Long Slow Distance: The humane way to train

Henderson describes the Long Slow Distance training method, and provides case studies of several runners who used the training strategy effectively, avoiding injury and improving their fitness and performance. Rather than being "just" a training method, LSD advocates a less stressful approach to running, making workouts less like work, and more enjoyable. Distance runs, it is noted, often build up to even higher than target distance (including the marathon itself), and remain enjoyable. Criticisms of the method are noted and addressed (for example, a commonly held objection is that there is NO speedwork, when in fact it is noted that most runners do get their speedwork in, under their common race conditions). Long Slow Distance is one of the many available training systems, each with their fans and detractors. This book is absolutely worth the read for getting insight into the LSD system and how it can become the core of a training plan, or at least a well-informed portion of it.

A classic treatise on why running long and "slow" is the only way to go! Whether you agree or not with the method, any runner can enjoy the experiences of the profiled runners who train this way.

Fantastic classic book. Clearly outlines importance of aerobic "conversational" runs.

The method described in this book is probably ok. The author makes his case by telling the running history of a few runners. All take their running seriously and are quite accomplished. The method is not backed up with any science, still it is interesting reading.

This book is an early example of Joe Henderson's natural, modest writing style. For over twenty years, I have been inspired by this advocate of long, easy runs. "Nature," he writes, "in all her wisdom, has provided us distance runners with a means to compensate for the speed she denied us. That is endurance." Henderson's endurance as a writer, I believe, is equally impressive.

This may be the most under rated and most unjustly maligned book ever written about running. In an environment where everyone seems to have complicated plans to running improvement, Long Slow Distance tells us how to do it simply and and stress free.

Case studies of several runners but very light on detail and no acknowledgment of the founder of this method Dr Van AAken.

This is a key book in the field of running. You don't have to personally like the author's ideas, or train the way he describes, to understand that he is presenting a solid and respectable approach to training for distance running.The very best runners may not train like this, but clearly you can get very, very good by training like this. The runners profiled have done things like win the Boston Marathon and set American records.There's only one flaw in this book that I perceive. When the author describes "slow running," he often defines it as "7 to 8 minute mile pace." Most amateur runners would define that as relatively fast running. Nowadays, slow running is more often defined as 10 to 12 minutes per mile, or even slower.But I can't fault this small book, which is hardly more than a pamphlet, for not being comprehensive and not seeing the future. The author went on to write many more books and articles, so I am sure his philosophy of slow running developed quite a bit further in later decades. This book was the original presentation for the public, that started the "slow running movement" and made it a respectable way to train that could minimize injuries, maximize enjoyment, and still lead to good results for serious racers on roads and the track.

This book is essentially a series of brief case studies into a handful of very good to average competative runners from the late 1960s-70s who all seemed to achieve better results when they got rid of most of their speedwork training and focused primarily on logging miles. The anecdotal and fairly limited nature of the content and lack of science to back it up means that speed work fanantics who read this book will probably dismiss it out of hand, whereas those who are already LSD junkies will take it as reassurance that they are on the right path.

First came across this as a slim volume in the 1980's when I was running half marathons.Decided to do one next year after 20 years lay off. This book is a voice from the past that gives me the self belief that I need to get out on the road again.

Possible to get a lot out of the book but hoped it would go into more detail than it did.

A number of interesting profiles of runners that adopted the LSD method. One caution is that the term "slow" is relative and that for myself a 7min/mile pace is certainly not slow as it might be for an elite runner.

Good Condition