The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer
by David Whitsett, Forrest Dolgener, Tanjala Kole
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Book Reviews of The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer
Book Review: Great marathon trainer for us mortals!
Summary: 4 Stars
Three years ago I purchased this book from Amazon.com to help improve my daily runs. Sure, the goal of running a marathon sounded tempting to me, but I wasn't ready to commit to it yet. This book helped me determine the right type of shoes to buy for my foot type, has a detailed stretching routine, and has plenty of good tips on nutrition for runners as well as the physiology of running. I also used some of the mental techniques described in the book to help me perform better in my daily runs.
This summer, 2006, I decided to commit to the Helsinki City Marathon and I followed the training program in this book. I also used it to mentally prepare myself for the challenge by using some of the "associative thinking" techniques described in the book. I successfully ran the Helsinki City Marathon this year in 4 hours and 43 mins. Not only did this book help me prepare for the marathon, it helped me have fun with it!
I enjoyed following this book because it appealed to both my scienitific side and my emotional side. The discussions about psychology and physiology were interesting and, for the most part, beneficial to my training and final performance in the marathon. The inspirational stories from the class participants appealed to my emotional side and made me feel that success was well within my grasp.
Although I highly recommend this book, I do think it has a few things about it that detracted from the overall quality of the writing:
1) I was unimpressed by the spiritual discussions that came up in the book from time to time. If you are Christian, you may find these fit in with your faith and enjoy them. Without meaning offense to anyone's faith, I would say that from my agnostic standpoint, I found them to be rather pointless. The authors discuss an "internal locus of control" so much that to put God into the picture (an external locus of control) seems to diminish the great HUMAN achievement it is to run a marathon. These spiritual discussion are VERY rare, however, so if you are not fond of them, you can skip them without harming your progress in the marathon training.
2) The authors put so much emphasis on "associative mental techniques" to get you through the marathon, but the discussion overemphasized this one style of mental training. This type of mental disciplining worked great at some points in the training runs, especially when things were going rough, but dissociative mental techniques can be just as helpful for getting through the training too. You don't always need to be thinking about your running form, or your breathing, or trying to tell yourself that your knee pain just "doesn't matter" while you're running. Planning your daughter's birthday party can be an effective method to get through your run as well. I think the book emphasizes the associative thinking at the expense of diminishing the dissociative techniques. I personally found that a combination of the two methods worked best for me. In their defense, the authors do state that you should use what methods work best for you, but it would have been encouraging to read more about using a combination of both methods.
3) There were typos and spelling mistakes! Not that this will interfere with your training, but it still irked me. It's not the fault of the authors, but a problem I have with their publishing company. How could they let so many errors slip through?
These issues were very small for me, however, and I still greatly enjoyed the book. Before I purchased the book I never dreamed of calling myself a marathon runner, since I had never even run 5K before buying the book. But now, I am very happy to call myself a marathon runner, with special thanks to the authors of this book.
Book Review: Running a marathon is the best idea you've ever had
Summary: 4 Stars
If you read this review then you've probably thought that hey, you too could run a marathon. Let me congratulate you, this is the best idea you've ever had! I ran my first marathon in May 2002 and it has literally made me a different person. I know now that whenever I set my mind to something, I can do it, and marathon training has provided me with the self-discipline and self-confidence that I didn't have before. Want to lose 20 pounds or grow big biceps? No problem, just do it! This is the lesson I've learned from marathoning, nothing else really comes close to this experience.
Now when I've hopefully reinforced your idea, you need a training manual. I had several books at my disposal when I was training, all with slightly different marathon training programs, here's the list (in the order of increasing difficulty of the program)
"The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" by David Whitsett
"4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon" by Dave Kuehls
"Galloway's Book on Running" by Jeff Galloway
"Competitive Runner's Handbook" by Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover
I believe the first two in this list to be good for first-time marathoners. "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" has the easiest program mileage-wise, if you have never run before then this is probably most suitable for you. However, I ended up using the "4 Months" book as the primary source myself for the following reasons.
1) Information was easier to find in "4 Months". It was very convenient to carry around with me and I could QUICKLY find all relevant information while the other books had too much "fluff" in them.
2) "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" emphasizes on every step how their primary goal is not competitiveness but safety and the author discourages you from setting a time goal. If you don't feel competitive at all and just want to finish a marathon, it's perfectly fine and "Non-Runner's" is a great book for you. However, I have always been a competitive person in my life, so "4 Months" suited me better.
3) The weekly long runs in "Non-Runner's" go up to 18 miles. Now this lets you finish the marathon but I feel that a longer run would be better for two reasons.
First, the harder you train, the easier the marathon itself is. My personal training program was relatively hard and it required great effort to complete it. However, running the marathon itself was really surprisingly easy and I could handily beat the four hour mark. There's nothing wrong with an easier training program but I promise you that the more you've trained, the more you will enjoy the race.
Second, many scientists believe that human body is capable of doing whatever it has done before plus about 10%. "4 Months" follows this idea and the longest run there is 24 miles. At the same time "Non-Runner's" has 18 miles as the longest run and then focuses on "beating the wall" i.e. a point of exhaustion that you're supposed to hit at around 20 miles (notice how this is approximately 10% more than 18). My longest run was 24 miles and there was no wall when I raced! Your own experience may vary but longer runs do help you greatly.
These are the reasons why I'm giving "Non-Runner's" just 4 stars. Now don't get me wrong, it's a great book and it does help you run a marathon (which is the greatest thing you'll ever do!) but I feel that for some people other books would be more suitable.
Anyway, whichever book you get, good luck with your first marathon!!
Book Review: Very Motivational
Summary: 4 Stars
There are multiple books on the market for beginning marathon runners. I suspect many, if not most, people compulsive and movitivated enough to train for a marathon will sample more than one of them. I personally think this is wise, as each one I have read has a bit of a different perspective and different strengths.
The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer is very strong on motivation. The authors were college psychology professors, and they focus way more on the mental aspect of running long distances than any of the other 'how to run a marathon' books I have seen. I would rate that as a strong point. The book is also interesting in that it gives in depth quotes from the students who were training - their insights as beginners were very helpful and motivational.
Some of the other books available have different strengths. Some highlight health benefits of running, others focus more on improving as a runner, achieving better times, etc.
My only real complaint - and that is perhaps too strong a word - with the book is that it uses a 16 week training plan that is basically a straight progression on weekly long runs, starting with 5 miles and max'ing out at 18 miles at week 13, before the final taper. A few weeks repeat the previous week's mileage, but it is basically a straight march upwards. Most other training plans that I have seen use some sort of variation of a '2 step forward, 1 step backward' approach - in other words, for example, they will progress from 12 to 14 mile long runs, then back down to 8 or 10 miles the following week, before progressing again. The advantage of such a staggered approach is that it gives the body, and mind, a bit more recovery time. I suppose the straight progression of miles must work for most people, but I have personally found, in my 50 year old body, that I really need more time before ratcheting up the mileage. Both Hal Higdon and John 'The Penguin' Bingham present plans for beginners where there is an easy week thrown in every 2 or 3 weeks - their systems work better for me.
One aspect of The Non-Runner's Trainer that I really liked was a preliminary training chart for complete non-runners. Before entering into the actual marathon plan, the authors request that you be able to jog non-stop for 30 minutes. Most complete beginners will not be able to do that, so the book presents a preliminary 10 step training program that starts off with a simple walking pace 3 days a week, then very gradually and methodically works up to a 30 minute jog. I found this plan to be excellent and I have recommended it to numerous non-exercising friends, even those with no desire to run a marathon.
In summary, I agree with most other reviewers that this is an excellent, very motivational book for beginners wanting to run a marathon. But, at least for me, and perhaps other older runners, choosing a slightly different training plan that occasionally backs off on weekly long run mileage might be a good idea. There are numerous other books that offer such programs, and they can be easily incorporated into the framework of this book. I don't think any of these books are mutually exclusive. Such plans are also freely available online. I have recommended this book to numerous friends and, with the exception of my comments above, I recommend it to you.
Best wishes to everyone in their marathon quests!
Book Review: The program works! What more can you ask?
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished my first marathon (the Midsouth Marathon in Arkansas) 2 days ago using the program outlined in this book. For about the past 15 years or so, it has been a goal of mine to train for and run a marathon, but I never got close enough in my training to ever even make an attempt. I always thought that I would need at least a year to build up to it and that I would have to reach and maintain mileages in excess of 60+ miles per week before I would be ready. According to this book, all you need are 16 weeks (assuming you can already do an uninterrupted 30-minute jog) and 4 days a week of training. The emphasis is on one long run per week, with the other shorter runs serving mostly just to maintain your fitness level between the weekly long runs. The training peaks at a weekly mileage of 36 miles, held for 2 weeks before tapering off to much lower levels in the two weeks prior to the marathon.I definitely had my doubts throughout the program. My longest runs prior to that had been 10-milers, and it had taken me about 5 months to even get up to that. I couldn't see myself ever being able to get beyond that in just a few weeks. When I finally did reach 18 miles, I was quite impressed with myself, but it was such an ordeal, I couldn't imagine myself ever going as far as 20, even walking the last two miles. My last 18-miler was so bad, I had to do a lot of walking at the end and even had to sit for several minutes. It seemed I was getting worse rather than better, and then I had to begin doing the taper. During that period, I could actually feel myself getting out of shape and putting on weight. I believed that the marathon would be impossible, and that even 18 miles would no longer be possible. Amazingly, I did it. The taper did a lot to heal my aching joints and blisters, and apparently the little running I did was enough to maintain my fitness level. I don't want to downplay the difficulty of the race. It was long and grueling, and up until about mile #22 I was convinced there was no way I would make it to the end. But I did. My time was not impressive, but I never hit the wall, and some of my training runs had actually been worse and had taken longer to recover from.
The book definitely deserves 5 stars. It worked. No other running book has ever helped me as much. I was a little disappointed at how short it was. I would have preferred a much longer book, brimming over with several hundred pages of supplemental material. After all, if you're referring to it for 4 months, it would be nice to always have lots of fresh material to read, rather than constantly going back and rereading everything, since you can easily get through all the material in your first week. Also, I found it interesting that the book never once mentions pulse monitors. I monitored my heartrate religiously while training and during the marathon. I found this to be extremely helpful in pacing myself, and I'm not sure I could have made it through the program without doing this. Nevertheless, the book does what it sets out to do (at least for me). It got me through my first marathon!
Book Review: Promises more than it should?
Summary: 2 Stars
The premise of this book is that virtually anyone can finish a marathon by following this four month schedule. The book is based on the authors' experiences teaching a 4-month long "Marathon class" at a university on several occasions. The authors assert that only ONE person out of 200 who have taken the class failed to complete a marathon (allowed himself to get dehydrated.) I'm wondering if there is a hidden stat here not revealed--how many people dropped out of the class because of injury or exhaustion? As an "adult onset athlete" who began getting serious about exercise a little less than two years ago, I'd have to say this book, for all of its inspiring promises, doesn't jibe with my experience. The authors suggest that even completely out of shape people who have never run (like myself) can get up to a base level of fitness in just a month. Sounds like a good way to court injury and failure to me. For sedentary people, a good month of rigorous exercise short of running would be a smart start, followed by a very gradual walk/run program, until you can run 3 miles a few months down the road. Anything faster is courting injury.
I finished my first 20k a few weeks ago, about a year and a half after beginning my running program. Along the way I dealt with the usual--shin splints, runner's knee, and the warning signs of IT band syndrome. All of these things were the result of pushing myself too far, too fast, but I was able to overcome each by taking a step back in training, finding alternative exercises and moving forward. However, if I had started the program this book suggests one month after I started running, I KNOW I would not have been able to complete it. Bodies need time to strengthen themselves. Cardio fitness comes quickly, but the muscles and bones just can't keep up with that pace.
I'm now beginning my first marathon training, and have found much of the advice in this book--especially what it has to say about the mental game--very useful. It offers a moderate program--just 4 days a week of running--which also makes sense for a novice runner.
But if you are a sedentary person, and are picking up this book as a way to jump start a fitness program, I'd suggest you start more slowly, and get a good year's base of consistent fitness efforts before setting out on a program like this. Yes, I'm sure there ARE people out there who jumped right into marathon training and managed to succeed, but why risk jeopardizing your new-found commitment to exercise, by launching into a program that may defeat your goal by bringing on injury? If your goal is commiting to a new fit lifestyle, there are plenty of other goals you can set to get you started--a first 5k and a first 10k are achievements a new runner can be just as proud of.
Here are a few titles I have found useful, and a bit more realistic: "Real Exercise for Real People" by Peter and Lorna Francis," and "Marathoning for Mortals" by John Bingham and Jenny Hadfield.