You Only Faster

by Greg McMillan

Excellent Book

Genres: Fitness, Nonfiction, Sports, Health, Self Help

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Daniel]

Easy to read, but I wouldn't think this is a beginner's guide to running. Which makes it a bit boring at times as McMillan goes and explains what is the long run, how to do hill training and so on. And while you can read stuff like this in many other books and You can find many free running plans online, here you'll find a step by step guide of how to make yourself a customized running plan taking into consideration your running preferences, your adaptation times and recovery period.

And to customize it you need to know a bit about yourself as a runner, which means this book is not for total beginners. So you need some prior experience as you will likely not know if you are speedster or endurance monster and how well do you recover after specific workouts, what is your 10k pace and so on.

So, tho it is a very "simple and nothing new about running book" just because it helped me make my custom running plan I'm giving it 4* and recommend it for all those who want to improve their running speed.

[Dawn]

This book shows runners how to customize a training program based not only on their race goals, but also their own life schedules and running style. McMillan is a coach with decades of experience training both amateur and elite athletes, and the goal of his approach is to allow each runner to maximize his or her strengths and minimize injury. I really appreciated the focus on tailoring a program to one's needs, and building a strong base rather than pushing too hard, too fast.

[Ben]

Decent into to McMillan’s training schema

McMillan seems like a good coach and this book lays out a solid skeleton for 5k to marathon-distance training plans. The outlines of workout types are good and his online calculator for training paces is absolutely invaluable. I particularly appreciated his emphasis on adapting training plans to your own strengths/weaknesses and times of high/low stress. (I finished reading “Run” (mind-body method) by Matt Fitzgerald just prior to reading this and found the methodologies to meld well, with Fitzgerald providing a more dynamic, holistic framework and McMillan providing a more regimented/pre-planned one.)

Where this book fell short of expectations was in its lack of scientific rigor and missing workout library. For example, Jack Daniels in his Running Formula attempts to justify each of the workout types by explaining how it targets a particular adaptation that should improve running. McMillan instead falls back on his coaching (or mentorship) experience in his brief explanations. If you’re already convinced as to WHY you should be doing speed workouts, for example, this probably won’t bother you. However, given this lack of justification, I think the book could have been much shorter.

Finally, an in depth workout session library is an absolute must for the self-coached athlete. Without this, the reader is left with the few example sessions from plan templates and to experiment on their own. For example, I’m currently targeting a faster mile time. There’s no skeleton for a plan of this type or guidance on intervals or session volumes for this scenario. Overall, while this is a fine starting point, I do not consider this book self-contained.

[Tim Oberholzer]

Too Complicated

McMillan has an easy to read style but uses too many overlapping approaches and terms. For example, he goes to great lengths to explain pacing based on a duration of effort scale then subsequently throws that all out the window by referring readers to his pacing calculator. Why not go straight to the pacing calculator? Likewise, what is the difference between a Progression Run and a Fast Finish Long Run? What is the LLR included in the training plans but never explained in the book? (I even searched for LLR with no hits.) Finally, McMillan made a very intersting point about the time investment of an amateur versus elite runner doing a workout. But, he never translated that into a plan that reconcilled the amateur's issue that he just raised. The plans make sense. The explanations are complete. However, a more concise and simple book lies within if only the author had been challenged to tighten things up.

[Paul Deveaux]

This book is decent but not exceptional. It is over ten years old and it is poorly organized. For a 250 page book it has 46 chapters. Some of the “chapters” are half a page. The content itself is sound, but if you’ve read anything about running the vast majority of this information is not new. This book covers a lot of things well but skimps on things like real injury prevention or any in depth discussion of bio mechanics. McMillan opts to point the reader to go buy his DVD instead of including a section with exercises. Overall it reads like an extended magazine article. In the reference section the author cites five of his own Running Times articles.
At this point I would skip this and recommend Fitzgerald’s Run Like a Pro for the casual runner and Daniels Running Formula for coaches. For those wanting more on bio mechanics and injury prevention, Jay Dicharry’s Running Rewired is ideal.

[Russell Hunter]

This was a good book to help me work out a custom training program for races. It also has some good running and training tips that you can use at any time. The core of what he teaches in the book is to find out what kind of runner you are: Speeder, Endurance Monster, or a Combo Runner. Then use that as a guide for the kind of training you should focus on leading up to a race. The layout of the book is a little strange and there are some 1 page chapters, but it does have some great information.

[Allison]

Loved the practicality of the book and all of the "here's what I'd do in this situation" examples--very actionable steps to craft your own training plan. Also it's a short, fast, straightforward read (with the exception of the "I met this coach" anecdotes, which felt a bit like filler), so you can get through it quickly and painlessly.

[Soud Alebrahim]

This book one of the best books I’ve ever read for running, it gives you all the information you need to understand how to build your own schedule, and gove you the zones you should train in, every detail you need as runner, this book for all runner types, the slow runner or the fast runner.
I highly recommend reading this book it give me so much information on running.

[Tensai Asfaw]

Handy guide

Particularly enjoyed the reflections on how to recover and recognition of each runners different strengths. Combined with his training calculator this is one of the most useful and complete guides for self-directed runner who want to be their own coach.

[Carla Trujillo]

No es para iniciados pero es una guía bastante útil. Contiene programas personalizables para las distancias más comunes, principios básicos y avanzados de la carrera, reglas medulares, etc. El lenguaje es depurado aunque obviamente contiene mucha jerga.

[Alistdair]

Just what I needed!

Excellent advice to aid race preparation and running fitness. Providing clear expertise in running training and customising your own workout strategy. Free read on Kindle unlimited so no brainer!

[Joshua Thompson]

Good training volume, but not much earth-shattering. The one thing that I did take away from it was the concept of recovery from individual workouts when individualizing your training schedule.

[Iulian Bofu]

About training plans, zone training and adapting those plans fit into your needs.

[Luz Garcia]

I read this book after starting it 4 times, it felt a little monotonous and some concepts are out even for McMillan, but it’s great for perspective and listening while you run

[Karis]

It's not something you just sit and read for pleasure, for sure. But as a runner learning to build my own plans that will actually help me improve, this book is invaluable. I still refer back to it.

[Jim Allen]

Excellent, and more than I thought it would be. I thought I was getting a step-by-step guide on building a marathon training plan. I got that, but the real value of the book is McMillan's thorough explanation of how to modify whatever plan you're using to accomodate life events, races, etc. Also extremely useful are his detailed description of each type of training run, and why each is an important piece of the complete puzzle. I've read many running books, and this is definitely one of the best.

[Mo]

Great book overall! McMillan did a nice job with this one.
However, I do not think this book is appropriate for any novice runner. If you lack intimate knowledge about your particular weaknesses and strengths in different workout types, it will probably be a bit of a challenge to customize your own training plans - which is one of the main purposes of the book.

[Natalia Velez-Guerrero]

This book will make you fast

I had the opportunity to meet Greg last year and after listening carefully to him I understood that he really knew what he was saying and the heart he puts on what he does. If you are a runner and want to go faster, follow his guidelines and he will get you there. Gread read!

[Misty]

This is first running book I’ve read, though not the first material I’ve dove into. I think it was pretty helpful for better understanding running plans and what would work better for me. It didn’t really feel geared toward a slower runner (me), but I think the takeaways are still applicable.

[Whitney]

This book wasn't bad, it just wasn't great, and it definitely wasn't for a first or second time marathoner.

[Jeff Alexander]

Good book, it really opened my eyes to the need for specific training rather than just racking up the miles. I can't wait to try one of his plans for my next race training cycle.

[Michael]

Good addition to my collection on running.

[C]

Good overview of how to write and adapt your own running plans

[Patrick]

Fundamentals of training plan construction.

[Rob]

Decent resource, but still a little basic.