I have the original CTB and a TTB. Garbage is probably a bit harsh, but I understand the sentiment. Caveats: I haven't read either of my copies in....sheesh....20 years? And, I do not own the newer editions.

In general Joe massively overcomplicates things and presents concepts that sound like science, but aren't really. A couple of examples....One Legged Drills: These are worthless. I mean I guess its fine, if it breaks up the monotony of a 5 hour e1 ride, and keeps you going fine. But, in terms of a skill that you need to practice to be a better cyclist...um no. Or....muscular endurance. No such thing. Its called endurance.

Joe's approach laid out in the *TB series is like that guy at the pool that shows up with a bag of every toy known to man, lays them all out on deck, and does 30 minutes of toy-driven-drill after toy-driven-drill. Then gets out without ever having done a hard 100 yards.

Again, I haven't read the recent editions...since the inclusion of Training Stress Metrics. But, I've read most of Joe's web content (blogs, articles, etc). His explanations of TSS and CTL/ATL/TSB are misleading mostly, and in a few cases wrong. His advocacy for combining S/B/R TSS/CTL/ATL/TSB is poorly conceived---that's been discussed ad-naseum here on the forum.

That said, the *TB books are good for learning how to lay out a week, month, and year. Again, I think the books overcomplicate it, with all the periodation phases and stuff. But, I don't recall any of it being "wrong" per-se. So, if you don't know how to do that, the book(s) will help in that regard.

Does that make it a worthwhile purchase? I dunno. If you don't know how to separate out the good from the bad, then I'm not sure...probably not. Best case, you read (and believe) a bunch of crap, come on here to ask more questions and the collective has to clear up all the BS. Worst case, you read (and believe) a bunch of crap, and you don't come here to ask more questions and you just do what the book says.

Will you become a stronger triathlete following the book's guidelines? Probably. Anyone following a structure and doing regular training, with challenging workouts, will get better. That doesn't mean that the underlying "science" in the book is correct.

Again...I have NOT read the recent editions.