Rating: 
Summary: A great way to start and keep running enjoyable.
Review: Parker does an excellent job of showing one how to, as he says, "train with a heart rate monitor and not just wear one." The writing is enjoyable and made me want to get out there and get running. The book can be a little rough in places, but this isn't an expensive book and I was forgiving considering the value. The training programs are great but geared for a 10K as your race goal. Especially nice are 4 different levels for the training programs so that one can find a program that works for you. You'll need a book like "The Competetive Runner's Handbook" by Glover to understand "tempo run" and "striders" and to see where Parker's programs fit into a full year long training program. Using the heart rate monitor, and following Parker's programs dilgently, I was able to get out there and get running from scratch and enjoy it whereas in the past I burn out and fall off the exercise wagon before building a habit. (And if the book doesn't work for you, Parker will refund your money!)
Rating:
Summary: A great way to start and keep running enjoyable.
Review: Parker does an excellent job of showing one how to, as he says, "train with a heart rate monitor and not just wear one." The writing is enjoyable and made me want to get out there and get running. The book can be a little rough in places, but this isn't an expensive book and I was forgiving considering the value. The training programs are great but geared for a 10K as your race goal. Especially nice are 4 different levels for the training programs so that one can find a program that works for you. You'll need a book like "The Competetive Runner's Handbook" by Glover to understand "tempo run" and "striders" and to see where Parker's programs fit into a full year long training program. Using the heart rate monitor, and following Parker's programs dilgently, I was able to get out there and get running from scratch and enjoy it whereas in the past I burn out and fall off the exercise wagon before building a habit. (And if the book doesn't work for you, Parker will refund your money!)
Rating:
Summary: Buy this Book!
Review: The best way to start a fitness program. John Parker captures the essence of Heart Rate Training for the novice to the experienced athlete.
Rating: 
Summary: Triathlete's give it a miss, Runners should buy it
Review: The books principle is to use the heart rate monitor to not train too hard on easy days and to go hard on hard days. This works well for runners who find it hard to do easy runs, triathlete's do this automatically by cross training. The triathlon chapter is there to sell a few more books. The stuff on calculating heart rate zones is good.
Rating:
Summary: Quick and easy read - Lacking information is some chapters
Review: This book has to be one of the quickest reads if done in a while--no confusing details and a simple, down-to-earth writing style. It covers the basics of Heart Rate Monitor training well for runners. The cyclists and triathletes alluded to on the cover will find the book sadly disappointing and should look elsewhere for greater insight into Heart Rate Monitor training for their respective sports.I've only got two gripes with this book: 1) It could have been much shorter and too the point. The whole book could be condensed to a phamphlet.
2) The quality of the typesetting stinks and grammatical errors abound. To me, these were very distracting and could be easily corrected. Overall, I'd have given this book 2 stars, but the jury is still out on whether or not his training theory works.
Rating:
Summary: Useful and easy to read
Review: This book is a useful way to learn to use that heart rate monitor you just bought. The book is oriented mainly to runners, but the concepts Parker presents apply equally well to other endurance sports. It is easy, entertaining reading, but with enough information to put together a basic HRM training program. The training program Parker presents is simpler and easier to follow than many others I've seen.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many pages for just a few messages
Review: This book is a very easy read (I read it in about 2 hours) with a common sense approach. The problem is most of us don't use common sense, so this book helps you do it. Increased my speed in a very short time. The only knock is it could be more in depth on training plans and use in races.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes so much sense.
Review: This book is a very easy read (I read it in about 2 hours) with a common sense approach. The problem is most of us don't use common sense, so this book helps you do it. Increased my speed in a very short time. The only knock is it could be more in depth on training plans and use in races.
Rating:
Summary: Too many pages for just a few messages
Review: This book is an entertaining, quick, and easy read, but contains really only one key message that doesn't take more than a brief magazine article to explain. It's the same message repeated over and over again: training too hard is inefficient and you won't improve - you must alternate hard days with easy days, with "hard" being defined as over 70% your max heart rate, and "easy" being below that threshold. That's really all you need to know. Not worth reading an entire book on it - one chapter is entirely on athletes' testimonials trying to convince you of the importance of heart rate monitor training. Well hello, I'm reading the book - you don't need to continue to sell me on the strategy halfway through it! The suggested training programs are overly-simplistic, and I would find it hard to stick to them exactly, as Parker suggests, given other normal training needs (e.g., cross-training, weight-lifting, etc.). The book is also designed primarily for runners, as evidenced by the running-based training program. The book lacks any real insight beyond the very basics.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this Book!
Review: This book is for the serious runners. The long distance runner may benifit from this but I was looking for weight loss help. I found other books to meet this need.
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