This was my husband's "bible" when he was last marathon training. He's picked out another marathon for next year so I expect to see it out again shortly! It worked for him anyway - he was over 25 mins faster in his second marathon than his first one.

I bought this book when i was trying to break 3 hrs in the marathon. I followed the 24 week, 70 mile/week plan closely. I didn't quite reach my goal (3:02), but the program still helped me set a fairly significant PR. I also set my half PR during the training (1:24). I found the early chapters on running form, nutrition, and race strategy to be very helpful even though i'd already run 4 or 5 marathons by the time i bought the book. As the title suggests, this book is about running marathons so it won't be as useful for shorter races. They incorporate less interval training than other advanced marathon training programs. The programs also don't permit much cross-training-- you're running fairly hard 6 days a week.

I like this book better than Jack Daniels' "Running Formula" because it is aimed at a bigger spread of runners abilities, where Daniels' caters more (the impression I get) to the sub 3:00 hr. marathoner.Just my 2 sense.