Alberto Salazar is a naturalized Cuban who ran in high school in New York, then at Oregon for Bill Bowerman. Post-college, he won the 1981 Boston Marathon, setting the world record at the time. Eventually athsma cut his world-class running days short, but not before he won the South African Comrades Ultramarathon (54 miles). He then went on to become the head coach of The Oregon Project. So he's not just a world-class practitioner, he's also a world-class coach.
The major things I hope will become benificial changes to our marathon training program are:
1) Training dead zones.
2) A greater variety of speed workouts.
3) More frequent speed workouts (20% - 25%).
4) Core weight cross training.
5) Plyometrics.
Training Dead Zones
Base training is your basic LSD running, to be run at no greater than 85% of race pace. It comprises 75-80% of your miles. VO2MAX training, or long (mile) intervals, is to be run slightly faster than race pace. Running efficiency (submaximal VO2MAX) training is shorter (200-400 meter) intervals, at a pace significantly faster than race pace. And lactic acid threshold training is run just a bit slower than race pace, for somewhat long training distances. You will note that there are some significant speed ranges that are not listed above. That's because doing a long run (for example) at faster than 85% of race pace just makes you more tired without getting you into the next training zone. It takes away from your next speed training run. It does no good. So stay out of the dead zones.
More Frequent Speed Workouts
Alberto says that recreational (non-elite) runners have less than half the mileage of elite runners, and therefore need a higher percentage of speed miles. He suggests one day a week is not enough. Once every 5 days is ideal, but since we live in a 7-day week, he says two speed workouts on one week followed by one speed workout the next will suffice. He also advises to mix up the interval distances, and tempo runs in a random pattern. Each type of workout improves a different aspect of your running and concetrating on one leaves gaping holes in your training.
Greater Variety of Speed Workouts
Long intervals 1000m to 1600m (one mile) are good for improving your VO2MAX. Short intervals (up to 400m) are good for running form and running efficiency. Half mile intervals are good a combination of the previous two. And tempo runs are good for building lactic acid threshold. Tempo runs can be from 20 minutes up to 1/2 race distance (That's 13.1 miles for you marathoners.) There are also tables of suggested paces for each of these types of workouts in the book. For example, tempo runs should be 25 to 30 slower than 10k race pace. That's 7:25-7:30 per mile for up to 13 miles for Dozer. Ouch!
Core weight Cross Training
Running does improve the muscles used in running (duh), but for some reason, some cross training and weight lifting can build up muscles not built up by running that can actually help you in running. Go figure. Alberto's core weight lifting program includes workouts for quads, hamstrings, calves, hip flexors, stomach and back. He uses leg machines, free weights, and just body exercises like crunches and lunges to achieve this. He says it's tough to cram weight training into an already full training cycle, but he suggests that you can benefit from as little as an hour per week.
Plymentrics
I've heard a lot of good things about plyometrics (jumping and bounding) helping speed you up by making your legs much stronger, but most running books just mention it in passing and say you need a coach to do it properly. At least Alberto give a reference, by name, in the text: High-Powered Plyometrics, by James Radcliffe and Robert Farentinos.
All in all, Alberto has written a great book. One of the best training books I've seen (haven't seen many). Can't wait to try some of this stuff out.
P.S. There's also a pretty good injury section, from a guy who's had just about all the running injuries possible.