Hi all. A former athlete's dad bought me this book years ago and it wasn't until last summer that I decided to try it. A couple of quick takes:
1. There is nothing in the book about sprinting.
2. I wouldn't follow the plans exactly as written when things don't make sense. For example, I started with the 5k plan. The prescribed paces for let's say an 18:30 5ker has you running 800 meter reps at "race pace or slightly faster", yet the pace prescribed is like sub 5:30 pace with 400 jog. Not terrible but definitely faster than 5k pace. A follow up workout like two weeks later is 3x 1600 repeats at 5:40 pace with 60 rest. Maybe I've gotten soft in my old age but I could not come close to achieving that while I did ok for 800 repeats. The LT paces and distances felt significantly easier than the short reps for me, but I'm also mid 30s.
2. The cross training was a little short. For the 5k plan, most of it was less than 30 minutes with much of it "easy". Example, 26 minutes with 10 minutes warm-up, 2x2:00 hard, 2:00 rest, 10 minutes cooldown. I definitely like cross training for a lot of my recovery training though.
3. Having a general plan of 1 repeat, 1 short tempo, 1 LT, and cross train or make recovery days super easy and short is manageable for a lot of kids. Maybe you save this plan for your first year runners or your freshman coming in rather than varsity runners. Those were usually the kids we found struggled staying healthy running everyday.
If/when I go back to coaching, I plan on using it in some form.