I used Burke's Precision Heart Rate Training. I've not used Parker's book but have heard good things about it. I have "a" Maffetone book (he has several, can't remember which I have), but don't remember much about general heart rate training in there (i.e. idiosyncrasies of hrm's, etc) since I didn't use it. FWIW, I actually used Roy Benson's training pgm that I bought with my hrm and used Burke's book for supplemental information. That combo worked well for me for starting.

Just to follow up on what leitnerj has said. I have both books. Both argue that most people need to slow down to speed up. Maffetone argues they need to slow down (run low heart rate) on all their runs for a basebuilding period. Parker says to just have enough recovery days during the week so your hard runs can be hard. Parker's book is much most prescriptive than Maffetone's (i.e. it has detailed schedules). Parkers schedule are fairly similar to Maffetones anaerobic training phase except they probably have more intensity.

If you're doing all your mileage pretty fast then running the same mileage with easier easy days and harder hard days (Parkers approach) will result in a lot of improvement. If you're doing all your mileage too fast and can't run consistently (injured) and have trouble building mileage, then running all slower miles but increasing weekly mileage will also result in a lot of improvement. This can then be followed with a hard/easy approach like Parker's if your improvement plateaus on all easy running.

One word of caution: If you're one of the rare cases who comes to HRM training finding that you've been doing all your miles easy (i.e. less than say 75% max) then be careful jumping into Parker's approach if you go that route. Make sure you pick the right weekly mileage. 40 mpw all easy does not equal 40 mpw with tempo, intervals, and long run.

Pick the one that appeals to you and has the highest likelihood to keep you running consistently.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jarhead0351:
Where can you pick up the Maffetone book? I can't seem to find it anywhere.<HR>

http://www.pccoach.com/products/books/book_fit_t4e.htm[/URL" target="_blank">