Lore of Running, 4th Edition by Timothy Noakes Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Lore of Running, 4th Edition
Book Review: Lore of Running
Summary: 5 Stars
VERY detailed and explains WHY certain training recommendations are made. I'm a physician and was surprised how technical this book was. If you are not scientifically minded, this is still a great reference, but do not plan to read this cover to cover unless you took a lot of biology in college. I have used this book for help with an injury and the recommendations and explanations seem very sound. If you are merely looking for training schedules, there are other places to find them, but this book has a wide variety of "formulas" for race preparation. For serious runners, this book is a bargain. Probably cheaper and more useful than any running shoes or other equipment you are putting on your wish list.Book Review: More info than you can shake a stick at
Summary: 5 Stars
The only downside to this book is that the amount of information is overwhelming! If you have any questions about what makes and keeps a person running, it is in here.
That said, everything is explained beautifully. The biggest benefit of this book is how simple Dr. Noakes makes these very complicated topics seem.
Book Review: Nothing like it.
Summary: 5 Stars
There's really nothing like this book in what I've seen. I'm not an ultra-long runner - in fact, I'm not even a good runner. However, this book has a deeply researched, referenced, scientific approach to exercise physiology that I've been unable to find in other literature. My science-oriented background yearns for something more than vitriol or practical advice, and this book fills that role no matter what aerobic sport you wish to pursue. Page after page reveals "aha!" moments where I find out what the various "lores" I've was brought up with have some merit, or where they fail.Book Review: Phenomenal book on running, best I've come across.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been reading about running for the past couple of years--probably more than I ought to. I came upon this book recently in the library (most of my reading is online!) and upon poring through its pages have realized that a lot of what I've read either came from this book, or this book has a lot of what I've read in it. Noakes has written this tome relying upon the best science we have for running with all of its available studies. He bases his conclusions and statements on journal articles where possible and where not does not go overboard in conjecture.
He is an accomplished marathoner and ultra marathoner and in his practice has treated a lot of runners.
Go ahead and buy any book on running. It will have a section on nutrition with the basics that we all know. Contrast with the nutrition section in this and it's actually worth reading; he spends many pages on such details as the proper sodium levels in a beverage, the amount of liquid we need to drink while exercising (not the vague catch-all of "drink as much as you sweat"). His guides on injury and footware are the best researched I've found anywhere.
This is not just the best book on running I've seen, it's the best book _by far_.
I slight this book in two areas:
1) Injury treatment seems to be really slanted substantially toward footwear and orthotics. Now, there may be a reason for that I'm not aware of, and he does give time to exercises and "holistic" approches for injury prevention, including training the hips for, say, a knee problem and not just the feet, but I would have just preferred a bit more.
2) Running technique. He describes in detail the typical heel-strike of most runners but doesn't spend much time that I have found on particulars of technique, such as possibly forefooting or midfooting. Bits and pieces are throughout the book in this, but a subsection on what is now in vogue (pose technique, chirunning, etc.) would have been nice. I don't know that it's reasonable to dismiss these simply because he feels they're useless; I feel like he missed out.
That said, I really can't stress enough how much solid, quality stuff is in this book. He's not simply taking what "everyone knows" about running and making a thousand pages out of it; he does go into meaningful detail.
Book Review: Refreshing
Summary: 5 Stars
For the serious runner this is a must. Simply open the book to any page at random and you'll not only be hooked, but also enlightened. The medical advice is excellent. All distances are in kilometers, however, so have that conversion calculator going in your head.