The Triathlete's Training Diary for Dummies

Rating:
Summary: The Triathlete's Training Diary for Dummies
Review: If watching the Ironman inspires you to get off of the couch and enter a local triathlon, make your first purchase The Triathlete's Training Diary for Dummies. The Diary is more than a training logbook - it also contains a simple, soup-to-nuts guide that will show you how to train for, and successfully complete, that first race. As someone who has moved just beyond the novice level in the sport of triathlon, I can attest to the folly of trying to gleen information about triathlons from various articles and books that are all too often geared for the mature racer. The Diary would have made that first race sooooo much easier!

Experienced triathletes will likely be familiar with all of the training and racing information in the Diary. As for the logbook portion of the Diary, my only compliant is that it does not contain a section for weekly/year-to-date totals - which are very helpful in determining training progress as well as giving one a sense of satisfaction as to what has been accomplished during the course of a year.

Rating:
Summary: A good training diary, but not a thorough triathlon guide.
Review: The Triathlete's Training Diary for Dummies is a good book for getting someone in shape for a triathlon, but not necessarily completely prepared for one. The book does give a 12-week training plan that splits the workouts between distance, sprints, and weight training but does not specify how much time should be spent on each of the three sports. For instance, I could follow the entire training plan without setting foot in a pool or on a bike. The training plan also does not specify practicing more than one sport during a workout, so you may not be prepared for the difficult bike to run transition.

Also- be prepared that well over 50% of the book is blank training diary pages. Although the book has good information it does not answer many of a first-timers questions that could be covered with more text and less blank pages.

Overall I would say the book is worth the money if you would like a training diary with a few pages of helpful hints on triathlons. It's a great way to log your workouts in an organized format that lets you see your progress over time.