Road Racing for Serious Runners

Improve your racing performance through multispeed training! Whether your distance is 5K, marathon, or anything in-between, Road Racing for Serious Runners tells you how to train smarter and run faster. This training plan is based on solid science, and its physiological basis is clearly explained and incorporated into a running program that produces maximum results and reduces the risk of injury.

In Road Racing for Serious Runners, Pete Pfitzinger-a world-class marathoner, distance running coach, and exercise physiologist-tells you how to get the most out of your limited training time. Pfitzinger teams up with former Running Times editor-in-chief Scott Douglas to present a training and racing plan that will help you excel in the full spectrum of road racing distances. You will learn how to

- design a week-by-week training program,
- determine the right pace to run during speed workouts,
- get the most out of long runs,
- taper training before an important race,
- detect and avoid staleness and injury,
- determine the best strategy for each race, and
- achieve the optimal mental state to train and race.

Included with each of five training schedules are racing tactics, mental tips, and lessons from world-class runners. Whatever distance you plan to race, Road Racing for Serious Runners will guide you to peak performance!

Pete Pfitzinger is a two-time member of the U.S. men's Olympic marathon team, a distance running coach, and an exercise physiologist. As a runner, he established himself as one of the best marathoners in U.S. history by outkicking Alberto Salazar to win the 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. That same year he received the DeCelle award for being America's best distance runner and was named Road Runners' Club of America Runner of the Year. He is also a two-time winner of the San Francisco Marathon and finished third in the 1987 New York City Marathon. As a coach, Pfitzinger has more than 18 years' experience, including working with distance runners at the University of Massachusetts, University of New Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke College.

In his current position as an exercise physiologist, Pfitzinger specializes in working with endurance athletes. He is a contributing editor for Running Times, which features his monthly column, ""The Pfitzinger Lab Report."" His writing has also appeared in American Health, Runner's World, and New England Runner. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts with an MS in exercise science, Pfitzinger currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Scott Douglas is a former editor-in-chief of Running Times, where he continues to work as a senior writer. He has published articles in Runner's World, Women's Sports & Fitness, and Road Race Management. He is also a former editor of Running & FitNews, a publication of the American Running and Fitness Association. Douglas has coauthored two books with Bill Rodgers-Bill Rodgers' Lifetime Running Plan and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jogging and Running.

Douglas has been a competitive runner since 1979, setting personal bests of 30:48 in the 10K, 51:01 in the 10 mile, and 1:08:40 in the half-marathon. Running competitively for almost 20 years, he has kept in tune with runners who have to fit training and racing around the demands of a career. He is well-known in running circles for his former column in Running Times, ""Scott Speaks,"" which focused on the concerns and cares of competitive runners. Douglas resides in Bethesda, MD.