Rating: 
Summary: Grow with Glover...buy this book!
Review: I love this book. Absolutely adore it. It has been my bible during the past year and a half of steady running improvement. I'm slowly giving away all my other running books, but this one is a keeper! Marathons, speed training, race time prediction, heart rate monitor training, master's runners, weight loss...this book has it all. There's a chapter on just about every aspect of recreational running training and competition, but the information is comprehensive and detailed. If you're just a bit beyond an absolute beginner, invest in this book. You will learn plenty now, and have more to work on over the next 2+ years.
Rating:
Summary: The Competitive Runner's Handbook: The Bestselling Guide to
Review: I read and bought more than 200 books on sports and martial arts. When I received the book and read a few hours, I told myself that I really got an "excellent" book. I can say "The Competitive Runner's Handbook: The Bestselling Guide to Running 5Ks Through Marathons" by Bog Glover, Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover is best book I have ever read. I can't believe that a book at that price could cover almost every aspect about distant running in such details. Despite having a keen interest, I am no expert in sport and definitely not in a position to say that that book outdoes all the other books on the same subject. But, as a reader with keen interest in sport, not necessarily only distant running, I couldn't find something that is lacking. If there is something I could humbly ask the authors to include, maybe a number of photos showing the posture of stride and posture of the good runners together with an analysis of the angles of body and the limbs. In fact, the authors have given a lot of description about the ideal running forms. The simplicity of use of language, a lot of valuable information and step by step programme making you feel that the authors are personally coaching you. I even promote it to some of the friends who do not have a keen interest in distant running because it is just not only for the distant runners, it is an interesting book to read. Of course, I will still buy some books by other authors. Given I could afford to buy only one book on distant running, that book is definitely my choice.
Rating: 
Summary: Good information but irritating style
Review: I read the good reviews, checked out the contents and thought this book would help me improve my running ability and race times. I have a couple of other books, mainly for beginners, but now that I was advancing, I thought I needed some 'advanced' advice. The information in this book is comprehensive and practical, with lots of explanations (both scientific and experience-wise) if you want to get to the nitty gritty of running and racing. It was really good to see plausible reasons why I had been told to do certain things or warned against others or some rationale for issues,injuries or insights I had had in my running experience. What disappoints me about the book is its style. I can understand the writer trying to give of his experience, but after a while it gets tiring to see all the 'I statements' every couple of sentences. The information seems good, but it doesn't help much if you don't want to read it or get irritated reading it. Plus, there are ALOT of repetitions, sometimes word for word, which is probably a reason why the book is so big. It gets montonous from the lack of a new point being made or the lack of diagrams to illustrate information. If you don't run at least a 9 min/mile pace as yet, you will feel left out reading this book. Some may say it wasn't meant for slow runners in the first place, but it will encourage you to run stronger. What you won't get is your current statistics (like Vox max, mileage, pacing, etc.)and few references. If it's only content you want with little regard for 'packaging', this book is a good one-stop shop.
Rating:
Summary: Not the least disappointed
Review: I read the reviews, bought the book, and was not disappointed. This is a thorough treatment covering all the bases. If you're going to run, you need to race to stay motivated. This book will help you prepare intelligently and save yourself from the two dreaded extremes: under and overtraining. If you are a half serious runner, whether beginner or advanced-- this book will be a highly valued resource. Much thanks to the authors!
Rating:
Summary: It works
Review: I used this book as a guide when I ran the 1984 San Francisco Marathon. It worked great! The thing I like is it provides a workout guide for all abilities. If you follow it, it works. Just modify it a little based on your proneness to injuries. My recommendation is to use the guide for one level below the level of runner you think you are. This will keep it fun. The book is especially good for the engineering type who likes to keep logs of runs and time. (I think I'll dig it out of my basement.) It is not a motivational book. It is a training guide. You might at the same time buy one of Jim Fixx's books for the motivation side. Good luck with your running. Remember to keep it fun. You have the rest of your life to enjoy it. don't ruin it by overtraining and getting injuries.
Rating: 
Summary: AT LAST! Complete rewrite is off and running April 1999
Review: It took over two years to write this book. Why so long for the 3d edition (1983 and 1988 were #1 & #2)? First, it is 700 pages long. Second, so much has changed with research and with our experiences coaching over 3,000 runners each year in our New York Road Runner's Club classes that I had to throw out the old editions and start all over. This book is very, very thorough. It contains everything you need to guide you to success for 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon racing--and all the distances in between. Most important, it is written the way we coach--in a fun, lively style that will get you pumped up to enjoy your running and to run a great race.
Rating:
Summary: A Bible
Review: It's a good book. Point! It's very complete - almost 700 pages. You come back to it over and over - it's a source. It's a very thick sediment of experience and knoledge - a hole life of running experience. It's been perfected and improved - it dates back to the eighties. It's fun to read - " Fartlek is not something you do when running after eating Mexican food." It's worth it! Carlos Ribas Monteiro
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Summary: Returning to Racing?
Review: 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 to run my high schools times first time out, but what happens when I get my speed down? It is in here. Solid how-to, without the fluff of running psychobabble. Run a 10K? Wanna know how byou might do in a 20K? In a half-marathon? Charts galore. How 'bout intervals and tempo workouts. Marathon training tips? 5K tips? Got 'em! The beauty of this book.. and the fundmental reason I recommend it, is because the base of info and guidance here is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Returning to Racing?
Review: 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 to run my high schools times first time out, but what happens when I get my speed down? It is in here. Solid how-to, without the fluff of running psychobabble. Run a 10K? Wanna know how byou might do in a 20K? In a half-marathon? Charts galore. How 'bout intervals and tempo workouts. Marathon training tips? 5K tips? Got 'em! The beauty of this book.. and the fundmental reason I recommend it, is because the base of info and guidance here is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Serious recreation runners won't find a better book
Review: 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 Douglas, by Hidgon, as well as older marathoning books by Henderson, by Bloom, and by others. I enjoyed every last one of them. I recommend them all (especially Hidgon's "Marathon:The Ultimate Training Guide." But I keep coming back to Glover for specifics of tempo runs, interval training, hill work, and easy-to-adapt marathon training schedules. I keep coming back to Glover to set goals for 5K, 10K, and marathon as I progress in my running and as I get older. (I've been running since 1978.) If you just want a fun, informative book about running and low-key racing, buy "Better Runs" by Joe Henderson or some similar book. But if you're serious about training and racing, Glover's book is a must.
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