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Review #1 of 2023: Modern Training and Physiology for Middle and Long-Distance Runners
A solid, short overview of training for endurance runners that covers the sport from a rigorous scientific angle: perfect for newly serious runners, or badly catechised post-collegiate athletes
I’ve been interested in the science and optimization of aerobic exercise since I was in the 6th grade. At the time I was an avid swimmer (I believe I wrote on my goal sheet that year that swimming would always be part of my life. It still is, just not to the extent that it was back then), and our coach had just sat us down to talk about lactate threshold and the importance of not going too hard all the time in practice. Lactate accumulation, rather than the scientifically more accurate muscle acidification, was the current club swim coach level understanding of overtraining at the time, but the principle he was trying to convey remained the same: going too hard all the time is not good. Of course, it took me many more years, until senior year of high school, to really internalize this lesson.
Pop culture, training, and psychology makes this a hard lesson to actually learn. The very same coach would show us YouTube…
