In The Lance Armstrong Performance Program: Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride, Armstrong teams up with his coach, Chris Carmichael (whom the U.S. Olympic Committee named 1999's Coach of the Year), to offer the ultimate insider's guide to becoming a better rider, based on the regimen Carmichael has been fine-tuning for Armstrong since the early 1990s. Noting that athletes of all levels focus best when aiming for specific goals at the end of short windows, the authors describe the performance program as consisting of "three specialized weekly training programs that build on your current fitness level" followed by a week of "recovery riding between each program." They provide an easy-to-administer fitness-level self-test in the form of a three-mile time trial (beginner, intermediate, or advanced), and they then define the key operative terms that make up the bulk of the actual training, including Tempo, HighSpin, PowerIntervals, Sprints, and Training Zone. A brief section of workbook-style pages provides readers with a user-friendly outline for the entire seven weeks.

Here is week 3 for an intermediate rider:

• Monday: day off.
• Tuesday: 1 hour in zone 2 with 20 minutes Tempo on flat terrain.
• Wednesday: 30 minutes in zone 1; recovery ride.
• Thursday: 1 hour in zone 2 with 15 minutes Tempo on flat terrain.
• Friday: 45 minutes in zone 2 with 10 minutes HighSpin on flat terrain.
• Saturday: 1 hour in zone 2 with 15 minutes Tempo on flat terrain.
• Sunday: 1.5 hours in zone 2 with 30 minutes on hilly terrain.

Though clearly the focus, the performance program itself makes up less than a third of the book. Other subjects covered include cycling equipment, essential maintenance and repair, riding in bad weather, road hazards, mental toughness, and the pros' eating habits both on and off the bike, to name just a few. What the book is not is the story of Lance Armstrong's remarkable recovery from testicular cancer (see his autobiography, It's Not About the Bike, for that). Rather, Armstrong and Carmichael have produced a detail-packed training manual, sprinkled with photographs and tales of the racing life, for those who spend a large percentage of their time on two wheels--or dream of it. --Patrick Jennings

In simple, clear terms, thankfully absent the mind-numbing details of other cycling books, Armstrong and Carmichael destroy the myth that training harder means going faster. Anyone who thinks that huffing and puffing until your thighs throb and burn is the way to grow stronger, is going to be outraged by this book. "How can you become stronger when it does not feel like you are working out? How can anyone reach ultimate fitness unless they pedal until it hurts?", they will wonder.

In a book that covers every aspect of cycling important to a rider, Armstrong and Carmichael lay out is a program for riding slower and riding less, but gaining strength and fitness you cannot reach the old fashion way of continually pushing beyond your aerobic limit. What Lance has proven beyond all doubt by his fitness level is that the key to expanding your aerobic limit is to stay within it. Forget the burn: if you burn you are lactating and if you do so every time you ride then you are loosing fitness, not gaining it.

It is a wonder that they decided to publish this book before Armstrong retires. We could have watched him perform for years and never guessed his secret. But his now open secret is safe, because it contradicts decades of training practice, so it is doubtful his opponents will use and capitalize on it. You may not be a world-class rider, but this is certainly a world-class book that will benefit any rider who applies its lessons.

The advice about cornering (weighting the outside pedal and shifting your weight, etc.) is something I haven't seen in print before, and I found it to be an awesome technique, having learned about it only at a criterium racing clinic a long time ago (the instructor adapted it from motorcycle racing). Also, the emergency turn advice is a great technique I learned at the same clinic, and it saved me from a few crashes in races. These explanantions, however, could have been aided by a bit more detail, and maybe some useful diagrams and photos. The dramatic and counter-intuitive emergency turn technique is poorly explained, and needs an explanation in terms of the angular momentum of the wheel (you have to take your front wheel off, spin it, and hold it in your hands to understand the technique).

The nutrition section encouraged me to be more rigorous in counting calories, which I've never done. That section didn't really tell me anything I didn't know already, but it was a good kick in the seat of the cycling shorts to shape up. On the negative side, the book makes a common mistake in recommending the amount of protein and carbohydrate by percentage. It may be ok for Lance to take in 10-15% protein, but given the total number of calories he needs to take in, he's probably still getting well over 120 grams a day (I need about 130 a day to be healthy at my comparitively modest activity level). But if your caloric requirements are much lower, then be careful - your protein levels must be kept up or you'll get ill. Joe Friel and Loren Cordain both have important things to say about this in their books, who recommend more like 0.8 or 0.9 grams per lbs of lean body mass for athletes (corresponding to about 25%-30% in most diets), as well as the "Protein Power" book by Eades and Eades. The bottom line is: beware of protein/carb/fat ratios.

I think James McCullagh's 1984 book "The Complete Bicycle Fitness Book" was a better book for newby riders, though it would be out of date in some areas now and is also out of print, unfortunately. It very nearly lived up to its title and was jammed with information. It's got some cool sections that Armstrong's book should have, like calorie output (and horsepower) vs. bicycle speed, and much more detailed suggestions on a variety of areas. Carmichael measures this stuff (see the Armstrong website for data about Armstrong's scary figures) so why isn't it in his Armstrong book? The Carmichael/Armstrong book therefore comes off as somewhat watered down: what's there is good, but they are only answering some of the common questions. I raced on and off road about ten years ago, and took up running after that (o.k. but far from elite results - a sub 17 minute 5k and a sub 3 hr marathon), so a lot of the training principles are old hat, and I know a lot that isn't in this book, too.

But what about the people who can't fill in the spaces? For example, in the climbing techniques section they mention that Armstrong "breathes out through his mouth and nose" and not in, and that he "concentrates on breathing deeply and regularly". This isn't sufficient information to really help someone: What they also need to know is you have to breathe from your diaphragm instead of your upper chest like most people, and that you only exchange 80% of your lung capacity in the first second when exhaling,so you need to increase your Peak Flow; there are abdominal exercises for helping with breathing, plus martial arts techniques, and respiratory devices (eg. The Breather) for strengthening your diaphragm to nearly double the peak flow in some cases, etc. This is what I mean by it not going far enough to be useful for the uninitiated, and it gets frustrating after awhile. In another section they refer to ab workouts and reference the excellent "Stronger Abs and Back" book, but all they show are lousy abdominal crunches, which are painful and difficult for some people, and a very incomplete recommendation as they only isolate one area (and they don't even mention specific ab exercises for helping with breathing). Why talk about it at all if they aren't going to do it right? That doesn't seem to be Armstrong's approach to his racing, so we expect the highest standard from his book.

The Armstrong training book is better than the old Lemond book, however, for new riders. I sort of get the impression that both the Lemond and Armstrong books coast a bit on the names, and that's unfortunate. Being a big Lemond fan, I was really disappointed with his book (should have been either stories or advice), as it seemed like something that was rushed out, and I get a similar impression with this one. I'm a bit more surprised at Carmichael than Armstrong, as Carmichael is in the business of training people. Is he trying to keep some of his really good advice proprietary so he can stimulate people to sign up for his coaching programs? Not a nice thought, but surely he knows more than this. I hope that future editions of the Armstrong/Carmichael book take a unblinking look at what's already published, and how usable some of their advice is, and try to do better. But hey, I gave it four stars because what's there is a good start.

Pedalhome
www.bicycleblowout. com

This book gets down and dirty and gives some great tips and workouts. It gives the mechanics behind making you a better rider. It seems to be a book that the editor and publisher said write what you want and we won't make you put in all the extra junk.

Get it now...

After ever page turn you want to be on the bike. The new out look on trainning makes you want to train. You find new ways to make your workout better not harder.

The diet Ideas will not only change what you eat but how you eat things and the times. I would go on but do not want to give the whole thing away.

I will leave you with this. The book will make you want to train though the winter to kick ass next season.

The good parts are stories of Lance's victories and some of the technique areas.

I also wish there had been greater coverage of warning signs of overtraining.

In the end, I felt like this book was an introductory ad for the Carmichael Training System.

Although I achieved great results by following the methods in this book, I did not quite obtain the results I desired. Maybe next year, jah?

Very helpful