Book Review: Daniels' Running Formula

Jack Daniels has been a running coach for over 45 years. He states that his aim in writing this book was to try to simplify training and workouts to allow the same types of training to be used for runners of all abilities. He emphasises the importance of avoiding overtraining, pointing out that the most successful runners are not necessarily the best, but are successful in avoiding injury at critical times.

The book describes how to plan your training, with periods of emphasising each speed.  As well as training plans, the book contains other useful information: how to adjust a treadmill to relate to running outside, how to warm up, how to adjust your speed to take account of the wind and the effects of running at altitude. 

The early chapters set out general information on planning your training in the longer term, and explain the physiological benefit of training at different speeds.

The core idea of the book is a ‘VDOT’ table which gives you a score based on a recent racing performances. There is then a series of tables you use to calculate five different speeds: Easy, Marathon, Threshold, Interval and Repetition.

A 1:15 half-marathoner scores 63 in the VDOT tables, which means Easy runs at 7:05 per mile, Marathon Pace of 5:59 per mile and Threshold Pace of 5:41 per mile. A 1:45 marathoner has a VDOT of 43 and those paces would be 9:37, 8:15 and 7:42 per mile respectively. Repetition Pace is faster (1:12 per 400m for a 75 minute half-marathoner, 1:40 per 400m for a 1:45 half-marathoner) and is aimed at biomechanical and anaerobic improvement.

Daniels defines ‘Interval’ pace as VO2 max pace, run in sessions of 3-5 minutes. Daniels’ view is that you should run these sessions at the slowest pace that elicits VO2 max. This is on the basis that, if you run any harder than that, you won’t be definition obtain any additional aerobic benefit - the extra speed will be fuelled by your anaerobic system.

The consequence is that the pace of these sessions is a bit slower than you might expect. For a 75 minute half-marathoner following the Daniels formula, a typical Interval paced session would be a series of 3:15 kilometres, with a recovery of 3:15.  For a 1:45 marathoner, Interval pace would be 4:26 per kilometre, again with equal time spent recovering.

The thinking behind the various training speeds seems logical and when I used the book I found it quite satisfying to run my sessions with a fixed pace and goal in mind. For most runners who regularly run interval sessions, following Daniels’approach will probably mean making your harder sessions less hard. This is perhaps a good thing if it leads to greater consistency.

But races aren’t so controlled and in races you need to suffer. Can you really run at your best if you haven’t suffered in training?

Paul Tergat doesn’t sound like he followed the Daniels formula during his build-up to his Sydney Olympic duel with Gebrselassie:

I would be on the track, running hard, collapsing, getting up, and running hard again. And when I was done, I couldn’t stand. I was so tired I couldn’t eat. I felt sick. I had no energy to do anything other than take a drink of water and lie down. Then I’d think of Haile, and know he was training even harder.

Maybe sometimes you need to stop reading and start running.

Quote from ‘The Greatest’ by Jim Denison.