Books by
Hal Higdon
If you have a running goal, How to Train can help you achieve it--faster, easier, smarter. Drawing on the collective wisdom of the world's top coaches, trainers, and athletes, Hal Higdon provides time-tested programs and workouts for all levels of runners with every conceivable goal. Featuring more than 100 charts and schedules to conquer any running challenge, How to Train is an indispensable reference that you will use for as long as you own running shoes.
Following is an excerpt from the book Hal Higdon's HOW TO TRAIN by Hal Higdon (Rodale Press). It is from the Introduction and describes why Higdon decided to write this book.
EN ROUTE TO THE NATIONAL Masters Championships in Utah several summers ago, I routed myself through Cincinnati and Minneapolis to save money on the air fare. On the flight from Cincinnati, I claimed a window seat with my wife Rose next to me in the middle seat. Soon, a businessman appeared and took the aisle seat.
Because I was busy working on my laptop computer, I paid the businessman little attention. After we took off, I noticed he pulled out a copy of Runner's World and started reading. I smiled and wondered what the businessman would say if he knew he was seated (one seat removed) from one of that magazine's Senior Writers. But he didn't notice me.
I had written an article in that issue about Atlanta's preparations to host the 1996 Olympic Games, but I noticed that the businessman seemed more interested in another article titled, "The Path to Marathon Success." That was no surprise: surveys consistently show that training articles are the ones most heavily read by Runner's World's readers. I probably write more of those training articles than any other of the magazine's contributors.
The sub-title of the article being read by the businessman boasted: "This 15-week training program will lead you to your best marathon ever." The article included a chart, which suggested a series of progressive long runs on Sundays with hill training or track repeats on Tuesdays and tempo runs on Thursdays. The article had been written by Benji Durden, a coach from Boulder, Colorado.
We landed in Minneapolis, and the businessman got off the plane. His place in the aisle seat was taken by a second businessman. We took off for Salt Lake City. I remained occupied with my work; the businessman did the same. Halfway through the flight, he closed his attache case and began reading the same issue of Runner's World. He too focused his attention on the training program.
Amused, I wondered if everyone who flew on business read Runner's World? The second businessman not only was reading Benji's marathon training article, he was devouring it. Toward the end of the flight, he removed a legal pad from his attache case and began making notes, apparently plotting his next 15 weeks of training. Surely, here was a man on his way to a new Personal Record!
We landed in Salt Lake City, and the businessman and I went our separate ways. I ran a 5,000 meter race the next morning and spent the next several days mountain biking at Park City. I hoped that the businessman's next marathon was a successful on; but then we had guaranteed that on the cover of our magazine.
Almost a year from that date, Runner's World was back on the newsstands (and presumably back in the attache cases of travelling businessmen) with an article in its July 1994 issue. "Run Your Best Marathon with our simple program," the magazine's cover promised. "It's proven. It's got schedules. It will work for you."
This time I had written the article, which included sample 18-week schedules for beginner, intermediate and advanced runners. The schedules were those I had helped develop for a training class of runners preparing for the Chicago Marathon. Runner's World decided to offer a second marathon training article, because the first one had resulted in such a positive response from our readers. After continuing reader response, we published still another training program in the July 1995 issue, also written by me, this one guaranteed to help our readers improve their times and qualify for the 100th anniversary Boston Marathon. It featured a training schedule for advanced runners borrowed from Bill Wenmark, a coach with ALARC (the American Lung Association Running Club) in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Programs. Schedules. Charts. Numbers. That seemed to be what our readers wanted in their personal battles for Personal Records.
More Information
Yet as helpful as those schedules had been to our readers, I knew there was much more that we could tell them. Prior to the publication of the first article in 1993, I had trained for a spring marathon using a fuller version of Benji Durden's schedule, and I knew it was much more detailed and comprehensive than the version we had presented runners in the magazine. Benji's full program ran longer than the 15 weeks showed in the magazine. In the half dozen pages Runner's World could spare for as important an article as the one headlined on its cover, there never seemed to be enough room to offer as much numbered detail as many of our readers would like. Amby and I know that, because we receive their follow-up letters wanting to know more, more, more!
Even when I wrote the two training books that preceded this volume, there seemed to be insufficient space to tell all. Run Fast (published by Rodale Press in 1992) was subtitled "How to Train for a 5-K or 10-K Race." Marathon (published by Rodale Press in 1993) covered distances longer than 10-K and featured strategies from 50 top coaches. Its subtitle was, "The Ultimate Training and Racing Guide."
Both books, however, were books of words, not books of numbers. They taught people everything there was to know about running races from 5-K to the marathon and beyond, but, necessarily, couldn't devote the space to show them how to train on a day-to-day basis.
This third book completes the loop. It fulfills the promise of Run Fast and Marathon. Here, we finally have taken the space to offer you: Programs. Schedules. Charts. Numbers. Here, not only do we provide multiple training programs for the 5-K and the marathon, but we'll tell you how to train, step-by-step, week-by-week, for other running distances. There are also programs and schedules for walkers, joggers, cyclists, swimmers, skiers and those who combine those events in duathlons and triathlons. There are programs for high school and college cross-country and track runners as well as those for age-group runners, youngsters and women.
If you want to improve your strength by doing some weight training, here is a schedule you can follow. If you want to lose weight or improve your diet, you've purchased the right book. If you're wondering what your 5-K or 10-K times predict for your next marathon, you'll find those projection charts here as well as pace charts that will tell you how fast you need to cover each mile en route to Personal Records for a variety of distances. And after you've set your PR, you can consult our age-graded charts to determine its equivalent value related to world records.
In the following pages, you not only will encounter programs developed by Benji Durden and myself, but you'll also find schedules devised by other knowledgeable coaches, including Bob Williams, Roy Benson and Sam Bell. How They Train is a book that will tell you how to train.
The next time I board an airplane headed for Minneapolis, Salt Lake City or some other running destination, I hope you sit in the same aisle with a copy of this book in your attache case. I know it will help you in your own quest to fitness and fulfillment.
A 35-day program to get you started Fitness walking and racewalking schedules 5-K routines for the first-timer or more advanced runner Greg Meyer's program for the 25-K Running schedules exclusively for women How to compete in marathons just weeks apart Vern Gambetta's strength-training routine Routines for coming back from injuries Benji Durden's 84-week schedule for advanced marathoners Ultramarathon schedules up to 100-K The latest methods and workouts for aquarunning A triple-threat program for the triathlon Workouts for track, summer cross-country, and girls' cross-country A fun program to get children involved in running Tips on how to run in hot and cold weather
"Introduction" appears in Hal Higdon's HOW TO TRAIN by Hal Higdon,
Copyright © 1997 by Hal Higdon Communications, all rights reserved. Autographed
copies of this book are available from Roadrunner Press, P.O. Box 1034, Michigan
City, IN 46361-1034.