Half-Marathon: You Can Do It (edició 2006)

Half-Marathon: You Can Do It is a collection of running wisdom and training programs of Jeff Galloway, one of best known running coaches and former 10k Olympian.

There are different programs for the half-marathon, depending on what time you wish to achieve. They are all based on Galloway's run-walk-run method, though much of the advice applies even if you're not using walking breaks. Then there are chapters that explain how to do speed training, hill training, magic mile trials runs, burning fat etc. and some more (pretty light chapters) on equipment and clothing, injury prevention and running in old age.

Overall this is a decent book that you can use as a basis for developing your own half-marathon training program. There are, however, a few complaints:

1. Its look and feel is that of a children's book. I guess the rationale is that runners are not readers so you need a book with big font and shiny pictures to get them to view it.
2. As mentioned above, some chapters are bit light in content. They're probably just there so that the publisher can list that the book give this information on the cover.
3. While he certainly knows a lot about running, there's a feel that Galloway isn't quite keeping up with time. So there's little to no advice about software (such as mapmyrun.com or Garmin Connect) that you can use instead of keeping a running logbook and the likes.
4. He seems to be an adherent of lactate-threshold/cardiovascular anaerobic model of running physiology and doesn't seem to know or care much about latest developments in the field (such as the central governor theory etc.) ( )

I liked getting some more training tips for my next half marathon. This will continue to be a good reference book, especially for speed workouts. ( )