My Review of 80:20 Running

80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower by Matt Fitzgerald 

The basic idea behind this book is fairly simple, in order to run faster in a race you need to run slower in training. As odd as this may seem this is exactly what the professionals have been doing for years and it is thought to be the best training method for beginners and elite alike. 

The book takes you through some of the science and rationale behind running this way and then gives you some different plans and different types of session that you should do. I don't want to go into too much detail but these principles have been tested not only in running but many other sports. 

The book itself is mostly well written but the plans did not come out well on the Kindle edition, nevertheless the actual body of the text was useful. 

The problem that I have with this book is that it is basically a basic principle, run 80% of your training at a very slow pace, run 20% at a moderate or ideally high intensity and the book is really evidence to try and convince you that this is what you should be doing. Who is going to read this book though, well only people that are really getting into their running like me and even then most of them probably won't read it. So it is left to coaches who probably already know what to do. 

Where this book does redeem itself is in the principle, the principle of 80 / 20 works or at least that is my belief after only a few weeks. 

Me and Running and 80/20:

After reading an on-line article I shifted to this principle of training and thought it might work for me, I want to increase my mileage but knew I was going to get injured, the key it seems was to slow down. Having now slowed down in most of my training my legs are feeling fresh and my body is recovering quicker than ever and I can run 5 times a week, previously I struggled with 3 (hill, interval and ok pace long run). 

I was sceptical about how this might impact my speed but having put in 2 miles at the end of my last 10km at only 30 second off my 1 mile PB I am optimistic that I will smash my 5k PB this weekend. Best of all is that as I am running slowly I don't feel any niggles and if I do I adjust slightly and feel fine, before my knees and ankles would be clicking and aching but it is no longer a problem. 

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Overall it is a good book and it is based on a solid premise, however I do not think that there was really enough here to make a book. A couple of on-line articles and a pod-cast (like the author has done for Runner Academy) are enough to get you going with this principle.