Road Racing for Serious Runners provides an excellent, comprehensive look at training for competitive long-distance racing. It helps remove guesswork since it contains information on all variables affecting successful racing-from human physiology to actual nuts and bolts workouts.  Pfitzinger and Douglas believe for the serious runner, the runner who wants to run at his or her very best, training needs to focus on a small number of specific goal races. 

Keep it simple, stupid!

This book gives short, simple explanations to the key elements of a training program. We now know everything we need to know about VO2 max and lactate threshold training, their relative importance, how to improve them and how to incorporate them into your training program.

Topics that are covered are: 

• recovery
• pure endurance
• lactate threshold
• VO2 max
• and speed

In Road Racing for Serious Runners, Pete Pfitzinger-a world-class marathoner, distance running coach, and exercise physiologist-tells you how to get the most out of your limited training time. Pfitzinger teams up with former Running Times editor-in-chief Scott Douglas to present a training and racing plan that will help you excel in the full spectrum of road racing distances. You will learn how to:

• design a week-by-week training program,
• determine the right pace to run during speed workouts,
• get the most out of long runs,
• taper training before an important race,
• detect and avoid staleness and injury, 
• determine the best strategy for each race, and
• achieve the optimal mental state to train and race.

Pfitzinger points out how most of us are doing no lactate threshold training and doing all of our interval work to fast. Lactate threshold represents the speed at which you can run while still clearing most of the lactic acid from your cells. A high lactate threshold, on the other hand, allows sustained high speeds, and therefore high levels of performance in endurance events. 

Pfitzinger and Douglas emphasize the importance of minimal effective stress. For example, they provide the example of two runners trying to build VO2 max, the maximum oxygen your body can use. 

"In the past I've had a love/hate relationship with mile repeats, a very strong type of VO2 max workout -- I knew they had a great effect on my fitness but they were SO uncomfortable. I now know I was running them too fast. Last year I put Pfitzinger and Douglas' approach into effect in my training. 

Using a heart rate monitor, I ran long VO2 max sessions, half-mile and mile repeats, monitoring carefully to stay in my VO2 max training range. The effect was dramatic. Not that mile repeats became easy, but they were far more manageable than they had ever been before. As a result I was able to run more of them, recover better, and actually (sometimes) enjoy them. I also had my best racing season in years."
- George Williams

Included with each of five training schedules are racing tactics, mental tips, and lessons from world-class runners. Whatever distance you plan to race, Road Racing for Serious Runners will guide you to peak performance!


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