Endurance Athlete's Edge

If you want to finish strong in multiple distance events, Endurance Athlete’s Edge is your complete guide to faster race times. Marc Evans, one of the world’s top coaches of multisport athletes, including Scott Tinley, shares his training program and racing insights.

Coach Evans teaches the most efficient swimming, cycling, and running techniques, and includes numerous photographs and 50 performance drills to perfect your form. His detailed prescriptions for strength training, flexibility, nutrition, and mental training are tailored to endurance athletes needs. A series of charts and tables help you customize a training schedule. The result is a week-by-week training blueprint for each sport.

Description

Marc Evans became the first professional triathlon coach back in 1981, and his experience shows in this excellent, comprehensive book. There are very good sections on technique, drills, and model sets in swimming, biking, and running. The chapter on "Supplemental Training" is the most thorough in any of the books we carry, covering dynamic and static stretching, weight training, calisthenics, plyometrics, and isokinetics. There are also excellent chapters on diet and psychology.

The major thrust of the book, though, is on developing a training program embodying training at various levels, as well as periodization. Evans actually has you lay out your training and racing schedule for an entire year, using a system which involves extensive tables and formulas. The downside of this is that if you actually want to follow his system, it will involve quite a bit of work on your part. Hopefully the results will justify the work! The system can be used to design training for triathlons ranging from sprint to Ironman. For each distance, there is a table showing the range of training distances per week "required" for each sport.

Evans acknowledges the existence of heart rate monitors, and discusses their uses, but believes from his experience that perceived exertion is actually a more reliable method to gauge intensity. If you do use heart rate, Evans makes it clear that when he uses the term "80%" he is referring to the "Karvonen" formula (heart rate corrected for resting heart rate). He notes that on this scale, a "0%" effort means total rest, while on the "straight percent" scale, a 0% effort means your heart has stopped beating :-). Most authors don't bother to specify what they mean, and since it can make a significant difference, this is a refreshing change.

Another nice feature of the book is that it includes extensive tables on desired training times for each level of exertion for each sport. For example, if you are going to run in the "anaerobic conditioning zone," you look up your 10K time in a table (which covers a range from 30-65 minutes), then read across to get the recommended time for 400, 1000, 1600, or 5000 meter workouts.

Book Details

• Pages: 229 pp.
• Format: 8 1/2 x 11" paperback
• Weight: 24 oz.
• Published: 1997
• Publisher: Human Kinetics
• Price: $19.95

Table of Contents

• Planning Your Program
  • Energy for Multiendurance Sports
    • The Strategies for Training
    • The Intensity of Practice and Peak Performance
    • Training Cycles: The Essence of Periodization
    • The Body's Basic Energy Systems
    • Four Training Zones to Peak Fitness
    • Gauging Intensity
  • Training Volume and Periodization
    • Step 1: Make a Copy of the Program Overview Manager
    • Step 2: Determine the Dates of Your Training Season
    • Step 3: Set and Rank Your Training and Competition Goals
    • Step 4: Determine Your Season Training Volume
    • Step 5: Determine Your Periodization Cycles
    • Step 6: Make a Copy of the Sport-Specific Program Managers
    • Step 7: Determine Your Periodization Cycle Volume
    • Using the Program Overview Manager
    • The Importance of Recovery
• Technique and Training
  • Swimming
    • Fighting the Elements
    • Body Position and Alignment
    • The Whole Stroke
    • Stroke Training Drills
    • Swimming Intensity Pace Charts
    • Model Swimming Sets
  • Cycling
    • The Rider/Bicycle Dynamic
    • The Technique of Pedaling
    • Exercise and Drill Training
    • Cycling Intensity Pace Charts
    • Model Cycling Training Sets
  • Running
    • Foot Biomechanics and Shoe Type
    • Techniques of Good Running
    • Exercise and Drill Training
    • Other Training Methods
    • Running Intensity Pace Charts
    • Model Running Training Sets
  • Supplemental Training
    • Improving Your Stength, Power, and Endurance
    • Flexibility Training
    • Isotonic Training
    • Calisthenic Training
    • Functional Isokinetic Training
    • Creating Your Supplemental Training Plan
  • Designing Your Training Program
    • Program Managers
    • The Workout Training Manager
    • Recovery in the Off-Season
    • Charting Your Progress
• Sharpening Your Edge
  • Fueling the Body
    • Carbohydrate: An Important Stamina Fuel
    • Fats: The Endurance Athlete's Ally
    • Protein: The Building, Development, and Recovery Nutrient
    • Water: The Optimum Fluid for Endurance Training and Competition
    • Vitamin and Mineral Supplementation
  • Preparing the Mind
    • The Competitive Body and Mind
    • Goal Setting: The Desire to Surpass
    • Mental Coping in Training and Competition
    • Dave Scott: "Do What I Can Do Right Now"
  • Competing: Putting the Pieces Together
    • In the Days Before Competition
    • Race Day Know-How
    • After the Race

Reviews

"March Evans has written another outstanding manual for triathletes, coaches, trainers, and sport scientists. The book is the most comprehensive treatment I've seen of triathlon's unique training and skill development requirements." - George M. Dallam, USA Triathlon National Team Coach.

"This book is full of detail in every aspect of training to give you the edge over your competition. This book will sit prominently at the front of my book shelf." - Greg Welch, four-time triathlon World Champion.