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: Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald

Since my triathlon enthusiasm started I have been trying to get in to a lighter weight for better results. Losing weight has never been easy for me and with raising amount of training load, it has been even harder. That's the reason I got my hands in to a book from Matt Fitzgerald: Racing Weight.

Matt Fitzgerald is a sport nutritionist with a background of endurance sports, coaching endurance sports and working for food companies making products for endurance sports. For me that was background enough to prove he knows what he is talking about.

Book takes comprehensive, but simple enough approach to endurance nutrition. It talks through the basics of diets and different sources of nutrition. It quotes many studies from different points of view to diets and training. It also explains different trends in dieting and their pro's and con's.

Racing Weight ideology brings eating back to basics. It supports foods that are natural. It tells athletes to concentrate on quality of the food and then your own appetite.

Book offers simple methods to improve food quality. It recommends to think or even to calculate a bit what you are eating, but it still keeps things pretty simple. Book also offers good ways to manage your appetite and concentrate that you eat for real need of energy.

I loved the simplistic and naturalistic approach of the book. This type of methodology is not about trends or one truth about dieting. It is a comprehensive way to improve your diet and with that your racing weight. It will be easy to not lose weight or improve fat percentage after reading this book. This doesn't offer any magic tricks, but it makes you think of the elements what makes your body to lose or gain weight. For results that will last, that is essential.

I recommend this book even for the people who are not endurance sports enthusiastic. It gives so much good information to everyone about diets that it's valuable reading for all. It's easy and fun to read, so it's really for everyone

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book review - Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run: From Common Man to Ironman

I got as a Christmas present from my sister and her husband a book about common guy turning to an ironman. This book Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run: From Common Man to Ironman from Andy Holgate was their interpretation of my current triathlon enthuasism. I guess they hit it quite close.

This book is a journey without any technical jargon about training. It's a motivational story about ones life and how triathlon bug can hit hard. Andy Holgate turns from quite normal, bit overweight, librarian to an endurance maniac.

Andy Holgate had first written a blog and based on that he decided to turn it into a book. Book surely is written in enjoyable way. It was easy to get in to moods of Andy's by his writings. He also introduces lots of his training friends and describes them well. It really is a sneak peak to quite a normal life, filled with endurance sports.

What I like in this book, is that Andy surely teaches everybody to appreciate endurance sports. He himself went all the way to be an Ironman, but still he seems to cheer everyone for all the different endurance sports.

Andy Holgate is living proof that everyone can do triathlons if they wish. It's a mindset thing, not anything else. That's the best part of the book.

It's an entertaining book, which suits well for vacation times. I can happily recommend it to everyone. It a fun thing to read. This might give an extra push to take a endurance challenge. This book is not a how to train for ironman book, it's a book that motivates you to take the challenge.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book review - Swim Smooth: The Complete Coaching System for Swimmers and Triathletes

Due to my Triathlon enthusiasm in past year, I've got into swimming also. As to my nature, I have to get to know the technical jargon about swimming, that I would be able to learn to swim smoothly. For that purpose I found a perfect book, 300 pages about freestyle swimming - Swim Smooth: The Complete Coaching System for Swimmers and Triathletes.

Swim Smooth is book by Paul Newsome and Adam Young, both have a long background on swimming, but even more background on coaching swimming. They have a Swim Smooth named swimming training center in Australia and very useful web page also about swimming.

I must admit, that I thought there can't be written 300 pages about freestyle swimming so, that every page would make sense, but I was so wrong. Book is filled with good information, training tips, technique and useful pictures explaining all the things in detail. When reaching to the end of the book, I even thought it fell bit short.

Book starts from the basics of swimming and explains every part of swimming in great detail. For training purposes, book introduces 6 different swimmer types and give tips on improving swimming to all of those. It also says that there is no one best way to swim, it's always about the body and personal preferences.

If you are on to improving your freestyle swimming or into triathlon, this is a must read book. It stops the speculation on what is good and what is not for swimming and gives statistics and technique advices to all aspects of swimming. It has even its own section to open water swimming.

Only minus I have to give the book is that it became expensive to me. I have ordered swimming training equipment with about 100 euros only due to this book. I believe those will pay back to me on better swimming training sessions and eventually as a better swimmer in next triathlon races.

For freestyle swimming, this book is my bible now. I'm not going to look for any other book or training sites for a long time.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book Review - Triathletes Training Bible

For a change I read something totally different than the business related books I've read lately. I'm in a transformation process from team sports and games towards endurance sports. So I wanted to go to the master source of endurance training, so I picked up Triathlete's Training Bible by Joe Friel. I found so many good recommendations on it, I had to give it a try. And I didn't regret a minute.

Book is about training for triathlon. But it's not only about triathlon as such. It gives so much good basic knowledge about endurance training, nutrition and training planning, that it's an excellent book for anyone. I honestly learned more about endurance training from this book, than I've learned from any other sources counted together.

Big part of the book is creating a training diary. This part is quite specifically for triathlon and duathlon, but you can learn the basics of creating a training plan for any other sports. If you are triathlete or you want to become one, you have to read this book. It has something for everyone. It has tips for the most advanced guys, but also for the novices.

It's hard to say anything bad about this book. Maybe the worst thing is, that it really is like a bible; it's big and heavy. It's convenient to carry with, but there's good justifications for it's big size from pictures and tables in it. It also has lots of pages on it, but I actually felt sorry, that the book ended, not that it had too many pages.

I guess the hardest part of the book is, that it's impossible to take all the things you've learned to in action once. Managing the things presented in this book, easily takes tens of years, maybe a lifetime. It's a book I at least want to own, not borrow. I've made it full of marks on the first reading and I keep on going back and forth it all the time. It's one of the books every endurance athlete should own.
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen