Lace up you shoes and let’s go!

This is the best and most complete book on running since Jim Fixx’s mammothly successful book 25 years ago. What I like best about the Glover’s book is that it has something in it for every runner, from the casual jogger to an elite marathoner. Each chapter focuses on a special area of the sport: injuries, mileage, women’s running, seniors, masters runners, even children developing into competitive athletes. The title is instructive: there is an emphasis on competitive running, with the focus primarily in 10K road races to the marathon. Several of the elite and most...

All questions answered!

This book leaves nothing to the imagination! What I also really liked is that it doesn’t assume anything about you – if it’s advice that is more directed to one type of athlete vs. another, it lets you know which, so you’re not being led astray by advice better suited for someone else. It’s perfectly organized, so that it’s easy to quickly find information that you want now, has a chart that ranks your present performance so you know how you fare against other runners in your age, and gives advice based on where YOU are at specifically, not...

Serious recreation runners won’t find a better book

So the book is a little long, and at times a little wordy. But it’s jam packed with excellent, up-to-date, useful information. I have a library of 20 running books and I’ve read them all. But this is the one I keep coming back to. I’ve dog-eared key pages, underlined key passages, and colored edges of key pages that I keep coming back to. This book gives me the how, where, and why for training for the various road races I run, especially marathons. I’ve completely read and thoroughly studied marathon books by Daniels, by Bakoulis Bloch, by Pfitzinger and...

This book feels like it’s personalized for you

Bob Glover and his wife, Shelly, have a style that I find particularly endearing, they write in a manner that makes you feel they are addressing you personally rather than a general readership. Glover seems to know exactly what you would ask if he were your personal coach. He provides training schedules, information on running shoes, nutrition, pre-race nerves, race strategy etc. If you are less competitive and race just to improve your times but not to win races or age groups, there is plenty that speaks to you in this book. Similarly, this book is great if you are highly ...

A Great Reference Book for runners abilities

This book covers everything with regards to training, equipment, nutrition, and crosstraining for everything from running the 5K race to the  marathon. The language is very simple to understand, and provides useful  charts with regards to times in age-class groups, and how they would rank  in a field of runners, from your back of the pack runners to your elite runner. It also accounts for clothing, warming up, cooling down, and everything  imaginable related to running. If you don’t have a coach, or can’t afford one, this is  probably your best alternative in terms of...

Returning to Racing?

Let’s forget that this book is a huge bestseller in the running market. Lots of running books are more hype than content, or only regurgatate what last month’s “Runner’s World” has said, and sell just as well. However, “The Competitive Runner’s Handbook” is informative, thorough and engaging. Returning to racing after some fifteen years of basic jogging, I needed a book that took my knowledge seriously. Glover and camp give hard-core, nuts and bolts info. They’ve provided for the various levels of fitness. I’m not going...

Excellent book filled with lots of helpful tips!

This book starts off by breaking runners into categories from Novice to Elite. There are 7 categories (further broken down by age groups and gender), and any recent race time (from 5k all the way to marathon) can be used to help you find out where you fit. Glover explains the different training concepts to help you improve your times. He goes into a lot of detail about all of the important topics. He gives weekly mileage guidelines, talks about maintaining a running base (what % of your weekly mileage should be used as a base), and what paces you should be training at based on your...