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Book review

gerrymcgerrymc Posts: 17
in General Chat
Bought the book 'Ironman made easy' by Paul Van Den Bosch a couple of weeks ago.

I have to say that I feel cheated out of 19.10 euro (about 13stg, 22 us dollars). Badly punctuated and it's obvious that no proof read ever took place. It also contains a 24 week program which for a beginner like myself doesn't seem to make a lot of sense as it calls for your long swim to take place on the same day as your long cycle most weeks. It also has you down for a 5 hour cycle on the Saturday (8 days) before the race.

While it may be ok the amount of simple mistakes throughout the book would leave me very sceptical about the program.

would be interested to hear any other comments from people who may have read this.

I'm seriously considering writing to 'Ironman" who have put their name to this and asking for a refund.

If I'm being unfair please advise.



Regards



Gerry

Comments

  • Gaz WilliamsGaz Williams Posts: 6
    Hi Gerry,



    I actually sat in Waterstones and read some of this book while my girl friend was shopping in a nearby Topshop. I must admit after reading the first 5 pages I came to the same conclusions as you and put it back on the shelf. I am doing Ironman UK this year has anyone got any suggestions of any good books?



    Gaz.

  • RobRob Posts: 209
    Gaz, I'm doing Sherborne this year & I got 'Going Long' by Joe Friel & Gordo Byrn (ISBN 1-931382-24-7). Full of good stuff. If you want something with a training plan in try 'Ironman Start To Finish' by Paul Huddle & Roch Frey (ISBN 1-84126-102-5). That's the 24 wk plan I'm going to use for Sherborne (with a few tweaks here & there).



    Cheers, Rob
  • jon_gjon_g Posts: 318
    Hi



    if you dont trust the book and are scptical just stay away from it. I'm doing my first ironman (ironman uk) in september next year and i bought "Be Iron Fit: Time-efficient Training Secrets for Ultimate Fitness" by Don Fink-from Amazon. It's brilliant! it's got 3 diferent 30 week (8 month) training programmes for you to choose from (depending on the amount of time you can give to your training). It is written very well, easy to understand and it tells you everything in plain, simple, easy to understand terms. Buy it, buy it buy it. I'm feeling extremely motivated and i havent even finished reading it yet!
  • hound doghound dog Posts: 293
    What a great thread, sorry you were ripped off gerrymc and If I was you Id definetly contact Ironman and also the publishers!

    Im lookin for a good training programme so keep the reviews coming...good or bad.
  • bennybenny Posts: 1,314
    hi everybody,

    I was not expecting to read things like this about Paul v d Bosch. I do not have the book you mention here gerrymc, but I got another title as a present from my wife, called ' training for triathlon'(In dutch of course, I don't know if its available in English?). I havent started reading it yet, so I cant tell you if its better or the same as yours. I'll let you guys know on this thread how it was.



    On the other hand, I know for sure that Paul van den Bosch is an exellent coach, he works together with the University of Leuven, which is top notch on the area of sports for Belgium. He also is the coach of Marc Herremans( IM hawai sixth place before his cycling accident, now IM Hawai wheelchair champion), and he's the coach of Luc van Lierde, whom you all know as Course record holder of IM Hawai and whomis tryinga come back over the last two and next two years.



    So, you can probably see how I was confused about this post. Maybe there's some problemwith translation or test reads or something else(I really hope that was the problem,causehe's a really respected coach over here).

    Greets,

    Benny
  • ram_man79ram_man79 Posts: 15
    'How Triathlon Ruined My Life' is a great book if your training for Ironman or any other triathlon. Very funny and full of great practical tips for people that don't have 40 hours per week to train.



    It's on http://www.upfrontpublishing.com/view.php?book=158



    ISBN: 978-1844-26-469



    Don't be fooled by the synopsis - it's full of good tips and defo worth the read. And it made me laugh ut loud, which isn't something you normally do when facing Ironman....
  • marian33marian33 Posts: 1
    Proofreading is one of the best tools to achieve success in writing. How to effectively proofread is as important as how to effectively write. It should be done with full focus and plenty of time to do it. It should not be rushed so that readers will have to finish the whole text and don't throw it away with a long sigh.
  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    ram_man79 wrote:
    'How Triathlon Ruined My Life' is a great book if your training for Ironman or any other triathlon. Very funny and full of great practical tips for people that don't have 40 hours per week to train.

    It's on http://www.upfrontpublishing.com/view.php?book=158

    ISBN: 978-1844-26-469

    Don't be fooled by the synopsis - it's full of good tips and defo worth the read. And it made me laugh ut loud, which isn't something you normally do when facing Ironman....
    You may find the author lurking around this neck of the woods when he's sunning himself in the US of A on the pretence of training proper athletes...

    Oh, and a +1 for Don Fink! Easy to read and understand!
  • TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
    This must be one of the oldest posts resurrected, 2007?
  • FlavadaveFlavadave Posts: 749
    TRIumphant wrote:
    This must be one of the oldest posts resurrected, 2007?
    Jesus wept... I never noticed the date!

    I feel a challenge coming on. Lets see who can resurrect the oldest post...
  • AtomicAtomic Posts: 126
    .

    Old threads about triathlon books ressurected!!!

    Conehead looking at new bikes!!!

    Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!
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