Rating: 
Summary: Hal Higdon...my personal trainer!
Review: Overall, Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, is an excellent marathon perpetration book. The book is easy to read and progresses well. For someone preparing for their first marathon, the book answers most of the questions one would have. The book tells you what to expect and how to prepare for the unexpected. Hal Higdon has run loads of marathons and his sage advice is clear chapter after chaper.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent marathon perpetration book
Review: Overall, Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, is an excellent marathon perpetration book. The book is easy to read and progresses well. For someone preparing for their first marathon, the book answers most of the questions one would have. The book tells you what to expect and how to prepare for the unexpected. Hal Higdon has run loads of marathons and his sage advice is clear chapter after chaper.
Rating: 
Summary: Author Hal Higdon writes about "Marathon."
Review: The first edition of this book, titled "Marathon: The Ultimate Training and Racing Guide" was published by Rodale Press in 1993 and became one of my best-selling books on running, selling more than 50,000 copies. Interestingly, it was selling more copies in 1999 than in its first year of publication, 1993. And when I appeared at clinics and Expos, particularly before marathons, runners would appear at my booth thanking me for the book and saying they used it to train for the race. Often they would rush up to their hotel room and bring down battered copies for me to autograph. They had brought the book to the race so they could review it before going to the starting line! But as a critic as well as an author, I knew that the first edition of the book was gradually going out of date because of changes in the sport: everything from pacing teams to gels to more and more female runners. Because of the sales success, it was an easy sell to convince Rodale Press to let me revise "Marathon" for 21st century readers. I was proud of the first edition; I am even more proud of the current edition, which has a slightly different title: "Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide." Yep, we dropped "and racing." Not that I have anything against racing or racers, since I race frequently myself, but that's not where current runners are today. We're more interested in finishing a marathon or perhaps setting a "PR" than in trying to qualify for the Olympic Games. The cover of the new edition also more closely mirrors today's running population than the cover of the first edition. (You'll have to do some surfing through Amazon.com to find out why.) So read the book and maybe I'll see you at the starting line of your next marathon. Have fun running, and I know you'll enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of money and time
Review: This book did not provide a good sense of how a regular runner can accomplish or improve a marathon. It was confusing and filled with information that was not helpful. Save your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Principles based on anecdotal evidence
Review: This book has 221 pages. I think the useful information could be condensed down to 20 pages or so. This book makes heavy use of the anecdote pattern. Chapters begin with little stories about elite athletes and experienced runners from which general principles of running are drawn. The problem is that the stories are incomplete and entirely anecdotal. Elite athletes and experienced runners don't need this book and the principles that apply to them don't apply to middle-aged people who truly are beginners. The book doesn't address the subjects of weight and size (very important in long distance running), and it only addresses age at a very superficial level. The good things in this book are: the focus on staying injury free; the incorporation of easy running and rest days into your training schedule; some sample training schedules; some diet advice; and some seemingly useful information about race logistics toward the end. On the negative side, a lot of space is devoted to fluffy stories; evidence to support advice is almost entirely anecdotal; there is practically no advice on runner injuries and how that affects your schedule; and no talk about weight/age; Put simply, this book contains a lot of anecdotal, unscientific, irrelevant, happy, feel-good fluff. The training schedules may work for you, but if they don't you will not have gained enough knowledge from this book to understand how to adapt them to fit your needs.
Rating:
Summary: Hal Higdon...my personal trainer!
Review: This book is great! I followed Hal's advice and ran my first marathon without any trouble. He told me what to eat, when to eat, how far to run, what to wear, and I listened and finished Pittsburgh and it was fun. Then he told me what to do to recover. I'd recommend this book to EVERYONE! Thanks Hal!
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Summary: the Joy of the Marathon
Review: This is a fantastic guide for anyone interested in distance running. To me, as a relatively slow runner, it was simply invaluable as part of my preparation for my first and second marathons. As I prepared for my last three marathons and for other long races I went back to check what good old Hal had to say. This book strikes a superb balance between the needs of speed demons and mid to end of the pack types. It gives you ideas about what to eat, how to train for a marathon and how to taper. To me, the most useful part was that on predictions. Higdon presented different models and theories for predicting one's marathon time based on performance in shorter distances. Another very useful part of the book is the pre and post marathon preparations. Most valuable part is the motivation the book will give you. We all go through ups and downs in the training phase, this book will remind you of that and guide you all the way to the finish line, recovery and sign up for the next marathon. You can't go wrong with $ 12 on this book. Also see Higdon's web site and check out Runner's World web site
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Summary: This book is all things to all people
Review: This is a very well written book that inspires you from the start. It then backs up all that motivation with tried and true running techniques. It is easy to read and well structured. I have been using his basic training guide from this book to restart my running every spring for the last 7 years. If you are a new runner I think this book is helpful in making you feel secure in your abilities. It is also filled with enough information to help those experienced runners who are new to the marathon. I know that the book has been updated recently. If you buy it I am sure that it will serve you well for years to come.
Rating:
Summary: essential reading for your 1st marathon
Review: This is an excellent book for planning and training for your
1st marathon
It is very readable , with loads of sound advice It was a bible when training for my 1st in Belfast May 2002. On our training runs My friends and I were always bantering about what Hal did and didnt say
Thanks to this guide I had an excellent run in Belfast and would recommend it to all 1st timers
My only criticism would be that he could include more than 2 training schedules , though on his website you will find more
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