Henry reviewed Daniels' running formula by Jack Daniels
Alright, but not much new info for advanced runners
4 stars
It was a nice refresher read, with occasional bits of wisdom that were useful. With that said, not much in this book was very new information to me, as my own training seems to closely align with much of the book already.
Additionally, some recommendations aren’t really grounded in real science - like him recommending to land on your heels, especially on downhills? (What?!) And most importantly the 180spm figure which is a bizarre recommendation, given it’s based on the step count of elites mid-race. Why does the step count of elites mid-race being an average of 180spm mean anything to a novice runner on an easy day?
First, it’s an average. So there is natural variance amongst athletes. Second, we know SPM increases as pace increases - so a race environment isn’t representative of any running pace aside from the pace of the athletes running in that specific race. …
It was a nice refresher read, with occasional bits of wisdom that were useful. With that said, not much in this book was very new information to me, as my own training seems to closely align with much of the book already.
Additionally, some recommendations aren’t really grounded in real science - like him recommending to land on your heels, especially on downhills? (What?!) And most importantly the 180spm figure which is a bizarre recommendation, given it’s based on the step count of elites mid-race. Why does the step count of elites mid-race being an average of 180spm mean anything to a novice runner on an easy day?
First, it’s an average. So there is natural variance amongst athletes. Second, we know SPM increases as pace increases - so a race environment isn’t representative of any running pace aside from the pace of the athletes running in that specific race.
These assumptions are made in a few other spots in the book.
With this all said, the lens I’m reading this book from is from an advanced athlete’s POV, if I was new to running this would probably be a much more useful read.