New Additions to The Athlete's Bookstore

The Athlete's Bookstore from Stevens Creek Software

Recent Additions

Cycling Health and Physiology by Ed Burke

In this book, subtitled "Using sports science to improve your riding and racing," Burke has written a simple, easy-to-read guide to health and physiology for the cyclist. Half the book is develoted to "training topics," like determining your training needs, overtraining, fine tuning, etc, while the other half is about nutrition, keeping healthy, treating illness, and treating injuries. ($17.95)

The Cross-Country (Skiing) Primer by Laurie Gullion

An illustrated guide to the essentials of cross-country skiing, with special emphasis on techniques for classical, freestyle, and downhill cross-country skiing. Particularly valuable are the dozens of drills intended to help you perfect each form of skiing by emphasizing different aspects of the technique. ($15.95)

Runner's Guide to Cross Country Skiing by Dick Mansfield

Covers training, technique, equipment, waxing, etc., and also the end-product, with chapters on racing, touring, masters racing, and skiing 50K. Sections on technique lack illustrations and are not as extensive as in The Cross-Country Primer, but the descriptions are easy to follow. ($10.95)

The Men's Health Guide to Peak Conditioning

The editors of Men's Health Magazine have put together an impressive, comprehensive guide to every form of exercise. Whether you have a different motivation (lose weight, getting "ripped", etc.), a different situation (travel, family, etc.), different age (20's, 30's, 40's, 50's), different recreational interests (golf, tennis, basketball, etc.), this book shows you the exercises that will be best for you. ($29.95) An extended description of this book is available.

Fit & Pregnant by Joan Marie Butler

Exercises including stretching, aerobics, weight training, running and walking, swimming and other water activities, and cycling are covered in this book, as is nutrition and safety. Intended both for women in general who are pregnant and want to stay fit, and also for athletes who are looking for advice on how to modify their normal fitness routine during pregnancy. ($15.95)

Train Hard, Win Easy - The Kenyan Way by Toby Tanser

They don't wear heart rate monitors. They don't eat energy bars. They don't eat any magic pills or supplements. They just train. And train hard. This brand-new book isn't entitled "Secrets of the Kenyans" because, as the author and the Kenyans he interviews make clear, there are no secrets, no shortcuts. What you get instead is a no-nonsense, no-hype portrait of Kenya and its runners. You'll learn about the historical, geographical, and economic circumstances which have combined to produce the world's greatest concentration of world-class runners. You'll learn what life is like in the Kenyan training camps, and read about the training of top runners at distances from 800m to the marathon, including excerpts from their training logs. Complete with lots of photographs. ($19.95)

The Complete Guide to Racewalking Technique and Training by Dave McGovern

The most complete and up-to-date source of information on all aspects of racewalking, including technique, training, psychology, stretching, strength training, competition, and more. ($17.95) An extended description of this book is available.

Go East, Old Man by Paul Reese

The sequel to the now out-of-print Ten Million Steps, this book describes Paul Reese's adventures running across the 22 Western states between ages 70 and 79. Inspiring. ($14.95)

RunningTrax by Gerry Purdy

The classic book of computer-generated running training workouts, with a new metric orientation. ($15.95)

Runner's World Complete Book of Running by Amby Burfoot (ed.)

Amby Burfoot, executive editor of Runner's World Magazine, has put together a wonderful book for the beginning runner or anyone who is getting serious about their running. Think of it as the "best of Runner's World," a compilation of the best articles that have appeared in the last ten years, combined with some new material. The chapters have the kind of titles that many readers of Runner's World find annoying ("10 Laws of Health Running", "Seven Strategies to be your Best") but the advice is first-rate, coming from some of the most experienced writers and coaches in the business. The book is also attractively bound and typeset in an easy-to-read format, making it more likely that you'll read it cover to cover. Authors of chapters include such well-known Runner's World writers as Hal Higdon, Joe Henderson, Jeff Galloway, and Liz Applegate. ($24.95) An extended description of this book is available.

How to Train by Hal Higdon

Training schedules. You want 'em. Higdon's got 'em. If you're one of those runners who wants to be told what to do on a day by day basis, this is the book for you, whether you're training for a 5K or a 100K. Veteran writer Hal Higdon has put together the definitive book in this genre by collecting schedules for every conceivable situation and race length from 25 different coaches. Schedules cover distances from 5K to ultramarathons, and special situations like rehab, water-training, fitness walking, racewalking, children, and lots more. Would you believe a marathon schedule that's 84 weeks long? Higdon's got it, and more. ($16.95) An extended description of this book is available.

Smart Heart by Sally Edwards

This is Sally Edwards' third book about training with a heart rate monitor, and by far her most comprehensive. Some coaches believe in limited uses for HRMs (e.g., making sure you go easy on your easy days). Edwards is the "total HRM coach" - she believes every aspect of your training and racing should be designed around the HRM. And she practices what she preaches as a competitive athlete herself (winner of many Ironman triathlons, among many other races). Starting with the concepts she laid out in HEART ZONE TRAINING, she expands on them in ways more suited to competitive athletes. The subtitle of the book - High Performance Heart Zone Training - explains her intent clearly.

Edwards doesn't provide complete training programs for any particular sport, but instead concentrates on teaching you how to put together all the elements of a training program yourself by apportioning your training between the different "heart rate training zones." Many of the workouts in the book are described only in heart rate terms, with no reference to sport whatsoever (e.g., number of minutes in a particular training zone).

The book could use an Index, but is otherwise attractively laid out and easy to read. ($24.95) An extended description of this book is available.

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