Superior Marathoning, Fourth Version, by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas, Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 2025, ISBN: 9781718237476, 283 pp., $29.95 USD
Introduction
Pete Pfitzinger’s and Scott Douglas’s Superior Marathoning guide ranks together with Jack Daniels’ Daniels’ Operating Components and Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 Operating as a vital coaching guide for endurance runners. Pfitzinger, a 2:11 marathoner and train physiologist, and Douglas, one of the crucial broadly revealed operating journalists and as soon as a sub-elite runner in his personal proper, have produced three editions of their guide over time, every distinguished by its easy prose, elegantly integrated scientific explanations, and exact packages for athletes at different ranges seeking to enhance their marathon performances.
The third version, nevertheless, was very a lot in want of an replace, having been first launched in 2009, again when semi-serious marathoners wanted to discern whether or not or to not run in “racing flats” just like the adidas Adios of yesteryear, one fashionable model of which had 25mm of heel stack and a 10mm drop.
The long-awaited fourth version of Superior Marathoning got here out this summer time, and the excellent news is that it incorporates many extra updates than merely a couple of phrases about tremendous footwear. However do these enhancements warrant buying the brand new version? In a phrase: sure. Right here’s why.
Substantial adjustments within the fourth version
Significantly improved steerage on LT classes. One of many solely coaching sections of the third version conspicuously needing an replace was the instruction on find out how to carry out Lactate Threshold classes. Although the authors had with their traditional meticulousness coated the know-how of LT classes, the steerage itself remained normal and restricted to a sure mileage.
Athletes acquainted with Daniels and Fitzgerald knew that time spent on such classes was extra vital than the precise mileage. An elite athlete with an LT tempo of 5:00 min/mile (roughly a 2:17 marathoner) would cowl 4 miles in a typical twenty-minute LT session, whereas the fanatic going for a sub-3 marathon with an LT tempo of 6:30 min/mile would cowl simply wanting 5K in the identical time. Crucially, if the latter stored going to 4 miles on the identical tempo, that athlete could be overreaching and thus courting overtraining and even harm, relying on that week’s coaching load (which, in Pfitzinger and Douglas, is substantial).
The fourth version brings the LT classes in keeping with time-based classes, and Pfitzinger and Douglas moreover present particular breakdowns for athletes who, Daniels-style, want to run their LT classes as cruise intervals.
The authors differentiate themselves from Daniels, nevertheless, by advocating for simple jogs between the cruise intervals—not the “one minute relaxation per mile run” rule that Daniels instituted.
Pfitzinger and Douglas would possibly want to clarify that selection sooner or later, as Daniels’ relaxation intervals between LT cruise intervals presumably enable lactate to build up within the muscle groups extra shortly than simple jogging would, which implies that every successive interval after a relaxation interval (not a jog) would drive the physique to discover ways to course of lactate extra effectively.
To supply some historic context, I’d point out what had been functionally LT classes in Lydiard’s suggestions for “time trials” as a part of his plans, by which he meant, for example, a 5K or 10K at 90% effort, to be accomplished within the section after base coaching. (See, for example, The Lydiard Coaching System, revealed as a part of his 1999 lecture tour.) In distinction, a lot of Daniels’ plans retain the title for many LT intensive, such because the well-known 4T + 3T + 2T + 1T exercise, completed in one session (however just for runners masking at the very least 71 miles per week).
Ranged mileage within the schedules. The earlier version prescribed exact mileages in its coaching schedules, spelled out day-to-day: Restoration, 5 miles; Medium-Lengthy, 11 miles. The brand new version gives barely versatile mileage ranges for every day of coaching: Restoration, 5-7 miles; Medium-Lengthy, 13-15 miles. This replace maintains the core philosophy of the authors’ mileage sequence whereas permitting for runners to regulate their coaching fairly.
On the identical time, Pfitzinger and Douglas proceed to supply a largely programmed various to what some athletes discover irritating in Daniels, particularly, that each one of Daniels’ simple day mileage numbers are solely as much as the runner. Witness one among my favourite Daniels quotes: “[Easy] days could contain one, two, or extra [easy] runs every day, as wanted” (4th ed., p. 234).
Advances in analysis. True to type, Pfitzinger and Douglas have integrated their evaluation of related scientific research revealed for the reason that third version. The authors deal with, for example, the “double threshold” phenomenon with their traditional succinct perception, arguing for a number of causes that marathoners on their program wouldn’t profit from them. A number of sidebars deal with the “tremendous shoe” phenomenon and the way greatest to utilize them (and when to keep away from them). A brand new explainer on the HRV metric helps athletes interpret the counterintuitive knowledge that many watches now embrace as customary.
Along with masking new applied sciences or practices, the authors have included modern analysis to complement matters beforehand coated, reminiscent of the precious part on figuring out and recovering from RED-S, which now supplies a reference to a 2023 scientific examine. Equally, chilly water immersion (e.g., ice baths) for distance runners appears to be out of favor, however Pfitzinger and Douglas proceed to suggest it as a result of the 2021 examine that demonstrated lowered advantages from ice baths utilized to energy coaching, not endurance exercise.
Full colour all through. The third version was, apart from its cowl, solely in black and white. All pictures, sidebars, data packing containers, and even the tabs separating the coaching schedules at the moment are in full colour. Moreover, an amazing lots of the pictures are model new.
Assorted runner profiles. Nearly the entire third version’s runner profiles featured elites, from Shalane Flanagan to Yuki Kawauchi. The fourth version now shares profiles between elites like Sifan Hassan and non-elite, superior runners—athletes who’ve benefitted from the guide’s recommendation and have, for example, improved from a 2:55 to a 2:40. This modification displays a broader replace within the version’s focus, which now extra totally displays its viewers; even the duvet, which within the third version confirmed 5 elite girls within the New York Metropolis marathon, now reveals the end line of the Boston marathon with very quick however non-elite runners.
Up to date and nonetheless notable “Supplementary Coaching.” The third version already contained a powerful part on body weight and lightweight resistance coaching, consisting of a dynamic warmup, static stretching, core stability, core energy routines, type drills, and what they known as “energy coaching.” The primary 5 routines, itemizing as much as a dozen workouts every, could be recognizable by anybody who’s participated in a highschool or collegiate cross nation or observe program, and the sixth, although not real energy coaching, adopted the requirements of what many name “energy endurance:” ten to fifteen repetitions of recognizable workouts just like the squat with very gentle weights in a circuit of two units.
With the appearance of books like Jay Dicharry’s Operating Rewired (2017), many coaches have remodeled their athletes’ supplementary coaching routines alongside “prehab” or Bodily Remedy approaches to motion. Respiration and stretching packages, a lot of which confusingly go underneath the syncretic umbrella “yoga,” have additionally grow to be very fashionable. Pfitzinger and Douglas’s fourth version displays these tendencies, with up to date workouts and their accompanying explanations as to each how and why they work for distance runners.
Two notes right here, beginning with a minor one. The inclusion of the “Single-Leg Glute Bridge” (p. 100) is welcomed; many people do variations of that motion to nice profit. Nonetheless, the mannequin within the photograph is depicting a harder model of the train than the authors write about, as she is pointing the toe of her planted foot upward, balancing solely on that heel. That variation ought to typically not be tried till the flat-foot model has been mastered. In a future version, maybe the authors can embrace a number of ranges of issue for every train, as even a small tweak can carry better problem.
Now the key be aware. The authors assert that “lifting to extend muscle dimension is counterproductive to endurance (and significantly marathon) efficiency” (p. 102). They’re right in the event that they imply hypertrophy strategies that many individuals affiliate with bodybuilding or powerlifting. Nonetheless, books like Tactical Barbell, authored by a Canadian particular forces operator, have demonstrated that endurance good points and maximal energy coaching help and improve one another—if completed appropriately. Maximal energy coaching, which eschews hypertrophy as such and focuses on 5, three, and even two-rep units with weights at 70 – 90% of 1-rep most, prompts the physique to provide development hormone, strengthens connective tissues to accommodate cross-sport coaching masses, and minimizes weight achieve. Certainly, participating solely in very gentle, excessive repetition “energy endurance” workouts will finally scale back most energy ranges and decelerate secretion of development hormone and testosterone—significantly detrimental to masters runners. A number of of my acquaintances who’re aggressive runners on the state degree credit score maximal energy coaching with each their success and their ongoing resistance to harm.
A easy resolution for distance athletes is to interact in two micro-cycles of most energy coaching per 12 months within the typical offseason occasions, the numerous advantages of which may be maintained throughout the season with easy twice-weekly, low-volume max energy classes or by alternating with a cycle of strength-endurance or circuit workouts. A superb useful resource on this regard is Train Prescription on Web, which began as a Kinesiology graduate scholar’s thesis and has developed into one of the crucial credible and cited health assets out there. Masters runners would possibly want to seek the advice of the Tactical Barbell: Ageless Athlete guide.
Some strategies for a fifth version
With the surge in reputation of marathoning and the concurrent fast tempo of expertise advances within the shoe world, a fifth version of Superior Marathoning will seemingly be warranted earlier than one other fifteen years could have handed (2040!). If that’s the case, I hope the authors will contemplate the next.
Account for the 80/20 strategy. In what I assume is a misprint, there isn’t any letter “F” within the Index of the fourth version; the third version had greater than a dozen “F” entries within the index. However in neither version seems Fitzgerald, Matt. True, the schedules and the depth strategies are specified by a approach that honors 80/20 rules, however given the enduring success of Fitzgerald’s program, its expanded reputation within the triathlon world, and the multitude of research backing it, an specific point out is warranted, if just for these athletes—and there are quite a lot of—who’ve by no means seen the science so properly recounted as Fitzgerald does.
Provide Lactate Threshold Zones. Pfitzinger and Douglas stands out as the final fashionable authors permitting, if not outright endorsing, the choice of Coronary heart Fee Reserve (HRR) to calculate coaching zones. The formulation, proposed within the late Fifties by Dr. Martti Karvonen (who held each an M.D. and a Ph.D.), takes resting coronary heart charge into consideration, which for some endurance athletes supplies a extra correct image of what “simple” means by way of cardiovascular demand. As Pfitzinger and Douglas indicate, lots of the runners they’ve communicated with endorse HRR, as they’ve seen advantages over conventional coronary heart charge zone calculations.
Although newer, the idea of figuring out coaching zones by Lactate Threshold has additionally caught on with many athletes throughout disciplines. Daniels reveals a lot proof that lactate threshold is a dependable, predictable marker in operating efficiency distinct from vV̇O2max and operating financial system (4th ed., pp. 39, 42-44). Fitzgerald has been singing the praises of LT zones for at the very least twenty years, and Garmin added them a pair years in the past as an official various to MHR and HRR for computing effort and associated metrics. I recommend Pfitzinger and Douglas examine and contemplate providing LT zones as an choice, or give their reasoning in opposition to them.
A private be aware: I’ve examined my LT coronary heart charge many, many occasions over the previous 5 years utilizing numerous strategies, and the outcomes are almost all the time within the 168 – 171 vary, which is increased than one would anticipate for a runner in his fifties. Computing coaching zones by LT slightly than MHR or HRR takes higher account of the oddity of my physiology.
Eradicate the schadenfreude. In 2018, Douglas launched his guide Operating Is My Remedy, which examines the appreciable analysis demonstrating the hyperlink between common train and psychological well being—a correlation Douglas and lots of others had intuited way back. In gentle of the positives of that guide, I had hoped Pfitzinger and Douglas would get rid of traces like these from the fourth version:
Your superior preparation will imply you’ll have the pleasure of frequently passing individuals till the end. (4th ed., p. 184; 3rd. ed., pp. 179-180)
I suppose some superior athletes give in to the temptation of schadenfreude—taking pleasure within the struggling of others—however not many of the marathon runners I’ve encountered. Certainly, being inspired by sooner runners when one has bonked could be a nice supply of comfort and camaraderie. Pondering of a slower runner you’re attempting to go on the finish of a marathon as “your subsequent sufferer” (4th version, p. 184; 3rd version, p. 180) results in an excessively aggressive spirit and the chance of dehumanizing the very individuals sharing the race with you. I recommend Pfitzinger and Douglas get rid of such wording and revise it to replicate the better good of competing with others, not merely in opposition to them.
In sum
The fourth version of Superior Marathoning retains all of the knowledge of the older version and gives substantial updates. Your well-worn third version can safely be put to shelf with its creation.
Reviewer profile:
Stephen Mirarchi holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis College and at the moment teaches within the graduate program of Classical Schooling at Benedictine School in Atchison, Kansas. He has revealed many scholarly articles and significant editions, together with the annotated Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly. As a cross nation coach, he helped lead a number of groups to states and had one athlete grow to be the 5K state champion. Nearly all of his operating PRs have been set after turning 50, together with a 2:54 marathon at Des Moines in 2024.
Superior Marathoning
AMAZON
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