 2000. A runner using this book as a guide needs to know that in five years a lot can change for a given marathon. A good example of this is the poorly managed Lakeshore Marathon in Chicago which recently had an issue of the course being measured incorrectly and being a mile too long. Information like this would be critical in any new edition of "The Ultimate Guide to Marathons". However, if you are able to accept this potential shortcoming of slightly out of date information and use this book as exactly what the title says, a "guide", then any runner can find a lot of value in this book.

This book ranks 110 marathons from across the United States and bases the rankings on such categories as fan support, race organization, course beauty, course difficulty, and how appropriate the race is for a first time marathon runner. The description of each of the 110 marathons includes sections on the history of the race, the race course itself, what sort of awards and accommodations there are, and other details about the race. This is excellent information. While every major marathon in the country is included in these rankings (as of 1998), there are also quite a few small marathons that make the list. As a Minnesotan I was pleased to see that all four Minnesota Marathons were included (Twin Cities, Grandma's, Med City, Walker North Country) and was surprised by Med City and Walker North Country because these are small marathons. W.N.C. in particular is a trail marathon and trail races are included and ranked right along with the big ones like Boston and New York City.

There is also a listing of approximately another 50 marathons that are typically smaller than the ones included in the ranking, and are "destination marathons", but as one that I recognized (Marathon to Marathon in Iowa) is not really a destination most people would want to go to, my guess is that these are just marathons that the authors were not able to fit into their ranking and that they ran out of time to get them included. I may be wrong about that, though. Either way, it is nice to see such a listing of marathons. I am aware of other regional marathons that were not included, but I do not know when these marathons were founded.

While the information provided in this book is several years out of date, the rankings and descriptions can be used as a guide to see if this is a marathon you are interested in running. If so, I would then recommend looking online at the race's website or perhaps finding another online marathon guide to see if there are any changes or significant drops in runner participation. But this book can be used as an excellent guide to get marathon ideas and if most major marathons are not changing their course or management you can expect that the rankings would stay fairly consistent overall. That makes me happy because Minnesota had the number 2 (Twin Cities, behind only Big Sur) and the number 13 (Grandma's) marathons according to these rankings.

-Joe Sherry

Excellent book! He takes Triathlete coach Joe Friel's training principles, plus those of running coach legend Jack Daniels, combines them beautifully, and takes them even a little deeper. Very helpful/informative on many levels.

I read a lot of running books but for me, this is the best. It's an easy read with a lot of useful training tips. His exercises have really helped me. I've been suffering for 2 years with groin/hip pain and have spent a small fortune on doctors to no avail. The exercises and training plans in this book have got me back running, pain-free. I run by myself so having a good training plan and "virtual coach" has been great. I think you'll find something helpful for your running in this book.

I do love this book. It articulates a lot of advice that I thought about in training with facts to back it up. It makes sense! I have been running for 20 years & felt somewhat stagnant in my progress to improve & this technique has moved me into a different realm of running. I feel great & attribute that to training differently by incorporating Matt Fitzgerald's "Brain Training for Runners" into my daily routine. I would definitely recommend this book for all runners from beginners to elites!

Reet

I have one question for Fitzgerald and those who rave about this book and the author's mixture of triathlete training and the proven philosophies of coach Jack Daniels: Do the great African runners (Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco) do a lot of cross training or triathlons? I think you all know the answer to that is a resounding no. They run. They run multiple times daily. They run in groups that push each other in each run. They have fun. They live and eat together. They run on dirt all the time and avoid injury. They wear light minimalistic training shoes that allow the foot to actually move and spread out properly. They run constantly on hilly or mountainous terrain. But they don't cycle, and they don't spend any time in swimming pools or the weight room at Gold's Gym. They improve their running by focusing on their running and enjoying the spirit of community competition. It is part of their culture. Americans and Europeans can't compete in the distance events because they will not train in this manner. Americans run on asphalt, generally avoid mountainous terrain, wear thick clunky shoes advertisers have convinced them are necessary to protect their heels, strike with their heels with each footstrike, and then wonder why they get hurt and aren't as fast as their international competitors.

To combine the principles of a great triathlete's training with the running philosophy of Jack Daniels may be "revolutionary" in the sense that no one has put such a combination forward promising improvement for runners, but that may be because it is a combination that overlooks the fact that the worlds best runners don't use any such training ideas. Cross-training may give a brief mental break from the demands of running, but many people run because it is the simplest and least expensive way to exercise: No gym membership needed, no bicycle equipment (big $), no need for a pool or the danger of open water swim areas, you just put on a good pair of shoes and head out the door. If cross training were the answer for major running improvement, everyone in the world would have been cross-training for decades. However, the world's best runners do very little, if any, cross training.

Days later now, and I will modify this review to say that the sections in this book about the psychology of running and how to train the brain to push through fatigue are well done, and the portions that focus on specific exercises to develop core strength are also quite useful and easily incorporated into even the least experienced runner's training. There are good sections on racing and how to prepare for competition, whether your goal is first place or a PR. These are the book's strength. I stand by my evaluation that cross training is emphasized a bit too heavily in some sections, but don't throw out the baby with the bath water, as they say, and miss the useful parts of the book because of the cross-training "revolutionary" revelations.

This book is thick and looks meaty, but half of it is comprised of training programs.

The author cites numerous "studies" but rarely, if ever, tells the reader what the names of the studies are, where they were conducted, or where the results were originally published. Simply saying "Studies show that..." or "A study done is (insert place name) revealed..." wears thin after a while. The book lacks a proper bibliography or list of references.

This author clearly has a lot of experience and wants to share evidence to support his claims. Most of the evidence is based on his personal experience or anecdotes, rather than science.

I found the book easy to read and follow, but I would have liked more evidence to support his claims.