Book Review: Run Less Run Faster

I try to read couple of sports books every year. I've heard from couple of different sources that Run Less Run Faster is an excellent book for busy runners wanting to develop their run.

Idea in Run Less Run Faster is easy, concentrate on your key runs and make sure you stay healthy. Book advises to get rid of junk miles, meaning the runs without specific purpose. Also it explains that three runs in a week is enough when it's supported with proper supporting training.

I do agree with the thinking in the book. I've run maximum of three runs in past years and I've been able to run much faster than previously. I've also discovered that key to improvement is different kind of runs and pushing yourself to the limits. So I do think book is good and valuable for many people.

Book also gives quite good exercises for runs and strength training. It is a good source for knowing what speeds to use in different exercises and what should be the amount of rest in different intervals. Also for strength and flexibility training it explains the basics.

What I worry with this kind of guidance to training is that it kills the joy of training. When every exercise have specific meaning and you need to watch you clock all the time, you easily lose the joy you can get from exercises. Everyone, including myself, should once in a while remember why they are training, for themselves or for some other reason.

The book in itself is easy and enjoyable. Especially for the runners who don't do enough different kind of exercises, this is a must read. For the people who already have wide range of training in their program, this might not be be worth of reading.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book Review: Be Iron Fit by Don Fink

For a long time I read triathlon training book to get some motivation to my training. The book I selected was Be Iron Fit, 2nd: Time-Efficient Training Secrets for Ultimate Fitness by Don Fink.

From the start of the book it became obvious, that this wasn't a deep dive to the training science, but more of a practical guide to the training while being busy. It did go through every aspect of triathlon from techniques to nutrition, but it kept all of those in a high level. At least compared to Joe Friel's approach.

At some point I was disappointed and thought that book doesn't have much to give to me. I'm quite good life organizer, so I've always found the time to train. This book heroes the people who have been able to make ironman even with very busy schedules. I do respect everyone who have done ironman, but I don't respect busy people. So book annoyed me quite often.

It still was enjoyable book. It reminded about the basics of triathlon training. It also did give some good time management tips. About actual training for triathlon, it didn't have that much to give. It was more like a long motivational speech, that you can make it if you just want it.

If you want easy book to read as a first triathlon training guide, this a proper book. If you've already familiar with basic training, then I recommend you select a different book to read.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book Review: Daniels' Running Formula

My latest reading was a sports training book for a change. I've read about triathlon and swimming training, so it was time to concentrate on running. I got my hand on, what was said to be the best running training book ever made, Jack Daniels' Running Formula.

Jack Daniels is a professor of physical education, coach of Olympic athletes and olympic medalist himself. That was proof enough for me, to take a closer look on his ideas.

For me there were two important things in this book. First one was the idea of training load. I've understood that there is different load for different type of exercises, but this book got me to understand more about it and quantify the loads to some extend. I took that part directly in to use on my training diary and will use it for this training season to know if it really works or not.

Second important thing in this book was the different running speeds and the VDOT index for those. VDOT wasn't totally new concept for me, but since it was invented for this book I got to understand all the background information behind it. Other than just running speeds, it gives pretty good tips for different type of running trainings.

Running speeds in VDOT are Easy, Maraton, Threshold, Interval and Repetition. From those, the separation between Interval and Repetition was not clear to me at all before this book. No it is much more obvious that those exercises and speeds are for different purposes; Intervals for training VO2Max and Repetitions are for speed and technique.

Big part of the book is also training programs. There are training programs from elite athletes to first time runners. Training programs also varies from short 800m runs all the way to marathons. So there are training programs for everybody, except for triathlonists. For me the best thing about training programs was to get some good ideas what kind of exercices could be done.

From content point of view, book was excellent. It's filled with good information and ideas about running training. Then from editoral point, it was bit messy. It wasn't as easy and pleasurable to read as it could have been. I blame publishers for that one. They should have put more focus on readability.

I still recommend this book to everyone who wants to understand running training. It gives such a good information about the endurance side of running training, that it is valuable to read. It's also quite quick to read, so I recommend to get it in to your hands and at least scim it through.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

This type of marketing and innovation I admire - Reaction ball

I run into reaction ball by accident, when checking some other sports equipment. The idea is marvelous. Someone invented a ball, which is not round and can bounce in any direction. This kind of stuff can be easily made by accident.

In this case, someone realized that this could have business value. There's lot of athletes who train to be fast to react and this ball if any needs fast reaction skills to catch.

Here's a video from CorePerformance about training with reaction ball. It looks just like the one's from TV shop, but I believe this really works.

Even the idea feels really simple, even a silly one, this excellent example of how innovations don't need to be that complex. I've played a long time different sport requiring fast reactions and this would have definitely been a good addition to reaction trainings. This one of those things that everyone can say that: "I could have invented that one." The thing there is that, you didn't. It required someone with vision to productise this worthless piece of rubber to actual product.


Written by +Henri Hämäläinen