Running Book Reviews with Alan and Liz: Recent Episodes

Alan and Liz

All types of running related books are reviewed by two non-elite track, road and trail runners. Observation and description of running books intended to inform, help and inspire anyone involved or related to running at any level. Whenever possible we chat with the author about the book, but if not then we try to do it justice. If you have been enjoying the podcast and are wondering how you can help us out, you can now buy us a coffee! Visit our page on the Buy Me A Coffee website: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlanandLiz

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In the running boom of the 80s the small town of Bernardsville New Jersey emerged as a magical place for the sport, producing champions at all levels of distance running. The young, passionate experimental coach of the junior program feeding a lot of the success was Mark Wetmore; before he became of the worlds best collegiate coaches. Blood Sweat and Spikes is a story of one of the runners in that town (Lyle Smith) and the people that made it unique in the history of the sport.

Lyle Smith has been a reporter,, a caddie, a grave digger, a marketing professional and a runner since he discovered the sport as a youngster growing up in Bernardsville , New Jersey. He now lives in Colorado with his wife Heather and son Aiden. You might hear him podcasting or see him running the trails of Boulder with his golden retriever Elsa.

Lyle's site, lylesmith.net, is where he can be reached, where you can learn more about him.

Lyle's IG: @nymblegram

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Here we are again with a recap of 10 running books. This time is a first with Shayan added to the usual Alan and Liz mix

Here's a list of all 10 books and and a link to the full podcast episodes in which they are featured.

Chasing the Grid by Ken Posner

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17934193

Fuel for Thought by Renee McGregor

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17951831

Ultra Women by Lily canter and Emma Wilkinson

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18088365

Road to Redemption by Tom Fitzgerald

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18196515

Practical Fueling for Endurance Athletes by Kylee van Horn

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18398279

Running the World by Robyn Godfrey

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18445395

Move Rest Recover by Erin Taylor

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18559534

Advanced Marathoning (4th Edn.) by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18560759

Still Running after all these Tears by Lisa jackson

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18723464

What I Talk About when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/19076029

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In One Step Forward , we follow Gene from his initial unhealthy lifestyle as he transforms from sedentary starter to 11x Ironman finisher—with a 10-year Boston Marathon streak

During this journey Gene extracts over 100 life lessons from his running but applicable to all kinds of situations. They fall into 5 major categories

Perseverance and Resilience
Mental Strength and Self Talk
Community and Support
Personal Growth and Transformation
Service and Giving Back

Gene Jochen is an endurance athlete who has completed over 100 marathons including his 11th Boston in 2022 and all six Abbott World Marathons—plus 11 Ironmans. A corporate leader, sales expert and entrepreneur, he sharpened his mindset testing limits on roads trails and triathlons . He shares hard -earned insights to help others conquer doubt, build resilience and break personal barriers. He's also a songwriter and jazz/rock drummer.

Gene's site, https://genejochen.com/, is where he can be reached, where you can learn more about his next book, and where you can find access to locations to purchase this book:

Gene's IG: https://www.instagram.com/grjochen/

Gene's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gene-jochen-bsmartinc330/

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Marathon Excellence for Everyone is a bible about marathon training and racing. It has 50 chapters divided into 8 sections (not counting the appendix):

First steps
The phases of marathon training
Training plans
Race day and beyond
The science of marathon performance
The science of fueling
Overcoming illness, injury, and other setbacks
Advanced training techniques

John Davis is a scientist, writer, and coach. His work uses modern machine learning and biostatistics to understand biomechanics, physiology, and human health. Recently, he’s focused on using these same tools to tackle problems in AI alignment and AI interpretability.

His site, https://johnjdavis.io/, is where he puts his technical write-ups and explainers on topics like AI, ML, and biomechanics. He can also be found at https://runningwritings.com/ where you can:

Get copies of the book: https://marathonexcellence.com/

Join John's newsletter to get links to all his new content: https://runningwritings.com/news

Follow him on Instagram (or FB): https://www.instagram.com/runningwritings/

Listen to his longer form content on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RunningWritings

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In this episode, we talk with author, former professional runner for the Nike Oregon Project and current Irish national runner, and Stanford medical student Mary Cain about her memoir: This is Not About Running. We ask her about her youth, growing up in an abusive athletics system, training for Alberto Salazar as a high schooler. We also talk about her work with Atalanta NYC and The Athlete's Survivors' Assist, her growth and the many hats she wears as a survivor, leader, mentor, student and professional runner. She speaks on what she wishes for young runners today, the challenges we face and where the conversation should be going to enact concrete change.

About the Book

In THIS IS NOT ABOUT RUNNING Cain shares her whole story, offering never-before told details and perspective to shed light on the normalized abuse in sports, and advocating for a better future for athletes. Cain is fearless in her storytelling. She has a passion for writing and each short chapter of the book recounts a vignette in present tense, bringing the reader alongside her. She gains speed, notches wins, and excels in school—and encounters cruelty and abuse starting early on and becoming deeper and darker throughout her time running for Nike.

The memoir is aptly organized into 5 gripping parts of Mary Cain’s young life and they are titled Talent, Rookie, Competitor, Professional and Champion.

This episode and book comes with trigger warnings on disordered eating, body shaming, sexual harassment, abuse, self-harm, mental health episodes and suicidal ideation.

About Mary Cain

Mary Cain is a medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine. After sharing her story with the world in a 2019 New York Times op-ed, Cain has dedicated her career to driving change in sport, with an emphasis on athlete well-being and gender equity. She is the founder of Atalanta NYC, a nonprofit that employs professional female runners to serve as mentors for young girls, and serves on the board of The Athlete Survivors’ Assist (formerly known as The Army of Survivors), a nonprofit that brings awareness, accountability, and transparency to sexual violence against athletes at all levels. She is also a runner. Cain had a record-breaking professional running career that included becoming the 2014 World Junior Champion in the 3000m and a 2013 World Championships finalist in the 1500m.

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In this episode, we dive into the transformative 31-day journey laid out by legendary ultrarunner and coach Allie Bailey. This isn't just a "how-to" for running; it’s a manual for the mental game of life. Whether you are training for your first 5K, an ultra, or just trying to navigate a career shift, Allie’s 1-2-3 structure (Focus, Example, and The Work) provides a realistic, down-to-earth roadmap to getting your head in the right place. We break down the 6-part framework, the power of her 5-day worksheets, and why honesty is the most important piece of gear you’ll ever own.

About the Book

More than a training plan, this book is a 31-day mental reset. Designed to be digested in 5-day sections with a final capstone day, it builds a foundation of resilience that transcends sport.

The Focus: Every chapter centers on one vital mindset shift.
The Reality: Allie shares unfiltered stories from her own 200+ marathons and coaching career.
The Work: Actionable steps to help you master your internal dialogue and unlock your true potential.

About Allie Bailey

Allie Bailey is an ultrarunner, speaker, and coach who has conquered some of the most extreme environments on Earth. With over 200 marathons and ultramarathons under her belt, her most significant victory wasn't at a finish line—it was her ongoing recovery from depression and alcoholism.

After a life-changing mental health crisis in 2021, Allie walked away from a high-flying music industry career to help others find their own "why." Named one of the UK’s most inspiring female adventurers by The Guardian, Allie now lives in Yorkshire with her rescue dog, Pickle, coaching athletes to be as strong mentally as they are physically.

If anyone has already read the book, let us know what your biggest "lightbulb moment" from Allie’s 31-day program was. We'd love to hear about it!

If you'd like to read Allie's blog or get a copy of her book, both are available on her website (as well as links to her social media if you'd like to follow her): http://www.alliebailey.co.uk/about

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In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing.

Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.

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Here are a few of the discussion points in this episode:

Focus on your protein --- Lauren Antonnuchi , High Performance Nutrition for Masters athletes

Carbs are good! Fuel your training --- Renee McGregor, Fuel for Thought

Enclothed Cognition is a real thing! --- Kara Goucher, Strong

You can have running success as a warrior or a worrier --- Believe Journal, Lauren Fleshmann and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas

Animals and care for animals can teach you some wonderful things --- Running with Sherman, Chris McDougall and Finding Gobi, Dion Leonard

Running form drills are worthwhile – Born to Run2 , Chris McDougall and Eric Orton and Built to Run , Matt Silver

A good base build can be loads of easy volume with a few strides – Run Elite , Andrew Snow

Alberto Salazaar deserved his ban and Nike is a toxic company --- Win at All Costs, Matt Hart and Longest Run, Kara Goucher and Mary Pilon

Doing hard things can't be sustained with a macho, ‘can't hurt me’ attitude. Instead you need a realistic, responsive approach, that listens to your body but transcends discomfort ---- Do Hard Things , Steve Magness

Similarly, great athletes are Ultra Realists ---- Comeback Quotient, Matt Fitzgerald

Flow State , it’s a real thing --- Running Home , Katie Arnold

Inspiration and Motivation can come in many different forms ….. you just have to stay open to the messages …..all kinds of books and people

You can get improved performance by being smarter rather than working harder --- How to Run the Perfect Race, Matt Fitzgerald

No matter what the performance goals, feed and sustain the joy of running --- 26.2 miles to Happiness , Paul Tomkinson and The Happy Runner , David and Megan Roche

There is no precise training prescription but there are some general rules --- many training books

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Still Running After All These Tears is the newest book by Lisa Jackson, and it perfectly aligns with the realization I shared at the beginning of the episode. After years of sub-3 hour marathon attempts ending in disappointment, Liz took Alan's advice to "hold (her) goal lightly." Instead of focusing on the clock, her mantra became "run for those who can't." She explains in the intro story how she dedicated her miles to her late sister-in-law who passed away from breast cancer, a new friend recovering from breast cancer who waited for her at the finish line, and her husband who was sidelined with a bad back. Lisa’s book explores a similar shift, showing how running can be a survival manual for the broken-hearted rather than just a pursuit of performance.

The book covers:

Navigating devastating grief and multiple bereavements
Coping with debilitating injury and losing your running mojo
Training for a 109th marathon in a loved one's honour
Transitioning from heartache to hope
The redemptive power of running and its life-enhancing lessons
Thriving in the face of trauma
What makes a good death
How to lead a joyous, meaningful life

Lisa Jackson is a running writer and Runner’s World columnist, and the author of the best-selling books Your Pace or Mine?, Running Made Easy and Still Running After All These Tears: A Runner’s Journey Through Grief. A veteran of over 100 marathons and two 56-mile ultras, Lisa is Women’s Running’s hypnotherapy expert, and her writing has been published in Psychologies, Red, Prima, Top Santé, Healthy, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, The Independent and Mumsnet. She is also a keen traveller and, having backpacked through well over 100 countries, wrote two travelogues - Travel Seekness and Travel Agents - with her husband Graham Williams.

Lisa has presented talks at numerous events including The National Running Show and RunFestRun and is a frequent guest on running podcasts and the radio. She was one of 40 people featured in The Sunday Times’s Alternative Rich List aka The Enriched List, as someone whose life has been ‘rich in experience, rich in spirit, rich in life’. Lisa was nominated in the 2020 Women of the Year Awards, and in the 2018 Women’s Running Awards in the ‘Influencer of the Year’ category. She is an Ambassador for the multi-award-winning fitnesswear brand Flanci Activewear.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book, it can be found on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aCZqOAS

You can follow Lisa's writing in Runner's World and Women's Running, and find more about her work and ambassadorship with Flanci Activewear online @lisaflamingojackson on Instagram or Facebook, or at lisajackson43 on X.

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Advanced Marathoning (4th ed.) is the newest version of the training book Alan and I have been using for our sub-3 hour marathon attempts. This version, like the last one, is divided into 2 parts:

Training components
Elements of training
Nutrition and hydration
Balancing training and recovery
Supplementary training

Advanced marathoning for masters runners (The older (and wiser) marathoner – in the 3rd ed.)

Tapering for peak marathon performance
Race day strategy
Training program
Following the schedules
Marathon training up to 55 miles (89 km) per week
Marathon training on 55 to 70 miles (89 to 113 km) per week
Marathon training on 70 to 85 miles (113-137 km) per week
Marathon training on more than 85 miles (137 km) per week
Multiple marathoning

Pete Pfitzinger was the top American finisher in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic marathons. With a personal best of 2:11:43, Pfitzinger is a two-time winner of the San Francisco Marathon and placed third in the 1987 New York City Marathon. He was ranked the top American marathoner in 1984 by Track & Field News, and he is a member of the Road Runners Club of America’s Hall of Fame. He was a senior writer for Running Times from 1997 to 2007, in which his popular column, “The Pfitzinger Lab Report,” appeared. Pete has over 30 years of experience coaching marathon runners to achieve their goals. He is also the coauthor of Faster Road Racing.

Scott is a contributing writer for Runner’s World and Outside. He is the author or coauthor of several well-known running books, including Personal Best Running, Running Is My Therapy, and the New York Times bestsellers Meb for Mortals and 26 Marathons. Scott has run more than 130,000 miles since starting as a teen. He lives in North Yarmouth, Maine. He has also written about running for Slate, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and others.

If you’re interested in this book, the authors would like if you could first check your local book shop, specialty running shop, or bookshop.org (if you’re in the US). You can also find it online if all else fails.

They mentioned their Advanced Marathoning and Faster Road Racing FB page where you can follow them, and Scott Douglas is on Substack (where his profile photo is a photo of a dog with the Advanced Marathoning book).

The Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063961968481

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Move, Rest, Recover guides readers on the practice of rest and recovery. It tries to answer questions like:

Why should I rest and recover?
How do I know when to stop and rest?
When I stop, what should I do?

The book is split into 4 sections:

Understand recovery
Activate recovery
Strengthen recovery
Keep recovering

Erin Taylor is an international recovery expert, writer, and yoga teacher. For 20 years she has coached professional athletes, everyday runners, pre- and post-natal women, office workers, and anyone looking to integrate practices that improve well-being and longevity. She is the creator of Balance Practice, a platform that offers practical tools to inspire and support mental and physical balance in all aspects of life. Erin is also the founder of Athletes for Yoga, the only athlete-led, on-demand video platform and app that puts yoga into the context of sport and well-being goals, and the author of Work IN and Hit Reset.

If you’d like to follow Erin, she can be found at https://erintaylor.works where you can get her book.

She is also on Instagram at @erintaylorworks or @athletesforyogahq.

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In this episode we speak with Author Robyn Godfrey about her book Running the World. Robyn didn’t plan to become a marathoner. She stumbled through adolescence as a clumsy teen and later partied through midlife while searching for purpose. Everything shifted the day she laced up her running shoes. What began as thirty seconds on a treadmill grew into a running journey that redefined her life. Running the World follows Robyn’s quest to conquer all six World Marathon Majors—Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City—while navigating her husband’s stage 4 cancer diagnosis, injuries, weather disasters, and waves of self-doubt. With honesty and humor, she shares the grit, setbacks, and triumphs that shaped her path through marathons, half marathons, and beyond. This is more than a running memoir. It is an inspirational story of resilience, reinvention, and the courage to start again.

Robyn Godfrey is a speaker, accomplished runner, pacer, Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) Certified Level 1 coach, and writer, who began her running journey at the age of 47. What started as a personal quest to improve her health and overcome her relationship with alcohol soon evolved into a remarkable achievement: completing seven marathons, including the prestigious World Marathon Majors — London, Chicago, Berlin, Boston, New York, and Tokyo achieving the Six Star Medal in 2024. A dedicated member of the Wilmington Road Runners Club since 2013, Robyn has made a significant impact by coaching and pacing runners, helping them unlock their potential and reach their goals. In addition to her coaching, she has volunteered with organizations like Girls on the Run, empowering young girls to grow both physically and personally through running.

If you’d like to read the book for yourself then it can be found here: https://books2read.com/runningtheworld

To learn more about the author she can be found here: https://www.robyngodfrey.com

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Practical Fueling for Endurance Athletes delivers the practical, science-based information and strategies you need for long-term health and superior performance in your sport.Kylee Van Horn—registered dietitian, endurance athlete, and coach—will help you navigate the challenges of endurance sports with the following:

Essential nutrition concepts that aren’t directed at weight loss
The smart use of supplements
Strategies for developing your ideal personal nutrition plan
Unique nutrient needs of female athletes, including during pregnancy and menopause
Plant-based fueling
Special dietary needs
Planning meals and snacks

You’ll learn to design, test, and implement sport-specific nutrient intake for before, during, and after your workout or event to ensure your body has the right amount of energy at the right time.

Throughout, you will find checklists, charts, and 28 easy-to-make recipes to help you take in adequate and appropriate nutrients for your unique needs. Get inspiration from the stories and strategies shared by endurance athletes such as Camille Herron, Sage Canaday, Nicole Mericle, and many others, showcasing how their nutrition plans fueled their success.

Kylee Van Horn, RDN, is a registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Flynutrition LLC, a virtual sports nutrition private practice that exclusively serves the endurance athlete population.

With a mission of separating facts from fads, Van Horn provides practical guidance for endurance athletes to direct them to a sustainable approach to fueling their activities for long-term health and performance.

Van Horn writes a monthly nutrition column published in Outside Run Magazine and has written for FasterSkier and Gnarly Sports Nutrition. She is quoted frequently in articles for Outside Magazine and speaks regularly to athletes and professionals on topics related to endurance sports nutrition for running, skiing, climbing, triathlon, obstacle course racing, and mountaineering.

She is the cohost of the podcast Your Diet Sucks, which seeks to provide thoughtful conversations—backed by science—around controversial topics in the diet and fitness space.

She has also been featured on numerous podcasts, including The Running Explained Podcast, The Strength Running Podcast, Consummate Athlete, Bodies in Motion, and Off the Couch.

You can find Kylee's podcast here: https://www.yourdietsuckspodcast.com/

If you're interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, it is available here: https://a.co/d/itxkuSZ

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For today's episode we got to read another fictional running story. These are rare but we've enjoyed every single one we read so far and this one was no exception.

Toeing the start line of the 1983 Boston Marathon, Cooper McKenzie (the main character) finds himself in a race to make meaning of his troubled, unimpressive life. Cooper McKenzie is contending with the stark realities of middle age—he is fully disenchanted with his career, he is struggling to meet the financial needs of his young family, and he has accumulated an unbearable number of “what ifs” and regrets. Staring down a serious medical diagnosis, Cooper takes inventory of the pivotal moments of his life—things left unfinished, unfortunate outcomes, and a negative sense of self. He resolves to rewrite his script of failure even as his own body is failing him. A story of resilience builds as Cooper makes his way to the start of the Boston Marathon to run a distance he has never attempted, let alone completed. His reasons for risking it all to finish are painfully clear, but with such high stakes, finishing could mean the end. The Road to Redemption captures a personal journey that is altogether universal. We must traverse our lived experience, particularly those moments of vulnerability and shame, to reach the end goal of knowing the truth of what we can do and who we are.

In this episode we had two guests... Tom's son, Matt Fitzgerald (yes, the same Matt Fitzgerald who has written more than 30 books about endurance), was there to help with questions if needed and Tom's other son, Sean, was in the background to help set up the technology. I guess we had 3 guests?

Tom Fitzgerald doesn't always write about running but has his own impressive resume. He has authored a wide-ranging collection of impactful books, including the bestselling novel Chocolate Charlie, the popular fitness title Get Tough!, and the critically acclaimed Poor Richard's Lament. Raised in Upstate New York on the St. Lawrence River, Fitzgerald completed a series of solo open-water swims in his late teens and early 20s before joining the United States Navy and serving in Vietnam as a member of the Special Forces. He later ran the Boston Marathon three times. Fitzgerald began working on Road to Redemption (originally titled A Private Agony) in 1982, completing the novel after a lengthy hiatus at the urging of the second of his three sons, Matt Fitzgerald, himself the author of many books on running.

If you'd like to learn more about the author, his website is: https://www.kingsleybooks.info

If you'd like to see some of the other titles published by 8020 Publishing then you can find this book and others in their catalog here: https://8020books.com/catalog/

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Here we are again with another recap episode. Alan and Liz chat about their last ten reads and we've also linked the full episode for each book in case you want to hear more!

If you're behind in your listening then this episode is for you. You can get a feel for each of the last 10 books, before going back to the episodes in order of which books you're most interested in.

Unbound, by Bill Donahue

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/16892720

Run Less Run Faster, by Bill Pierce and Scott Mur

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17210285

What If?, by Ashley Varley

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17210375

Believe Training Journal, by Lauren Fleshman and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17284114

Chasing Mastery, by Matt Fitzgerald

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17343771

Mud, Sweat and Bears, by Harriet Gaywood

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17397837

Feet In The Clouds, by Richard Askwith

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17528270

How To Run, by Scott F. Parker

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17621086

Marathon Mindset, by Erica Rasmussen

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17676440

Stroke of Luck, by Steven Kelly

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17925455

You probably noticed we talked about a book Liz is reading that was not reviewed yet called The Running Shaped Hole. If you’re interested in learning more about that then you can find it on the publisher’s website here: https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459749054-the-running-shaped-hole

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Recently, a trend has captured public attention: female athletes have been beating the strongest male contenders, in the toughest races in the world, races designed for men. In Ultra Women, the authors (who are themselves endurance athletes) delve into the surprising science of sporting performance to explore the physiological and psychological differences between the sexes. They ask: could fat stores and muscle type (and capacity for not sleeping) really give women an edge over men in ultra long distances? And what roles are played by pace, preparation, and motherhood? Speaking to elite athletes, historians and scientists, the book unearths the largely unknown past of female endurance, from hunter- gathering to the early 20th Century discipline of pedestrianism and we get to meet some amazing women who have done amazing things.

These bios are not going to do justice to these two women because they do a lot more than we could cover in the number of characters allowed in this description, but here it goes!

Lily Canter is a freelance running, fitness and adventure travel journalist writing for Runner’s World, Live for the Outdoors, Women’s Health, The Guardian and Metro. She is an England Athletics running coach and founder of women’s only club Great Bowden Runners. She competes in ultra marathons and canicrosses with her dog. Instagram: @lilycanter

Emma Wilkinson is an award-winning freelance journalist specialising in medicine, science and health. She has written for the Sunday Times, BBC, Pulse, the BMJ and Lancet among others. Emma lives in Sheffield and runs up hills for fun. Instagram: @emmawjourno

If you're interested in getting a copy of this book for yourself then you can find it on Amazon or directly on the publishers website here: https://www.canburypress.com/products/presale-ultra-women-by-lily-canter-and-emma-wilkinson-isbn-9781914487101?srsltid=AfmBOopm-PGhLV9ZE2vjNfl-wobGtYreNsxyJ2F_VNPUtgLWH1VGzlsy

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Chasing The Grid is the story of the authors physical and spiritual journey running in the Catskill Mountains. Originally wanting to beat the record for climbing all 35 peaks in one outing, Kenneth Posner got injured on his second attempt and needed to find a new goal for his running. His new goal came from a chance encounter while in the mountains he loved, and it’s the main subject of this book!

Kenneth Posner’s running credentials include completing 110 races of marathon distance or longer and setting fastest known times for the 294-mile Badwater Double in Death Valley and New York’s 350-mile Long Path. As a barefoot athlete, he has run 112 races, climbed 485 mountains, including every 4,000-footer in the Northeast, and thru-hiked the John Muir Trail. As board chair for the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference and Run Wild, Inc., he supports land conservation and stewardship and advocates for connecting young people with nature. Following service as a US Army infantry officer, his business career now spans 30 years as a Wall Street analyst and corporate executive. He is currently serving as senior vice president of strategic planning and investor relations at Mr. Cooper Group, the nation’s largest mortgage servicer.

If you’d like to read the book for yourself you can find links to this one and his other work here: https://www.barefootken.com

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Stroke of Luck: My Life in Amateur Athletics is a chronicle of passion and rediscovery—the emotional story of a dedicated competitive runner, Steven Kelly, whose participation in the sport spans fifty years. As a teenager, Steve searches for his niche while dealing with challenges that will be familiar to many families. After he discovers running, it soon becomes part of his identity. Steve’s adventures take him across North America and Europe, and he fulfills a lifelong dream by running in the 2001 Boston Marathon. Along the way, Steve comes to realize that much of his personal success is due to the enduring presence of running in his life. A series of strokes threaten not only Steve’s athletic pursuits but his life. By eventually returning to the road, he realizes new opportunities for growth.

Steven Kelly is a semi-retired chemical engineer and a dedicated amateur runner, who has competed in road races for almost fifty years. He grew up in a working-class city in Ontario. Telling the story of his recovery from a series of strokes has allowed Steve to pursue another of his lifelong interests, non-fiction writing. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, and while he still enjoys running along the river pathways, it is now at a slower pace and usually includes photography.

If you’d like to get a copy of the book, it’s available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/eTW5ggd

Steven's blog with some of his photos can be found here: https://mysecondrunninglife.com/about-the-blog/

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Marathon Mindset is Erica’s story of becoming a runner while on a 100 pound weight loss journey. She also talks about her past struggles with an eating disorder, anxiety and depression which started in high school. Through her running journey, Erica learned 5 lessons which she brings to the rest of her life: Grit, Grind, Grace, Growth and Gratitude.

Erica is a mom who unexpectedly became a marathon runner. She also took on the challenge to run a race in all 50 states by age 50 and wants to complete all of the 6 original marathon majors. She has made it her mission to inspire others to go for their goals and not get too discouraged if there are doubts and challenges along the way.

During the episode we mentioned a Ted Talk about mindset where Carol Dweck talks about the idea of growth and fixed mindset. Here is the link if you'd like to see it for yourself: https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ?feature=shared

If you'd like to get a copy of the book, you can find it here: https://a.co/d/jiWb3ep

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Giving an overview of this book is complicated. It’s like giving an overview of what running is… where do you start? What kind of running are we talking about? Trail? Road? Ultrarunning? This book is also misnamed because it won’t teach you how to run. You likely need to already be a runner and have opinions about running for it to speak to you. The short answer is that this book is a collection of poems and short essays about running. Most of them express Scott’s love for running, but there are also a few “rants” in there for those that like some controversy.

Scott F. Parker is the author of The Joy of Running qua Running, Run for Your Life: A Manifesto, Running after Prefontaine, and the picture book Run for Fun. His work has appeared in Runner's World, Running Times, and many other publications. He writes the On the Run series for Sport Literate.

If you'd like to learn more about Scott and see what else he's writing about, you can find him here: https://www.scottfparker.com/books

You can find the book on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/iFE0Yf1

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Feet in the Clouds is a deep dive into the world of fell running. It talks about the history of the sport, some of its GOATs like Bill Teasdale and Kenny Stuart, and professional vs amateur races. At the same time, the author tells the story of his own journey in fell running and his quest to complete the Bob Graham Round in under 24 hours.

Richard Askwith is a UK Northamptonshire-based journalist and author whose passions include running, outdoor adventure and the traditions and ordinary people of the English countryside. He has written six books including Running Free and Today We Die a Little (the story of famous Czech Runner Emil Zatopek and the subject of a previous episode which you can listen to here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/8948352 ).

You can learn more about Richard and find all his other books by going to his website: https://richardaskwith.co.uk/books/

If you’re interested in reading the book for yourself and want a copy, you can find it here on Amazon: https://a.co/d/aa87ajc

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Mud, Sweat and Bears is mostly about the author, Harriet Gaywood’s, ultra racing experience in 2024. Before you think the book is going to be about conquering a hundred-miler or any other single race distance, I’ll let you know that Harriet’s 2024 race season had 1850k of official race kilometers with many races of 100k or more. Harriet races all over Asia, and shares her experience as well as the things she learned along the way about:

· Kit essentials

· Nutrition

· Training

Harriet Gaywood was born and educated in the UK but has been living and working in Asia for nearly 30 years. She took up trail-running in her 40’s and as we’ll hear, has run many trail ultra-marathons around Asia. Her 2024 racing year has let her qualify for the 2025 UTMB and she has also recently decided to start her own business so she can spend more time in the trails.

You can find Harriet online at https://www.trailingaroundasia.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB9vILeoGfy9XMh7gaaKH6g

IG: https://www.instagram.com/trailingaroundasia?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

If you’re interested in getting a copy of the book for herself, you can find it on Amazon: https://a.co/d/7ZN5g0r

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If this author's name sounds familiar it's because we've had him on 7 times before... and we haven't even covered half of the books he's written about endurance sport. As always, Matt is a great speaker and talks to us about the concept of mastery and mastering what it means to master your sport, which is the subject of his latest book, Chasing Mastery.

Chasing Mastery is a guide developed to help athletes master their running through 25 lessons grouped under five pillars:

Motivation
Learning
Understanding
Individuation
Challenge

As you can probably tell by the pillars, this book is not a training plan. It’s meant to help you think more critically about the training you’re doing so that you can get closer to reaching your potential as an athlete. Chasing mastery is also an online course that coaches and athletes can take through the 8020 education platform.

Matt became a runner at the age of eleven, after running the last mile of the 1983 Boston Marathon with his father (who had run the whole thing) and his two brothers. By that time Matt was already a writer (specifically a comedic poet), having declared his intention to make his future career as a writer at the age of nine. He never changed his mind. He has since written over 30 books about endurance sports and started his own publishing company called 8020 Publishing. Matt is also a coach, nutritionist, public speaker and founder of Dream Run Camp (a place where runners can go to train like the pros!). Most notable of Matt’s accomplishments is the fact that he has been on the Running Book Reviews Podcast 7 times!!

If you're interested in a copy of the book then you can find it here:

https://a.co/d/5SZ3tXS

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Believe is primarily a tool to help runners log details of their training so they can find patterns that will help them identify what is and isn’t working in their training, but it is more than that. The Believe Training Journal also has examples of how pro runners Lauren and Ro fill in their journal, information that can help you bring your performance to the next level and quizzes to help you identify your personality traits so that you can work with them instead of against them; for example, I discovered there are two types of athletes, worriers and warriors, both can be successful, but they need to have different strategies.

Lauren Fleshman found running at age 13 as an adventurous, scrappy tomboy looking for a place to belong. A top high school recruit out of California, Lauren went on to win five NCAA titles and 15 All-American honors to earn a spot in the Stanford University Hall of Fame. In her 12 years as a pro she won USA championships and international competitions, represented Team USA many times, and finished as high as 7th in the world amid many years of injuries and setbacks.

Lauren’s debut book, Good for a Girl: a Woman Running in a Man’s World, was an instant New York Times Best Seller and won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2023. She does public speaking, hosts Wilder Running and Writing Retreats, and her work is being utilized by schools and teams around the world.

Róisín McGettigan-Dumas grew up running the beaches, trails, and roads of Wicklow, Ireland. She left home for a chance to compete in track and XC at Providence College, where she was an All-American x4. Ro competed in the steeplechase at the 2008 Olympics and was retroactively awarded the bronze medal in the 1500m from the 2009 European Indoor Championships.

While she is retired from competitive running, Ro remains invested in sport as a licensed mental health counselor working with athletes, as the co-founder of the Dare to Believe Olympic education program, and as president of the Irish Olympians Association.

If you’d like to follow Ro on social media, she can be found on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/believetrainingjournal/

If you’d like to follow Lauren Fleshman, she can be found on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/fleshmanflyer/

For a copy of the book, you can find several retail outlets here:

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What If? Is the story of author Ash Varley’s running journey between 2016 and 2023. At 43, with years of running experience behind him, he wondered if dedication, patience, and a willingness to break free from the comfort zone could lead to the realisation of long-held running dreams. In this book he explores how he ended up running multiple sub-3 hours marathons and 100-mile trail races. Along the way he talks about surprising himself with his ability when he’s able to get out of his own way, how he is inspired mid-race by random strangers, and the importance of of being surrounded by people who believe in you.

About the Author

Ashley Varley lives with his wife in the seaside town of Hastings, East Sussex. He works as a gardener and when he’s not helping nature grow, he’s enjoying it while running… sometimes very long distances! Since he started running several years ago, Ash has run many road and trail races varying from 10k road races to 100 milers through woods, up steep mountain trails, and sometimes across country borders. What If? Is Ash’s first book

If you're looking to get a copy of the book for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/2NX2PMa

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Run Less Run Faster is a book explaining the 3plus2 training program developed by the Furman Institute of Running & Scientific Training, FIRST... and don't worry, RUN LESS doesn't mean TRAIN LESS!

The book is divided into 5 sections which cover everything from the training program, why it works and the science behind it, all the different components like strength, stretching, and cross training) and ends with a section about qualifying for the Boston marathon. The programs in this book include everything from 5k to marathon. For the beginners out there, there is a run-walk plan to get you to your first 5k run.

About the Authors

Bill chaired the Health Sciences Department at Furman University for three decades. He and FIRST® (Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training) have been featured in articles in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, Men's Journal, and Runner's World, among others. Pierce, listed as one of 10 marathon "supercoaches" by Runner's World magazine, has made hundreds of presentations on fitness, wellness and running. He has captured age-group awards in his 250 road races and 42 marathons, finishing the Boston Marathon in five different decades.

Dr. Scott Murr, Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences Department joined the Furman faculty in 1998. Scott is co-founder of the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) and is the Training Performance Director of FIRST. Scott is co-author of Runner's World Run Less Run Faster (2012) and Runner’s World Train Smart, Run Forever (2017). Scott is a 35 year veteran in the sport of triathlon and has been running marathons even longer. Scott did his first marathon in 1982, his first triathlon in 1984 (alongside his Furman mentor Dr. Sandy “Optimal Man” Molnar), and his first ironman distance race in 1988. From marathons to cycling centuries to triathlons, Scott has competed in over 300 endurance events and is a 12 time Ironman Triathlon finisher.

If you're interested in a copy of the book then you can find it here: https://a.co/d/huRLTAG

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We haven't done one of these in a while and Alan just got back from his time in the UK for the London Marathon! ...he may have also seen some family and stuff, but you probably don't want to hear about that.

If you've been following us for a while, you know that Alan has been applying every year to try and get into the London Marathon via the lottery. He has been disappointed every single time. So how did he get in? We talk about that in this episode, along with how it went, how it compares to Boston, and how Alan was part of a Guinness World Record!

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Here we are again with another recap episode. Alan and Liz chat about their last ten reads:

Running From Tragedy by Michael Salsbury
Running Through the Dark, by Jen Scotney
Built To Run, by Matthew Silver
The Ultimate Guide to Parkrun, by Lucy Waterlow
There Is No Finish, by Stephen Parker
To The Limit, by Michael Crawley
The Frontrunner, by Brad Fawley
The Ultimate Ultra Running Handbook, by Claire Maxted
Running Past 50, by Caolan MacMahon
A Few More Laps, by David Chalfen

If you're behind in your listening then this episode is for you. You can get a feel for each of the last 10 books we read, before going back to the episodes in order of which books you're most interested in!

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In this episode of Running Book Reviews, we had the pleasure of speaking with author Bill Donahue about his recent book, Unbound.

Unbound is a collection of some of the best stories Bill has written about endurance sport for Runner’s World, Outside, Backpacker, Washington Post Magazine and others. The stories are divided into 5 subcategories which make up sections of the book:

Running
Cycling
Exploration
On The Snow
From The Margins of Endurance Sport

Bill Donahue is a journalist. In reporting stories, he has searched for fallen meteorites in the Sahara Desert, snuck into Manuel Noriega’s abandoned beach house, and camped out with Army soldiers in the minus 30 degree chill of the Alaskan Arctic. He has worked in over 20 countries while writing for publications ranging from The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine to Harper’s, Wired, Bicycling, Runner’s World, Outside and Harvard Public Health. Bill’s work has been republished in several anthologies, including Best American Sports Writing and Best American Travel Writing and he has won the Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Adventure Travel Writing as well as the City and Regional Magazine Awards. Bill lives in rural New Hampshire where he goes out cycling or skiing almost every day.

If you’d like to know more about Bill Donahue you can find his website here: https://billdonahue.net

He is also on Instagram and Twitter (now X) under the username @billdonahue13

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A Few More Laps is a compilation of stories and thoughts about high level distance running and training. A Few More Laps is a compilation of stories and thoughts about high level distance running and training . The book starts with a little about David and how he started running and his experience in the club environment in the UK, and later takes a deep dive into several areas David was exposed to through running and coaching, including the path to international level running (and how it can be hard to make that final leap), some history and Davids experience setting up a training camp in Kenya, and stories and thoughts from his long coaching career and some experiences he had being an agent.

David is a runner and coach with over 40 years experience, and 20 years in coaching with a focus on longer distances, up to the marathon. In recent years he has coached more sub 2.25 marathoners than perhaps any other current UK coach, and currently coaches up to national elite level (28 minute 10k to 2.15 marathon). Qualified at Level 4 (Performance - 10k to Marathon) within UK Athletics coaching system, he has extensive and diverse practical experience to support the formal qualifications. Formerly he was one of England Athletics Area Coach Mentors in Endurance. He has managed numerous elite runners, both African professionals and GB internationals, at big city marathons such as Berlin, Istanbul, Seville, and Lahore . He has also acted as England Marathon National Team Manager. A Few More Laps is not Davids first book; he also wrote Improve Your Marathon and Half Marathon Running.

If you would like to get a copy of the book, it is only available through the author and can be found here: https://runcoach1to1.com/product/a-few-more-laps/

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In today’s episode we have the pleasure of interviewing athlete and coach Caolan MacMahon about her new book, Running Past 50. As you move past the age of 50, the physiological demands of running require adjustments in training intensity, recovery, goal setting, and mental outlook. Running Past 50 is your guide to addressing those demands so you can continue to enjoy, compete, and excel in the sport you love. Additionally, you will find 10-week training programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced runners aiming to conquer a 5K or 10K; a half-marathon program for novice and intermediate runners; and 18-week training programs for marathon beginners, intermediate and advanced marathoners, and ultramarathoners.

A little bit about the author:

Caolan MacMahon has been dedicated to running since she was eight years old, and she continues to pursue her passion several decades later. She has completed more than 80 marathons and ultramarathons since turning 50, including six Boston Marathons and three New York City Marathons. MacMahon is the 2013 RRCA Grand Master 50K champion and has achieved dozens of overall podium and age-group finishes. She is the head coach and director of The Long Run Coaching LLC. She holds certifications from UESCA (Ultrarunning Coach; Endurance Sports Nutrition Certification), NASM (CPT), World Athletics (Elite L5), USATF (L3 Endurance, Youth Specialization; L2 Endurance/Speed/Hurdles/Relays, Youth Specialization), RRCA, and Lydiard (LI and LII). MacMahon is also a USATF L1 coaching instructor and is a coach and clinician at the USATF youth cross country camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Beyond her accomplishments in running and coaching, MacMahon is an educator, rock climber, former professor of philosophy, ethicist, animal activist, and writer. She has been a contributing writer for Runner’s World and provided race reports and contributions to Self, New York Times, Ultra Running Magazine, Colorado Runner, 5280, and Elevation Outdoors. She has also been blogging for The Chronic Runner since 2011.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book then you can find it on the publishers website: https://canada.humankinetics.com/products/running-past-50?srsltid=AfmBOopwmUAXZBKs-v_dEQTylnl5jQ2opZ-tsCYcioxqG5C7FIxzxWZI

It can also be found on Amazon.

Caolan can be found through her website: http://www.thelongruncoaching

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When we had Matt on the podcast at the end of 2024 there were several topics we never got a chance to talk about. Two of them, running form and breathing, are things that Matt is passionate about because he believes they can make a big difference for runners. We obviously had to have Matt on again to talk about these topics, and he also talks about the importance of the foot and arch.

A little reminder about Matt's book. Built to Run is a book to help runners improve form, mobility and strength so that they can run injury free more often… because we all know we’ll eventually get some kind of niggle, but the idea is that we’re not sidelined for months at a time. The book has 8 chapters, starting with an explanation of your body as a system, moving on to training mobility and strength, and ending with breathing (yes, we can actually train that!) and common running injuries.

Dr. Matthew Silver is a coach, educator, physical therapist, and founder of Alpha Project Phyzio & Performance. He has been a distance runner for the past 13 years. While a freshman in high school, he fell in love with distance running and hasn’t looked back since. He was first exposed to physical therapy after suffering from runner’s knee and low back pain while running cross country. After high school, he ran collegiately for 2 years where he set his college’s 8K record and made the all-conference team. This was bittersweet as he could not finish the last two years of his collegiate career due to this recurrent and persistent knee and low back pain despite going to multiple medical practitioners. Believing his competitive running career was over, he decided to focus on his education by learning as much as he could about running injuries and physical therapy. He started to notice a trend of runners getting prescribed cookie-cutter exercises, being told they need “new shoes”, or, even worse, being advised to stop running altogether to avoid their pain, rather than addressing the underlying dysfunction that is causing their pain. Because of this, he has developed a unique interest in injury prevention and rehabilitation through movement quality.

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In this episode we have a repeat guest, Claire Maxted, and she talks to us about her new book, The Ultimate Ultra Running Handbook.

The Ultimate Ultra Running Handbook is not called “ultimate” for no reason. It goes through many topics in a beginner friendly way with lots of lists and pictures. If you have Claires previous book, The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, then the format will be familiar to you. Almost every trail running question is touched on during the 7 chapters and there are also training plans for distances from 50k to 100 miles to get you started! The chapter titles are:

Quick Start
Preparation and Skills
Physical Training
Hydration and Nutrition
Beat Injury
Ultra Gear
Events

Claire Maxted is co-founder and former editor of Trail Running magazine. She now runs the YouTube channel Wild Ginger Running , creating films packed with trail and ultra-running advice, athlete interviews, gear reviews and race recces. Her website is www.wildgingerrunning.co.uk

We had the pleasure of speaking with Claire at the end of 2023 about her other book, The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, and you can go back to listen to that episode if you enjoy this one.

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The Frontrunner is a fictional coming of age story about a boy named Russ who grows up without a mother, and loses his father to cancer when he's barely an adult. He grows up running everywhere, and later finds out that running can bring much more to his life. On the other side of the world in Russia, twin brothers are taken from their parents to participate in the countries sport program designed to make them into the best distance runners in the world. Eventually these three athletes race each other, but not before they've had a chance to grow up and fight a few internal battles.

Brad Fawley started running in 7th grade. He was a small college All-American in Cross-Country and 5000 meters. After earning a Master’s Degree in Oceanography and his law degree from the University of Virginia, Brad practices law as an intellectual property and environmental litigator and has learned the value of storytelling. He has been awarded three U.S. patents for automotive tools. Brad and his wife split their time between Vermont and California and, blessed with good genes and knees, most every morning you can find him either outside running or working on his next book.

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To the Limit sets out to explore why we voluntarily do exhausting things, like running ultra distances in the mountains and climbing mount Everest, and rediscover the joy of moving together as a group – whether it's running the length of the Lake District in a day, or navigating the descents of the Sindhupalchok International Trail Race in Nepal. It shows us how endurance activities can help bring people together, and even change the way we think about the natural world and our place in it.

Michael Crawley is an anthropologist, writer and runner based in Durham, UK. He has run a 2.20 marathon and represented Great Britain in road running. In 2019, Michael was awarded a PhD in anthropology by the University of Edinburgh, following fifteen months of research living and running alongside runners in Ethiopia. His book Out of Thin Air: Running Magic and Wisdom from Above the Clouds in Ethiopia (which we also covered in an episode released on January 15th 2021) won the prestigious Margaret Mead Award in 2022. Michael has written for the Guardian, Runners' World and Trail Running and his latest research is on endurance, self-tracking and doping which has taken him to Nepal and Mexico amongst other places.

You can find his book on Amazon or directly through the publishers website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/to-the-limit-9781399403429/

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In this episode, we have the pleasure of chatting with author Stephen Parker about his new book There Is No Finish; The Backyard Ultra Story. This book is all about the backyard ultra; how it started, who started it, and how it’s grown over the years (especially since the pandemic). There are 8 chapters. The book starts by introducing key characters like race organizer, Lazarus Lake, and his late dog, Big, and ends with the authors personal experience running and crewing backyards. In between there are many epic race stories which demonstrate the spirit of this unique event.

Stephen Parker has been running the streets and trails of Rochedale South, Australia, for over forty years. He adores his wife Ruth and four incredible daughters and is the Associate Academic Dean for the Australian College of Ministries. Since 1987 he has raced at least a half marathon every year, and since 2009 has been enjoying adventure races, rogaines, trail ultras and now Backyard Ultras. In 2016 he helped begin, and still is an Event Director of, Underwood Park parkrun.

You can find this book at Indogo stores (if you’re here in Canada), or on Amazon. You can also find it on the authors wbsite: https://runningforever.au

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Here we are again! ...and AGAIN it's been more than 10 books since the last recap episode!

Here are the books we chat about in this episode:

Run Through, by SB Stone
The Race To Be Myself, by Caster Semenya
The Examined Run, by Sabrina Little
Smart Running, by Jen and Sim Benson
Running Rewired 2nd Ed., by Jay Dicharry
LOST: The Work That Goes Unseen, published by Ciele
How To Run The Perfect Race, by Matt Fitzgerald
Trails and Tribulations, by Susie Chan
Running Challenges, by Keri Wallace
Good For A Girl, by Lauren Fleshman

We hope you enjoy listening to our chatter. Let us know which books you've read and if you have a favourite.

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This book is everything you’d want to know about parkrun. How it started, what countries it spread to, how it benefits mental and physical health, and why participants keep coming back to both run and volunteer. The book has 9 chapters:

How it started… and how it’s going
Meet the parkrunners
The high-viz heros
A day in the life of a parkrun
Why you should parkrun for your health and well-being
Parkrun around the world
Training, destination and challenge inspiration
The future
How to set up your own parkrun

Lucy Waterlow is an author, ghostwriter and journalist who has contributed to numerous titles including The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, Women’s Running and OK! magazine. She is the author of The Ultimate Guide to parkrun: Everything you need to know about the friendliest 5k in the world, and the co-author of the books: Nell McAndrew's Guide to Running, and Run Mummy Run: Inspiring Women to be fit, happy and healthy. She is the ghostwriter of ultra-runner Mimi Anderson's two memoirs: Beyond Impossible and Limitless. Lucy is also an experienced runner and a British Athletics qualified running coach.

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For those who wanted to hear about it, we decided to tell you about our most recent sub-3-hour marathon attempt in this bonus episode. For our listeners we explain what plan we were using and the history we have with following the same plan in the past, but most of this episode is about the result of our marathons.

The race we did was the Wineglass marathon in Corning, NY. In case you're interested in knowing more about the race, here is their website: https://www.wineglassmarathon.com/

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Built to Run is a book to help runners improve form, mobility and strength so that they can run injury free more often… because we all know we’ll eventually get some kind of niggle, but the idea is that we’re not sidelined for months at a time. The book has 8 chapters, starting with an explanation of your body as a system, moving on to training mobility and strength, and ending with breathing (yes, we can actually train that!) and common running injuries.

Dr. Matthew Silver is a coach, educator, physical therapist, and founder of Alpha Project Phyzio & Performance. He has been a distance runner for the past 13 years. While a freshman in high school, he fell in love with distance running and hasn’t looked back since. He was first exposed to physical therapy after suffering from runner’s knee and low back pain while running cross country. After high school, he ran collegiately for 2 years where he set his college’s 8K record and made the all-conference team. This was bittersweet as he could not finish the last two years of his collegiate career due to this recurrent and persistent knee and low back pain despite going to multiple medical practitioners. Believing his competitive running career was over, he decided to focus on his education by learning as much as he could about running injuries and physical therapy. He started to notice a trend of runners getting prescribed cookie-cutter exercises, being told they need “new shoes”, or, even worse, being advised to stop running altogether to avoid their pain, rather than addressing the underlying dysfunction that is causing their pain. Because of this, he has developed a unique interest in injury prevention and rehabilitation through movement quality.

If you're interested in getting a copy of the book, and would like the 20% discount mentioned in the episode, you can find it on the Alpha Project website here: https://www.alphaprojectphyzio.com/built-to-run-book

You can also follow Matt on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/mattsilverpt?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

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Ultrarunner Jen Scotney has achieved podium finishes in some of the UK’s toughest races and now has her sights firmly set on the Pennine Way. In Running Through the Dark, Jen talks about her ambitions, not just to run the 268-mile Pennine Way but to take the record as the fastest woman to do so. But that didn’t happen. Nothing went according to plan. The Jen the world knew was a successful lawyer and running coach – all photoshoots and finish-line smiles – but the truth was much darker. The real Jen Scotney, the one she hid from everybody, suffered with chronic fatigue, debilitating injuries, tragedy, grief and at times had a will so beaten down by setbacks that there just didn’t seem any point in going on.

Here is a little bit about Jen. Jen Scotney boasts an impressive record as an ultrarunner with podium finishes in the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South and the 190-mile Northern Traverse. She is host of the Resilience Rising Podcast, a running coach, writer, Mountain Leader and yoga teacher, which have followed her career as a human rights lawyer. She has appeared in magazine features for Runner’s World, Trail Running and Women’s Running. She has been a guest host on the Wild Ginger Running YouTube channel, and a guest on the Tough Girl Podcast. She crewed for John Kelly’s successful Pennine Way fastest known time as well as for his Wainwrights Round in the Lake District. She grew up in the Peak District and now lives in the Scottish mountains with her husband Marcus and Sherlock the beagle. Running Through The Dark is her first book.

If you would like to get a copy of the book, you can find it on the publisher's website here: https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/running-through-the-dark-jen-scotney

If you would like to know more about Jen, you can find her at: www.jenscotney.com or on Instagram as @jenscotney

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Running From Tragedy is Michael Salsbury’s family story and how running, in the end, helped lessen the burden of three life changing events. Michael met the love of his life when he decided to take a break from his career in the financial industry to work at Club Med for a few months. Little did they know that they were both carriers of an ultra-rare genetic mutation that ended up taking the lives of three children before they were old enough to eat solid food.

Michael was born and raised in Colorado and has been a runner since the late 70’s. Having never left the state of Colorado until adulthood, he has since had a wedding in Austria, lived and worked in the US, Austria and Switzerland, and finally settled (at least for now) in Santa Barbara California. He has had a successful career including an executive position at Merrill Lynch International, a wealth management company, and opened a new bank named American Riviera Bank in Santa Barbara.

You can find a copy of the book here: https://a.co/d/gpiV53f

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Good For A Girl by Lauren Fleshman is the story of Lauren's life and experience in professional running. Running seemed straight forward when she was growing up, you work hard and you get the reward, but women don't have the same performance trajectory as men when going through puberty. Women often plateau as they get used to their "new body" after puberty, but this comes at an inconvenient time in college when coaches are picking top performers for scholarships and want their team to win in the NCAA system. Lauren's story is about navigating her time in the NCAA, what she saw during her time competing at the college level and beyond (including competitors who would disappear from the running scene following struggles with eating disorders) and why it's important to change things for future girls and women.

Who is Lauren Fleshman? In case you haven't heard of her, Lauren is an award winning author and one of the most decorated American distance runners of all time, having won five NCAA championships at Stanford and two national championships as a professional. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time and Runner’s World. Her debut book was an instant New York Times Bestseller, and won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. She is the brand strategy advisor for Oiselle, a fitness apparel company for women, and the co-founder of Picky Bars, a natural food company. She lives in Bend, OR.

If you're looking for a copy, you can find it on Lauren't website (where she also offers signed copies!): https://www.laurenfleshman.com/

Link for 20% discount on Caffeine Bullet https://caffeinebullet.com/RUNNINGBOOK
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Running Challenges, by Keri Wallace, is like a tour guide for Trail running in the UK. It features 100 of the best trail, fell and mountain runs in England, Scotland and Wales, and those three countries make up the three sections of the book. There is something for everyone with the shortest challenges being 5k parkruns and the longest ones going over 100k.

Keri Wallace is a mountain runner, running guide for Girls on Hills (which she also founded), rock climber and freelance writer. She is Summer Mountain Leader (SML), Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI) qualified, and mother. In 2018 Keri represented the UK Skyrunning Team and came 12th in the GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run. Other top finishes include 1st V40 in the Skyline Scotland Glen Coe Skyline, 5th female in the Ben Nevis Ultra, 3rd female in the 2019 Pinnacle Extreme, 7th female in the Cheviot Goat Ultra 2022, 3rd female in the Pilgrim's Ultra in 2023 and 5th female at the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa (UTMR) 2023. She also finished 3rd female in the UK & Ireland Skyrunning Series that same year. Keri holds the female FKT for the Winter Tranter's Round, Glencoe Round, the OKT (if you don't know what this is then you'll just need to listen to the episode!) for the Glencoe Corbetts Round and completed the first Glencoe Classic Rock Round in under 24h with her partner Ben.

If you'd like to get a copy of the book for yourself, you can find it here: https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/running-challenges?srsltid=AfmBOooVcmE4oyoZuYxUdB38Qnre-TZni6tgCQwTp1DuFzWoKTl15V4I

If you'd like to follow Keri, you can find her at the Girls On Hills website:
https://www.girlsonhills.com/meet-the-team

And also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlsonhillsuk/

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Trails and Tribulations is Susie Chan's memoire. She tells us a little about her life before running, including some pretty big life events, how she started running, and some of her very very long runs. A few of the races that Susie did and talks about include:

Marathon de Sables (which she ran more than once!): A self-supported, multi-day, stage race through the dessert.
The Jungle Ultra: Another self-supported, multi-day, stage race… this time through the jungle.
A 24-hour track race.
The Badwater 135: 135 miles through the hottest place on earth.
and a few others.

Susie Chan is an acclaimed endurance runner known for her incredible achievements in some of the world's most challenging ultra marathons. Susie has completed the Marathon des Sables more times than any other UK woman and was the first European woman to conquer the Badwater Ultra Cup, which includes the infamous Badwater 135. In 2016, she broke the world record for the furthest distance run on a treadmill in 12 hours. Susie inspires audiences worldwide with her motivational speeches. She also motivates athletes as a Peloton tread instructor.

If you're interested in getting a copy of this book, you can find it online here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/trails-and-tribulations-9781399408776/

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How To Run The Perfect Race is a book all about pacing. The book is divided into two sections:

Section 1: All about how to master pacing

Section 2: RPE based training plans for your next 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon.

Pacing isn’t about having an even pace on your Garmin. It’s about having an even effort which takes into account things like terrain and weather conditions on race day. Pacing may sound easy but most of us aren’t very good at it (and definitely not as good as the pro’s); in fact, Matt gives some examples in the book of professional athletes who can run a pace perfectly without their GPS watch… they just know how it feels.

Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports coach, nutritionist, author, and co-founder of 80/20 Endurance. His many books include The Endurance Diet, 80/20 Running, and How Bad Do You Want It? Matt’s writing also appears regularly in magazines and on websites such as Women’s Running and outsideonline.com. His online training plans have helped thousands of athletes of all experience and ability levels achieve their goals. Certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Matt has consulted for numerous sports nutrition companies and he is the creator of the Diet Quality Score (DQS) smartphone app. A lifelong athlete, he speaks frequently at events throughout the United States and internationally… and has been on many podcasts to share his knowledge as well.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book, you can find it here (with links to popular outlets like Amazon): https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/How-to-Run-the-Perfect-Race/Matt-Fitzgerald/9798989256945

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In this episode of Running Book Reviews, we had the pleasure of chatting with Tim Rossi, founder of The Lost Boys running club in New York, about a book he helped bring to life in collaboration with Ciele and Maurten. We talk about the book, the Lost Boys Club, and how long it took to finish the book. Despite there not being a lot of writing in the book, the time it took to put together was just as long (if not longer) than most traditional books and Tim explains why.

LOST: The Work That Goes Unseen is not your typical running book. This is a photobook style book meant for your coffee table as a conversation starter. The paper is thick and glossy and photos are most of the contents of the book with short stories about 10 athletes who are part of the Lost Boys Club. The common theme that seems to bring all the featured athletes together is that they don’t feel they fit into the culture of more competitive teams… even though many of them are fast runners.

Tim was born and raised in New York. He played all kinds of sports but wasn’t good enough to be in division I so ended up joining the running team to stay in shape. He ended up loving how you get out of the sport what you put in. He started The Lost Boys running club as a way to keep people running after they developed a negative relationship with the competitive side of the sport. Currently chasing a sub-2:30 marathon. Tim hopes to keep people believing that their goal is “worth it”.

If you’re interested in a copy of this book then you can find it here: https://ca.cieleathletics.com/fr/products/lost-the-work-that-goes-unseen

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If you're thinking that you've heard us talk about Running Rewired, it's because we read the original version which came out in 2017 and it was featured in one of the first episodes we did in 2020. Well the second edition is out now and we had the pleasure of speaking with authir Jay Dicharry in this episode!

Running Rewired is about strength training specifically for runners. The first 4 chapters are dedicated to the rationale. They talk about “broken wiring”, “mobility and stability for runability”, and about how each of us has a slightly different structure so although there is an advantage to correcting your form, the goal isn’t to look a certain way but rather to allow your body to move the way it was designed. Chapter 5 through 10 is about precision and performance. It is filled with tests that you can do on yourself, followed by exercises to correct your limitations. In chapter 11, we get a strength program with Drill work, prehab workouts, precision workouts, performance strength workouts, and performance power workouts. This 2024 version has a few additions that the 2017 version didn’t have, and also modified some of the programs.

Jay Dicharry is a physical therapist and board-certified Sports Clinical Specialist known for his expertise in diagnosing and rebuilding injured endurance athletes across the globe. His unique approach works outside of the traditional model of therapy to correct imbalances before they affect performance and crack the code on athlete performance. Jay is a regular contributor to numerous magazines and professional journals. He was featured in The New York Times, WIRED, ESPN, Outside, The Atlantic, Runner’s World, Competitor, Running Times, Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Shape, Military Times, Reader’s Digest. He has also been on over 100 podcasts. Jay has founded MOBO (and maybe we’ll learn more about that), and is a USATF and USA Cycling certified coach. He has coached many professional and amateur athletes, including over 50 Olympians. He was himself an outstanding athlete, competing nationally in swimming, triathlon, cycling and running.

If you'd like to get a copy of the book, it can be found on Amazon or the publisher's website here: https://ulyssespress.com/books/running-rewired/

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So we know it's a bonus episode and not our usual book dedicated episode, but we need more time to line up our guests and didn't want to leave our listeners without anything to listen to. We hope that we can earn your forgiveness with some of the episodes that are coming in the future.

In this bonus episode we talk about our plan for marathon training which we'll be starting on the day this episode drops, July 15th, 2024… but before we get to that, there is some chat that got a little off topic… To get started, we reflect on what has worked and not worked in the past; of course a lot of this talk is about the Advanced Marathon 2nd edition training plans since those are the ones we've been using. Then we get into what plan we're following this time, why we chose it, why we still don't have a coach, and what tune up races we'll do.

We also get into out fuelling strategy for the marathon (spoiler alert, the same one as previous marathon attempts), if we'll continue strength training, and how Liz plans to also follow a plan to get enough calories for all that training! We don't think we missed anything, but if we did then please reach out to let us know.

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Join us for this wonderful conversation with Jen and Sim about all things running! Their fantastic book, Smart Running, is packed with useful information about a diverse range of topics and we only covered a few of them in our chat. The 19 chapters of this book are divided into 6 parts:

Our bodies and Systems
Becoming a resilient running
Mental skills for runners
Races, challenges and adventures
Practicalities
Training plans and workouts

Here is a little bit about Jen and Sim:

Jen is a runner, writer, mum and UESCA-certified running coach. She has a master’s degree in sport and exercise medicine, specialising in distance running. Her PhD research explores the psychology and philosophy that underpins running performance. She’s also a trained Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) teacher. She’s completed over 50 marathons and ultras, including 2 podium finishes at ultras in 2023 and a finish at the 2024 Arc of Attrition 100-miler. She’s a fan of good books and great coffee.

Sim is a runner, writer, photographer and dad. He’s a qualified England Athletics Running Coach with a background in orienteering, climbing and mountaineering. He’s explored the Alps, Iceland and the Himalayas both with the British Exploring Society and on self-guided adventures, and completed marathons, ultras, iron-distance triathlons and adventure races. Recent successes include finishing the North Coast 110-mile ultramarathon and a win and new course record at the 2023 Limitless Trails Tinsel 12.

You can find out more about them on their website (and find this book along with all the other books they've written): https://jenandsimbenson.co.uk

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Here we are again! We can't believe we've read another 10 books already... and actually it's been more than 10 books... This might be a long episode (unless Alan did some aggressive editing) because when we start talking about books, we just can't stop. You don't know it, but you're lucky that this episode wasn't 3 hours long! Good thing Liz needed to get to work. Neither of us were really watching the time apparently...

Here are the books we chat about in this episode:

Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, by Claire Maxted
80/20 Endurance Book + High Performance Coaching Course, by Matt Fitzgerald
Running Away From Cancer, by Greg Schnoor
The Psychology of Running, by Noel Brick and Stuart Holliday
Pain and Performance, by Ryan Whited and Matt Fitzgerald
Becoming a Sustainable Runner, by Tina Muir and Zoe Rom
There Is No Wall, by Allie Bailey
In The Spell of the Barkley, by Michiel Panhuysen
The Boston Marathon Handbook, by Marc Pollina
All In Stride, by Johanna Garton

We hope you enjoy listening to our chatter. Let us know which books you've read and if you have a favourite.

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We have a fantastic conversation with author Sabrina Little, about her new book, The Examined Run. In this chat we talk about ethics and role of virtues and vices in running.

The Examined Run discusses the ethics of sport, specifically the sport of running, through the lens of virtue ethics. As with any discussion of ethics, this one has many angles and nuances, and could have easily been a trilogy of books. The book is divided into 9 chapters. It starts with an introduction to the sport of running and virtue ethics, and ends with a discussion about the belief that humans are limitless.

Sabrina Little a philosopher and elite runner making her well placed to writer an entire book about ethics in running. She has participated in the sport of running since adolescence and has made at least 5 US national teams. She is a coach for younger runners and incorporates ethics into both her coaching and running.

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The Race to Be Myself is a 4 part memoire where Caster talks about:

The beginning: how she grew up, how she liked to hang out with boys and play sports, and what happened in puberty.
The rise: How she got into running and eventually decided to be more serious about training. She also talks about getting more serious about school because she wanted to sun with for a university where she could have access to coaches and other resources that would help her be a better runner.
The awakening: Her struggles during the years of high level running and all the tests and treatments she ended up doing (and in some cases not doing) in order to be able to continue running.
The redemption: The ban from competing in the female category for events from 400m to 1 mile, and what Caster did next.

Mokgadi Caster Semenya, OIB, is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 meters. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 meters. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics. Since being banned from competing in her favorite race distance (the 800 meters) due to naturally high testosterone levels, Caster ran a 5000m, got married to her wife Violet, and started a family of her own.

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Run Through; my journey through moments of flight, is Steven’s journey into Running via a series of tiny moments of flight. This book is divided into short stories describing some of the moments in his personal running journey and how they ended up influencing his life. Some stories are funny anecdotes and others are not funny at all and deeply personal. The common thread is that Steven is running through them all.

Who is SB Stone? He is a son, husband, dad, marathoner, and writer who loves to bring his journey to life on the pages shared with the world. He completed his first marathon in 2023 and published this book shortly after.

We hope you enjoy this chat!

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If you've been following our social media accounts (mainly FB and Instagram... we're not as good about posting to X or Threads...) then you'll have seen that Alan went to Boston this year. Before the Boston Marathon, we reviewed The Boston Marathon Handbook buy Marc Pollina, and it turned out that Alan and Marc ran very similar finish times. That's why we invited him on for this bonus episode!

Marc and Alan grade their Boston experience based on the Boston report card on page 114-119 of the book. This was a fun chat and we hope listeners get as much out of it as we did.

Big thanks to Marc for spending even more of his valuable time with us!

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All In Stride is the story of two Kenyan born athletes who have competed at the highest levels in running, and one US athlete and Olympian in the modern pentathlon. The bond that the three characters share is that they have all been in the Army’s world class athlete program (WCAP).
The book is divided into two parts:
Part 1: Kenya – which is about Elvin and Shadrak’s upbringing in Kenya and their journey into running.
Part 2: United States of America – which is Elvin and Shadrak’s life when they arrived in the US, how they met, and how they ended up in the Army and the WCAP. Sammy was introduced in this section and we learn about her upbringing, how she got into modern pentathlon, and her decision to join the Army and the WCAP.

Author Johanna Garton began running on the dirt roads surrounding her family’s farmhouse in Wisconsin at age seven. She continued through college, where she competed for Syracuse University as a walk-on. She has since run more than 20 marathons including 5 Boston’s. Prior to this book, Johanna also authored two other books:
Awakening East, the story of the adoption of her two children from China and her family’s decision to move to China to live for one year to immerse the family in the culture
Edge of the Map, which shares the story of American high altitude mountaineer Christine Boskoff, and is currently being developed into a feature film.
Johanna was not always an author. Her career started as an immigration lawyer, she worked in nonprofit management and taught college. She now also coached high school cross country.

Our second guest in this episode, and one of the subjects of this book, was Elvin Kibet. Elvin was born a twin in rural Kenya. Her family was poor and her parents had 9 children so Elvin and her twin sister Ivy were caring for their younger siblings by the age of 9, including worrying about how they would have enough food to eat. Elvin loved school and was good at it. She also had a grandmother (Gogo) who pushed her to leave the village if she could and always believed Elvin had potential to do great things. Through a series of opportunities, Elvin started running and received a full scholarship to study at the University of Arizona, moved to the US where she met and married her husband, completed a degree in public heath, served in the army and became a US citizen. Elvin was also the first woman, and for while the only women, on the WCAP running team.

If you would like to get a copy of this book for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here (in case you don't have a local book store that can order it for you): https://a.co/d/eHf3XaW

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The Boston Marathon Handbook is part of the Falcon Guides series, which cover the entire spectrum of outdoor activities. This book covers everything about Boston from what makes Boston so special, to getting in and training, and even what to do after the race and more!
There are 12 chapters that make up the book:
Chapter 1 - Why Is The Boston Marathon Special?
Chapter 2 - There's Only One Boston
Chapter 3 - Getting In
Chapter 4 - Training
Chapter 5 - The Course: A Step-by-Step Guide to Towns and Cities Along The Way
Chapter 6 - Pre-Race
Chapter 7 - The Race
Chapter 8 - Post-Race
Chapter 9 - Now What?
Chapter 10 - Beyond Boston
Chapter 11 - Hall of Fame
Chapter 12 - The Boston Lexicon

Marc W. Pollina is a writer, runner, and entrepreneur. He has completed 26 marathons, including 18 Boston Marathons as a bandit, a charity runner, and a sub-3 qualifier. Pollina earned a BA in English Literature from Hampden-Sydney College and studied digital transformation at MIT. Marc survived a near-death childhood accident, recovered his soul from the cold grip of the financial services industry, and founded an innovative cyber-media startup prior to penning his non-fiction debut.

If you would like to follow Marc, his website is https://marcwpollina.com/. You can also find links to his social media and the book.

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In The Spell Of The Barkley tells the story of the Barkley race in Tennessee with its history and traditions, how the author discovered it and became determined to finish the “fun run”, and explores the reasons why participants keep coming back despite being almost guaranteed to fail. The book is a mix of the authors experience and stories of the people he met in the ultrarunning world. A few people he talks about in the book are:

Frozen Ed; the author of the book Michiel read, and the person who invited him to come watch his first Barkley.
Jared Campbell; 3-time Barkley finisher.
Gary Robbins; Canadian ultrarunner who missed the cutoff by 6 seconds when completing the Barkley and so doesn’t count as a finisher.
Gideon; an ultrarunner and friend who crews Michiel through several races which he ended up finishing in part due to the Gideon’s help.

Michiel Panhuysen is a Journalist and ultrarunner. He is a multiple-time Barkley entrant, having fallen under the spell of this event in the early 2010s when he read Frozen Ed's book Tales From Out There. On each occasion that he entered, the Barkley won, but not because Michiel came unprepared. He ran many grueling races and events including:

Tor des Geants; a 330 km race with 24000 m of D+.
Petite Trotte a Leon (on 3 seperate occations); a team event that is far from being a little jaunt through the mountains and requires navigation skills.
The Legends Trail; a 250 km race through the Ardennes.

If you're interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, you can find it on Amazon:
https://a.co/d/hQbSVNB

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There Is No Wall is ultrarunner Allie Bailey’s brutally honest and sometimes shocking account of alcoholism, depression and severe mental breakdowns which almost cost her her life. Told with disarming vulnerability, heartbreaking depth of feeling and dark humour, this isn’t a story about how running saved her – she was already running and at the height of her struggles sometimes even winning 100-mile-plus races. But somewhere between the darkest excesses of the music industry and the simple beauty of the ultrarunning scene, Allie found space to listen, learn and put into practice techniques that would go on to save her life and change it for the better. There Is No Wall is a story about how doing something you love can lead you to achieve things you never thought possible. Running won’t save you, but it might buy you the time to save yourself.

Allie Bailey is an ultrarunner, coach, speaker and podcaster who has run in some of the most extreme places in the world. She was the first woman to run 100 miles across frozen Lake Khövsgöl in Mongolia and to run the full length of the Panama Canal. She has crossed the inhospitable Namib Desert three times, run the length of the Outer Hebrides and completed a 1,000-mile off-road version of the classic Land’s End to John o’Groats route in just thirty days. Allie has finished over 200 marathons and ultramarathons all over the world, but the most remarkable thing about all of these achievements is that she accomplished most of them while battling depression and alcoholism. Although running ultimately became the vehicle that helped buy Allie the time to recover from a number of severe mental health breakdowns, it did not save her. In fact, there were times when it made her battle all the more difficult. After a seismic mental health crisis in 2021, Allie finally admitted to herself and those around her that she was an alcoholic and started her recovery. She left behind a dream career with major record labels and adventure companies and now works as a coach with a broad range of runners and endurance athletes, helping them unlock their full potential. In 2022, she was named as one of the most inspiring female adventurers in the UK by the Guardian, and she has appeared on numerous mainstream TV programmes including The One Show and Lorraine. She lives in Yorkshire with her rescue dog, Pickle.

If you'd like to read Allie's blog or get a copy of her book, both are available on her website (as well as links to her social media if you'd like to follow her): http://www.alliebailey.co.uk/about

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Becoming a Sustainable Runner is a guide written by two environmental advocates, Tina Muir and Zoe Rom, who love running. This book teaches us about the impact running has on the environment, but also how to be a lifelong runner and how to contribute to the running community in a way that is positive and inclusive.
The book has 3 parts:
Sustain Your Runners Mind and Body
Sustain Your Running Community
Sustain Your Planet

Tina Muir is the founder and CEO of Running for Real, a support network and community for runners; a mother of two; and a former elite runner for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She hosts the Running For Real podcast, a collection of conversations about running, the climate emergency, and social justice, which has amassed over 6 million downloads; and Running Realized, a podcast that provides a space to explore difficult subjects and offers insights to create meaningful change in the running world and beyond. Her articles have been published in The Guardian, Runner’s World, SELF, and Women’s Running. Tina is known for her environmental activism, having worked with the United Nations on campaigns related to climate change and humanitarian affairs, and has written for the UN Chronicle. The New York City Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and AJC Peachtree Road Race have all brought her onto their sustainability teams. Voted as one of the 17 women changing the world of running by Women’s Running, she has inspired many others to speak out about their own passions.

Zoë Rom is the editor-in-chief at Trail Runner magazine; managing editor at Women’s Running; and an award-winning journalist whose work has been featured in Outside, Backpacker, Trail Runner, Women’s Running and Discover magazines; NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered; and Threshold, a Peabody-Award winning, long-form environmental podcast. She is also the writer, host, and producer of the DNF podcast, which has been called the “This American Life of running podcasts,” by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Zoë is an elite trail runner, with a master’s degree in environmental journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has covered everything from sled dog racing in the Alaskan bush and arctic sea ice exploration in Norway to morel hunting in northern Arkansas and competitive alpaca racing in the Colorado Rockies. Her running accomplishments include first place at the Crested Butte 100k and Athens Big Fork Trail Marathon, and two consecutive wins at the War Eagle 50k.

If you would like to get a copy of the book, you can find links to all the places where it's available online here: https://becomingasustainablerunner.com/

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In this episode we get to chat with author, Ryan Whited, about his book (co-authored with Matt Fitzgerald) Pain + Performance.

Pain + Performance is a book that aims to explain how pain is a normal human experience and not something that we need to try and get rid of… at least not completely. Pain also doesn’t always mean tissue damage as we are mostly taught to believe. Author Ryan Whited has been helping athletes at his gym, Paragon Athletics, for many years using the biopsychosocial model of pain. In this book, he shares his own experience with pain, what the research says about pain, what the biopsychosocial model of pain is and Paragon’s Training as Treatment model that anyone can use to work their way through non-traumatic injuries.

Ryan Whited is a personal trainer, elite climber, and the founder of Paragon Athletics, a gym that empowers athletes with sport-specific strength and conditioning to complement their performance goals. His passion for working with athletes and investigating the nature of biomechanics and human performance is the basis for Paragon's innovative Training as Treatment program. Paragon has become a destination for both novice and elite athletes who find themselves sidelined by chronic pain or injury. As a specialist in pain science and physiology, Ryan uses his experience as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist to help his clients avoid surgery, reduce or eliminate pain, and return to their sports with more resilience.

Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports coach, nutritionist, author, and co-founder of 80/20 Endurance. His many books include The Endurance Diet, 80/20 Running, and How Bad Do You Want It? Matt’s writing also appears regularly in magazines and on websites such as Women’s Running and outsideonline.com. His online training plans have helped thousands of athletes of all experience and ability levels achieve their goals. Certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Matt has consulted for numerous sports nutrition companies and he is the creator of the Diet Quality Score (DQS) smartphone app. A lifelong athlete, he speaks frequently at events throughout the United States and internationally.

If you would like to get the book for yourself, the best way is from your local book store. If you don't have a book store close by then you can find it on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/9BuwzZY

During our chat, Ryan mentioned Greg Lehman's blog, which you can find here: https://www.greglehman.ca/blog

The Paragon Athletics (Ryan's gym) website is here: https://paragonathletics.com/

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Psychology of Running is part of The Psychology of Everything series which also includes:
The Psychology of Art
The Psychology of Wellness
The Psychology of Comedy
The Psychology of Democracy
The Psychology of Counselling
The Psychology of Travel
The Psychology of Attachment

This book dives into the science of running to answer six questions that make up the 6 chapters of the book:

Why do we run?
Why do we slow down or stop?
What will help me run faster?
What should I focus my attention on?
Can running help me feel better?
Are running-based programs beneficial for children and adults?

Noel Brick is a lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at Ulster University in Ireland. He is a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a registered sport and exercise psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). He has applied his experience as a sports and exercise psychologist in a range of performance settings including running, cycling, powerlifting, and Gaelic games. Noel’s research interests include the psychology of endurance performance, with an emphasis on the psychology of long-distance running. His research also focuses on mental health in sport. As a runner, Noel has completed over 30 marathons and ultramarathons, including Marathon des Sables in 2012 and the Boston Marathon in 2022. Noel is also co-author of The Genius of Athletes.

Stuart Holliday is a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a registered sport and exercise psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) based in London. He has worked for over 10 years in the field with Olympic, Paralympic, and premiership squads and teams. His main interest is in endurance sports, and running in particular. He works in private practice with athletes at all competitive levels and is a keen club runner, competing across all distances up to the marathon. Stuart was a contributing author to Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual.

If you would like to get a copy of The Psychology of Running then you can find it on Amazon or follow this link to get it directly from the publisher: https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Running/Brick-Holliday/p/book/9781032068619

If you're interested in learning more about the authors then you can find Noel Brick's website here: https://noelbrick.com/

Stuart Holliday can be found here: https://www.focusedmindcoaching.co.uk/articles/wind-down-over-christmas/

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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In this bonus episode, Liz interviews Alan about his recent attempt at a Quebec age group record on the indoor track.

Alan has never worn spikes or raced on an indoor track. This should be interesting!

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Running Away from Cancer is the story of the author, Greg Schnoor's, journey to becoming an ultramarathoner after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. The thing is, he wasn’t even a runner before his diagnosis and started running while receiving maintenance chemotherapy once a month. Greg first started running because two of his kids had joined a cross country running team at school and he wanted to spend time with them as much as possible. Running ended up making his life better. Greg had more energy and spent less days curled up on the couch unable to move after his chemo treatments. Eventually he joined a running group and started to run more and more. His journey took him all the way to the 100 mile distance but it wasn’t all smooth sailing all the way to earning his first belt buckle.

Greg Schnoor, the author, is a living testament to the incredible power of resilience and determination. He was born and raised in the vibrant community of Pensacola, Florida. Greg's life took an unexpected turn at the end of 2010 when he received a diagnosis of malignant brain cancer but he has since run 96 marathons and 9 challenging 100-mile ultramarathons. He has not just been defying the odds of his diagnosis but thriving with the help of running and the running community.

We hope that you enjoy our chat with Greg and feel inspired to try that thing that you have been wanting to do but just never seem to find the time.

If you're interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHNYL2CQ

You can also follow the author on Facebook or on his personal website: https://runningawayfromcancer.com/

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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This bonus was recorded after we just finished chatting with Matt Fitzgerald and Layla Porteous about 80/20 Endurance High Performance Coaching Course and companion book. It took us months to complete the course so obviously there were a lot of questions that we couldn't get to with our guests. We chatted about coaching principles and the nuance of calculating training intensity, but we didn't get to other things like:
Carbohydrate supplementation in longer events
The endurance coaching business
Trusting your training and your coach
The best ways to measure pace
Outcome goals vs process goals

Of course there was a lot of other chat in between... because why that's just what happens when we get carried away. Alan gets some on the spot coaching from Liz for an upcoming indoor track race.

Let us know if you're enjoying the bonus episodes. If so, which ones do you like the most; Our race reports? What kind of training we're doing? Supplemental book chats? Or is there something completely different that you want to know? Let us know by sending us a comment on social media.

Support the Show.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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This episode is a little different because Matt Fitzgerald's book, 80/20 Eandurance, is a companion to a new coaching course created by Leyla Porteous, Director of Training and Operations at 80/20 Endurance. We refer to the course a lot, but all the information is also in the book. The book is divided into 12 chapters which cover the 12 topics in the coaching course:
1 - Principles of Endurance Training
2 - Training Intensities and Workout Type
3 - Guidelines for Balancing Training Intensities
4 - Guidelines for Measuring and Manipulating Training Loads
5 - Periodization and Peaking
6 - Keeping Athletes On Track
7 - Sport-Specific Considerations
8 - Strength and Mobility Training
9 - Coaching for Race Day Success
10 - Coaching the Mind
11 - The Ethics of Coaching
12 – The Business of Coaching

Leyla Porteous is the Director of Training and Operations at 80/20 Endurance and oversees existing and new training products and services. She is a lifelong swimmer, a rite of passage for the native Australian. She has a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion, an MBA, and is an Ironman University and USAT Certified Triathlon Coach. Leyla has completed numerous endurance events around the globe, including the Ironman World Championships in Kona, the 70.3 World Championships in Australia, and representing Australia at the Triathlon Age Group Championships in Chicago. When not working on training plans or with athletes you'll find Leyla trying to convince Matt and David that all our athletic kits should be fluorescent.

Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports coach, nutritionist, author, and co-founder of 80/20 Endurance. His many books include The Endurance Diet, 80/20 Running, and How Bad Do You Want It? Matt’s writing also appears regularly in magazines and on websites such as Women’s Running and outsideonline.com. His online training plans have helped thousands of athletes of all experience and ability levels achieve their goals. Certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Matt has consulted for numerous sports nutrition companies and he is the creator of the Diet Quality Score (DQS) smartphone app. A lifelong athlete, he speaks frequently at events throughout the United States and internationally.

If you're interested in taking the 80/20 High Performance Coaching Course then you'll find that here: https://learning.8020endurance.com/courses/80-20-endurance-coaching-certification-course

If you just want the book and aren't sure you want to take a whole course then you can get it here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/80-20-Endurance/Matt-Fitzgerald/9798985398021

Support the Show.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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We love these episodes because it means we get to reminisce about the books we've read over the last 5-6 months. Since we're on a strict reading schedule of one book every 2 weeks, we don't get to wallow in that after-good-book feeling you get after finishing a book, so these recaps are the next best thing.

In this episode we reflected back on this list of books (with links to the episodes in case you haven't heard them or want to re-listen):

The Humiliation Tour, by Jeffrey Reckerhttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/12932646
You (Only Faster), by Greg McMillanhttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13077509
Do Hard Things, by Steve Magnesshttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13182349
Born to Run 2, by Christopher McDougall and Eric Ortohttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13252421
Personal Best Running, by Mark Coogan and Scott Douglashttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13318397
Get to the Line in the Best Shape Possible, by Eoin Everardhttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13351781
On The Run, published by Gestaltenhttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13528984
Run Healthy, by Emmi Aguillard, Jonathan Cane and Allison Goldsteinhttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13606756
Run Elite, by Andrew Snowhttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13750159
Just Finish! by Sean Kachmarskihttps://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13750190

We hope you enjoy this one as much as we did!

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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In this episode we had the pleasure of chatting with Claire Maxted (a.k.a. Wild Ginger Runner) about her book, The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, and also found out that she is currently writing her second book which will be specifically for ultra trail runners!

The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook is not called “ultimate” for no reason. It goes through many topics in a beginner friendly way with lots of lists and pictures. Almost every trail running question is touched on during the 7 chapters and there are also training plans, strength training exercises, and stretches for post-run. The chapter titles are:

Quick Start
Skills and Techniques
Training and Plans
Beat Injury
Trail Gear
Nutrition and Hydration
Races and Challenges

In case you don't already know Claire Maxted, she is co-founder and former editor of Trail Running magazine. She now runs the YouTube channel Wild Ginger Running , creating films packed with trail and ultra-running advice, athlete interviews, gear reviews and race recces (see definition below if you're like Liz and thought this word might be a typo, LOL) .

Her website is www.wildgingerrunning.co.uk where you can find places to buy her book online if you don't have an independent book store nearby. You will also find links to all the places where you can find her content online.

For non-UK born listeners, Collins dictionary provides the following information for the word "recce":

Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular present tense recces, present participle recceing, past tense, past participle recced.

VERB
If you recce an area, you visit that place in order to become familiar with it. People usually recce an area when they are going to return at a later time to do something there. [British, old-fashioned]
The first duty of a director is to recce his location. [VERB noun]
Recce is also a noun.
Uncle Jim took the air rifle and went on a recce to the far end of the quarry.

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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For those of you who have been following the podcast, you know that we were gearing up to run a sub-3 hour marathon at the Petit Train du Nord Marathon on October 1st, 2023.

You've likely seen our social media posts and know that neither of us achieved the goal on race day (and if you didn't see those posts then stop right here and click on the links at the bottom to follow us on FB and Instagram!) but some of our listeners wanted to hear more about it anyway.

It took us a while, but in this bonus episode we recap what our training was like, how the race went, and what we're thinking of doing next. We also appreciate feedback if you would like to hear more bonuses and if there is anything in particular that you would like to hear about in the future.

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Just Finish is author Sean Kachmarski’s story of going from watching The Great North Run on TV every year and telling his wife “I’m going to run that next year”, to actually running it! Sean played football while he was in school but never described himself as athletic. By the time he decided to start running he had 2 kids, a full time job and was overweight, so he wasn’t even sure if he could do it. It all started with a health scare in 2004, and finally deciding to download a couch to 5k training app a decade later in 2014. Just Finish is about Sean’s running journey, also a tribute to all the people he met and who have helped him along the way, and a lesson in choosing goals that motivate you. The book is divided into 48 chapters which Sean refers to as “miles” as he has found that writing this book was a lot like his running journey, full of hurdles but also people who believed in him.

Sean is a Canadian living in the UK with his wife and two kids. He considers himself ordinary (just like everyone else) and this is what drives him to want to help other believe in themselves and their ability to set goals and achieve them. In addition to his book, Sean is also very active on social media including Instagram and YouTube.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, you can get it at the following website: https://payhip.com/b/8Ik2
You can also find it on Amazon
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B084BVCDD2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_GXT9W5CBTP97WCF7SKYZ
USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084BVCDD2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_9MM5X336ZQE68QT31N14
UK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084BVCDD2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_9MM5X336ZQE68QT31N14

If you would like to follow Sean, he is on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@SeanSpeaks

You can also help him with his YouTube Channel by supporting him here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SeanSpeaks

Support the Show.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/runningbookreviews/
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We had a great chat with Andrew Snow about his book, Run Elite. It was so great in fact, that it ended up being one of our longest episodes because Andrew is so knowledgeable and passionate about running. As we were wrapping up the podcast we discovered another topic that he is passionate about; nutrition!

Andrew touches on nutrition in his book but knows that it can be a controversial topic. In this little bonus chat he shared the way that focusing on nutrition has improved running performances for some of his athletes and Liz explains why she hesitates to mess with her nutrition because of past experience.

We hope you enjoy this little bonus release.

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In this episode we chat with author Andrew Snow about his book Run Elite. Andrew is very passionate about helping runners improve their performance and it shows in the podcast.

Run Elite covers all aspects of high-level marathon training. Although the reference is mostly to marathon running throughout the book, the information provided is applicable to longer and shorter distances also. The book consists of 22 chapter divided into 3 sections:
Mindset
Elite Training
Special Workouts and Elite Hacks

Some of the unique things that this book discusses includes:
How an unreasonable belief in yourself can help you perform better.
The triphasic model of training.
The surprising performance benefits of cold exposure.
Special workouts like alternation runs and sarcomere runs to help peak your training.

Andrew Snow is a performance and mindset coach for distance runners and founder of Run Elite, a unique program for guiding runners to outstanding improvements in performance from the 5K to the ultramarathon distances due to his unique system of combining mindset tactics with world-class training science. He holds a degree in exercise physiology, a master’s degree in biomechanics, and has trained extensively under the Tony Robbins’ Master University system for creating rapid life change. With 27 years of competitive running experience, Andrew has achieved a conference title on the track, multiple finishes in the Boston Marathon, and in 2013 hung up his road shoes to pursue trail ultra-running, where he has won many races and has completed several races over 100 miles, including the iconic Tahoe 200-mile endurance run.

If you’d like to follow Andrew, he is on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/runelitecoaching/), IG (https://www.instagram.com/runelitecoach/), Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@runelitecoach) and he also has a website where you can find the book: https://www.runelitebook.com

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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Run Healthy is a book dedicated to injuries. The authors tell runners about the different tissues in the body and how they respond to stress and healing, areas of the body to pay attention to so that you can prevent injury, common injuries that runners get and what the issues commonly are, and components of healthy training.
The book is divided into 4 parts:

The runner’s body
Body regions
Common conditions
Healthy training

Some common injuries mentioned in the “common conditions” section are:

Plantar fasciitis
Achilles tendinitis
Shin splints
Hamstring tendinitis and tendinopathy
IT band syndrome

Here is a little bit about each author:Emmi Aguillard (PT) is a full time physical therapist with a doctorate degree in physical therapy (as well as several other certifications) who manages her own private practice that specializes in treating runners. She has advanced training in pelvic health and works with women during and after pregnancy to maintain their fitness and then return to running post-partum. Outside of her PT practice, Emmi also coaches runners from the Dashing Whippets running team which has an impressive 900 members!

Jonathan Cane (coach) is also known as “Coach Cane” has been coaching endurance athletes for over 30 years. He has a master’s degree in exercise physiology and has coached for Nike, JackRabbit and Under Armour. Cane is also an author. He coauthored Triathlon Anatomy and The Complete Idiots Guide to Strength Training. He also writes for Triathlon magazine, Metro Sports Magazine, New York Runner, and more. Cane has been a speaker for Nike, New York Road Runners, Chelsea Piers Triathlon Club, Hospital for Special Surgery and others.

Allison Goldstein (writer/editor) is a writer and editor who works with business leaders, award-winning academics and professionals to bring their literary ideas to the world. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, Women’s Running, Bicycling, Popular Mechanics and other publications. She is also a fast runner herself and competed in the 2020 US marathon trials.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of the book to get started on your own injury prevention journey, you can get it on the Human Kinetics website: https://us.humankinetics.com/products/run-healthy#:~:text=Run%20Healthy%3A%20The%20Runner%27s%20Guide,%2C%20road%2C%20and%20trail%20running.

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On The Run is a hard cover coffee table style book featuring a collection of runs and stories about running from around the world. Each run is its own story so you don’t need to read the book cover to cover and each run features large photos of spectacular scenery. The book has an introduction to running in the first section, and the remainder is divided into 6 sections:
Distances and Terrains
City runs
Mountain Runs
Quirky Runs
Heritage Runs
Wild Runs

This book was conceived, edited, and designed by the publisher Gestalten with many contributors helping to fill the pages. The text in the book was written by Christian Nathler and Nick Butter (previously a guest and author of Running the World). Captions by Anna Southgate.

If you would like to get a copy of the book for yourself, you can get it here: https://gestalten.com/products/on-the-run-nick-butter

In case you are wondering about the bookmarks we were talking about, here they are online: https://myadviceforlife.com/collections/all-bookmarks
Liz recommends "Advice from a Rattlesnake" and Alan has "Advice from a Wolf".

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Get to the Line in the Best Shape Possible is a collection of articles written by the author and assembled into a book under one of 4 categories:

Lifestyle
Training
Supplemental training
Injury and Health

The book is available in both PDF and audiobook format.

Eoin Everard is a sub 4-minute miler, Sub 14 minute 5K and sub 30 minute 10K Runner. He is the current European over-35 3000m indoor champion and has represented Ireland from 800m to 10K. He is a chartered physiotherapist and Pilates instructor with a PhD in Human Movement. He specializes in low back, hip and knee pain. He used his background in physio, Pilates and his own struggles with injury to develop the Sports Pilates programme. He is the inventor of the BackAware Belt (www.backawarebelt.com).

If you’re interested in getting the book for yourself in either audiobook or PDF, you can get it here: https://everardpilates.com
You can also get access to a free sports pilates trial on this website.

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Personal Best Running is a two-part training manual outlining Coach Coogan’s coaching practice and training plans. Part 1 includes 5 chapters about the theory:
1. Coach Coogan’s training principles
2. Building a good training environment
3. Staying strong and healthy
4. Using your mind to run faster
5. Being a student of the sport
Part 2 includes 9 chapters starting with a chapter about mastering the skill of racing, and a chapter that describes how to follow the programs. The rest of the chapters in part 2 include plans for training for races from 1 mile to the marathon. And the last 2 chapters are for racing many events in a short period and training for a quick transition from one race distance to another (for example the marathon to the 5k).

Mark Coogan is currently the coach of Team New Balance Boston which is an elite distance running team that sent 3 athletes to the Olympics in 2021. He previously coached distance running at Dartmouth College, Tufts University, MIT and Phillips Exeter Academy. He has coached Olympians including Elle St. Pierre, Heather MacLean and Abbey D’Agostino Cooper; and was himself a professional runner from 1988 to 2004. During his athletic career Marc was on the 1996 US Olympic Team for the marathon, won the silver medal at the 1995 Pan American Games, represented the US in the 5000m in the 1995 World Track and Field Championships and ran in 7 world cross country championships. Mark had range during his running career and ranked top 10 in the mile, steeplechase, 5k, 10k and marathon. He was the first Massachusetts native to break the 4-minute mile, and still lives in Massachusetts today.

Scott Douglas is a contributing writer for Runner’s World and author or coauthor for several well known running books including Advanced Marathoning, Running Is My Therapy, Meb for Mortals and 26 Marathons. Scott’s writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Washington Post, Slate, and Outside. This is also Scott's second time on the podcast and we were happy to have him back!

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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With a name like Born to Run 2 you might be expecting that this is part 2 of Chris McDougall’s story from 2009; there's a little of that, but also so much more. This is the training manual to accompany Born to Run and also features returns of some of the athletes who ran Caballo Blanco’s race organized with the Tarahumara in the Copper Canyons. The book is divided into 3 parts:
Part I - Born to Run – Where the authors reminds us that we are born to run, explain why we might be struggling with injury and introduce us to “movement snacks”
Part II - The Free Seven – Where the book talks about food, fitness, form, focus, footware, fun and family.
Part III - The 90-day Program – Which has everything learned in the book assembled into an easy to use 90 day plan. You can even download it in Training Peaks and add it to your calendar.
As with all of Christopher McDougall’s books, there are inspiring stories of individuals taking on personal challenges and doing great things with their running.

Christopher McDougall is one of America’s most popular adventure-sport writers, with more than 2 million books in print. He began his career as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press, covering wars in Rwanda, Angola, and Congo. His first book, Born to Run, remains the No. 1 running title of all time, spending four years on the New York Times bestseller list and earning selection as one of Amazon’s 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. McDougall’s work revolutionized footwear and sports nutrition, sparking the “Barefoot Revolution” of minimalist shoes and popularizing chia seeds and pinole, two superfoods of Mexico’s legendary Rarámuri ultrarunners. Chris has also previously appeared on Running Book Reviews podcast to talk about his last book, Running With Sherman, the story of adopting a rehabbing a severely neglected donkey.

Eric Orton has spent a lifetime exploring human potential and the limitless possibilities of the body and mind. As a performance wizard and world-renowned running coach, Eric performs online coaching and consulting for both age group and elite runners. And he travels the World speaking and performing clinics on running. Eric was part of a handful of coaches who pioneered the online coaching industry and has operated his run coaching business for the last 24 years helping Olympians, professional, and age group athletes. His study of ancestral cultures, like Mexico’s legendary Rarámuri ultrarunners, has made him one of the foremost authorities on running, evolutionary biomechanics, and human performance; and the go-to coach for athletes everywhere. Eric earned international notoriety as the coach of Christopher McDougall, a relationship that served as the foundation for McDougall's previous books, Born To Run and Running With Sherman.

If you're interested in a copy of this fantastic book, consider getting it from your local independent book store.

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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In this episode Alan and Liz chat about Steve Magness' book, Do Hard Things. This book talks about toughness and how we all probably think of toughness wrong. Toughness has long been defined as an absence of weakness, but this book challenges that with research to back up the authors claims. In addition, the author proposes 4 pillars for all of us to become more resilient:
Pillar 1 - Ditch the Facade, Embrace Reality
Pillar 2 - Listen to Your Body
Pillar 3 - Respond, Instead of React
Pillar 4 - Transcend Discomfort

Steve Magness, the author, is a world-renowned expert on performance. In addition to the book we are talking about today, he is the coauthor of Peak Performance. The Passion Paradox, and the author of The Science of Running. Magness has served as an executive coach to individuals in a variety of sectors, and as consultant on mental skills development for professional sports teams. His writing has appeared in Outside, Runner’s World, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, and a variety of other outlets. In addition, Steve's expertise on elite sport and performance has been featured in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, Business Insider, and ESPN The Magazine. Steve received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston and a graduate degree from George Mason University. He currently lives in Houston, Tx with his wife Hillary. Once upon a time, he ran a mile in 4:01 in high school, at the time the sixth fastest high school mile in US history.

If you're interested in getting a copy of the book, you may find it on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/73SAhct

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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You (Only Faster) puts a new spin on the training book. In this book you get some good training principles but Greg uses them to guide you through a 6 step process to modifying a training plan, that you may have gotten online or from a book, to better suite you as a runner. So if the plan follows good training principles, why would you need to modify it, right? Well, you’re an individual who responds and recovers differently to different types of workouts. Although everyone should be doing all types of workouts, the mix of how they are put together can be changed to better suit your individuality and give you better results come race day. Greg’s 6 steps create the framework for the book, and he describes each step in several chapters.

Greg McMillan has been around for decades and probably doesn't need an introduction, but just in case you've never heard of him or his website we're including a short version of his accomplishments. Greg has a masters degree in Exercise Physiology where his research focused on the determining factors of distance running performance. A student of the sport since he began running in high school, he continues to apply advances in sports science to his training programs. As with his study of sports science, Greg continues to learn from the athletes and coaches of yesterday and today. He vigorously studies the great books on running and is eager to be around successful coaches and athletes to learn from their experiences. His mentors include the late, great Arthur Lydiard (who he toured with on Lydiard’s last US tour), Olympic Coach Dr. Joe Vigil, Peak Running Performance founder Guy Avery and USA Track & Field physiologist Dr. David Martin. Renowned by runners and coaches across the globe, Greg has one of the most diverse coaching resumes, with equal success coaching new runners, age groupers, Boston Qualifiers, and Olympians. He is also the founder of McMillan Running which includes his website with the famous running calculator that many runners have likely already used.

If you would like to check out the McMillan Running website, you can find it here: https://www.mcmillanrunning.com

If you're looking to get the book for yourself, and prefer ordering from Amazon instead of Greg's website, you can find it here: https://a.co/d/52XKtat

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Humiliation Tour is a running themed fiction novel that could’ve probably been 2 novels.There are 2 separate stories, one starting in 1933 during the great depression and the other starting in 1993, that are related in an unexpected way towards the end of the book. Both stories feature a young man that discovers running and this changes his life in some way.Both stories are centered around running and both involve some humiliation.

Since the book is a novel and we didn’t want to give away the story, we chat with author Jeffrey Recker about the writing and publishing process and how he got ideas for his characters; some of the stories and characters are based on real life, but of course he didn’t tell us how much was real.

As a young kid, Jeff suffered acute asthma attacks, and on a doctor’s advice, his family moved from Pittsburgh to Phoenix for a dryer climate. The asthma persisted for many years, and his early memories were that of his friends playing outside, while he stayed inside, fostering creativity by writing short stories. The arid climate of Arizona worked to help cure his asthma, and he went on to be a very active young adult, obsessed with lifting weights, and playing varsity baseball at Moon Valley High School. Labeled a jock, little academic expectation was placed on him until his creative writing teacher took notice of his assignments and encouraged him to explore that passion. Though, he went on to study business at the University of Arizona, in Tucson. At 27, he became a runner, with the only goal of losing weight. But his self-admitted OCD kicked in. To date, he’s run over thirty marathons, including the Boston Marathon on five occasions, and has competed in eight Ironman Triathlons – all this from the kid with asthma whom the doctor said would never do anything athletic. Writing continues to be Jeff’s creative outlet in adulthood. He’s authored articles for Colorado Runner Magazine, and other publications. The idea of writing The Humiliation Tour came to him after hearing about a very humiliating event that a friend experienced while running in the Las Vegas Marathon. Many years later, when COVID hit and the country shut down, he found himself laid off with a lot of time on his hands and began that journey. Jeff lives and plays in Grand Junction, Colorado, with his wife, two children, and three rescue dogs.

You can get a copy of the book (and follow the author) on Amazon: https://a.co/d/izEDVhV

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Already 10 books since the last recap episode and also another marathon under our belts. This marathon didn’t go well for either of us but we’ll have another chance in October.

Here are the books we chat about in this episode:

The Mock Olympian, by Michael LongYou can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/3Fu37FX

Fast 5k, by Pete MagillYou can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/cqjh7cg

Out And Back, by Hillary AllenYou can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/1kIdHa3

A Runner’s High, by Dean KarnazesYou can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/7k7hfo3

Taking Life in Stride, by Harvey MitroThe proceeds from the book are donated to Athletics Ontario and you can get a copy here: https://takinglifeinstride.ca

The Villanova Track Story, by Jerry BoumaProceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to Villanova University and will go towards student mental health resources. You can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/cDNB79v

Run Your Best Marathon, by Sam MurphyYou can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/0BYbeVM

Run Faster Marathons, by Chris KnightonIf you are interested in signing up for Chris’ newsletter, want to inquire about his coaching service, or are interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, you can go to his website: https://knightonruns.com

A Beautiful Work In Progress, by Mirna ValerioHere is a link to the REI video that we mention: https://youtu.be/c5-CSQcYeXk
You can learn more about Mirna, buy a copy of the book, or follow her on social media, you can find all of the links on her website: https://themirnavator.com

The Longest Race, by Kara Goucher and Mary PilonYou can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/2CLkecH

Support the showAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Out and Back: A Runner's Story of Survival Against All Odds

Fast 5K: 25 Crucial Keys and 4 Training Plans

A Runner’s High: My Life in Motion

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The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team

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In this episode, Alan and Liz chat about Kara Goucher’s recently released book, The Longest Race. They’ll tell you what they learned, what they thought, and why they wanted to read the book in the first place.

Kara Goucher grew up with Olympic dreams. She excelled at running from a young age and was offered a Nike sponsorship deal when she graduated from college. Then in 2004, she was invited to join a secretive, lavishly funded new team, dubbed the Nike Oregon Project. Coached by distance running legend Alberto Salazar, it seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. Although Alberto initially let her train with the team because he was more interested in her husband Adam, his focus shifted once she won a World Championship medal. She later went to the Olympics, and stood on the podium at the New York and Boston marathons, just like her coach. Those podiums are what the world saw, but behind the scenes, Salazar pushed the limits of anti-doping rules, and created what Kara experienced as a culture of abuse, the extent of which she reveals in her book for the first time. Meanwhile, Nike stood by Alberto for years and proved itself capable of shockingly misogynistic corporate practices.

Kara Goucher is a three-time NCAA champion, two-time Olympian, winner of the silver medal at the 2007 World Championships in the 10,000 meters, and a podium finisher at the Boston and New York Marathons. She is a running analyst for NBC Sports. She cohosts the hit running commentary podcast Nobody Asked Us with Des & Kara, as well as the Clean Sport Collective podcast, promoting fair play in sports. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her Olympic-runner husband, Adam, and their son, Colt. Her website is KaraGoucher.com.

Mary Pilon is a journalist focused primarily on the worlds of sports and business. She is the author of the bestselling books "The Monopolists" and "The Kevin Show," the co-editor of “Losers: Dispatches From the Other Side of the Scoreboard,” and co-host and co-author of the audio series “Twisted: The Story of Larry Nassar and the Women Who Brought Him Down.” Her work regularly appears in the New Yorker, Esquire, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Vice, New York, and The New York Times, among other publications. She has worked as a producer with NBC at the 2016 Rio Olympics and on HBO’s forthcoming documentary “BS High.” She is currently co-directing a documentary about pickleball for Peter Berg’s Film 45. Pilon previously was a staff reporter with The Times on the sports desk and at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered various aspects of business and finance. A native of Eugene, Ore., Mary started reporting for her hometown paper, the Register-Guard, as a teenager.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book, you can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.ca/Longest-Race-Inside-Deception-Running/dp/1982179147

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team

A Beautiful Work in Progress is Mirna’s memoir and the story of how she got into ultrarunning and subsequently finishing her first 100k race. Although the book starts with her running, she goes back to her childhood and talks about her family, how she grew up surrounded by cousins, and the time she spent outside with them. Mirna grew up in a body positive environment where all the women who surrounded her were curvy, and where she was never described as “fat” until much later in life. She also watched her mother lose both her best friend and her youngest brother to heart attacks, and she has made it her mission to stay active so that that she can stay healthy but without a focus on weight loss. By the end of the book, Mirna is successful in her first 100k race at the Javelina Jundred, but if you are already following her on social media, then you know that is not where her sporting journey ends.

Mirna Valerio is a native of Brooklyn, NY, a former educator and cross-country coach, ultramarathoner, cyclist and newish skier, DEI practitioner, and author of the memoir, A Beautiful Work in Progress. She began running in high school, recommitted to the sport after a health scare in 2008 and started her blog Fatgirlrunning - about her experiences as a larger woman in a world of thinner endurance athletes - while training for her first marathon. Mirna's athletic story has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Runner’s World, on NBC Nightly News, CNN, and in the viral documentary short, REI Presents The Mirnavator. Her writing has been featured in Women’s Running, Self, Outside, and Runner's World. In 2018 she was chosen as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and in early 2020 appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show and Access Daily, and most recently was featured on the Today Show. Her partners include LLBean, Ford Bronco, Lululemon, Salsa Cycles, InsideTracker, Hydro Flask, and Garmin. She currently lives and trains in Vermont and is wholeheartedly enamored and obsessed with downhill skiing.

If you would like to watch the REI video that we mention a few times during the podcast, it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5-CSQcYeXk

If you would like to learn more about Mirna, buy a copy of the book, or follow her on social media, you can find all of the links on her website: https://themirnavator.com

You can also find the book on Bookshop.org which allows you to support a local book shop at the same time: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-beautiful-work-in-progress-mirna-valerio/11275343?ean=9781503943391

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Run Faster Marathons is dedicated to providing advice that you can incorporate onto your marathon training, to make you faster. The information is divided into 3 sections:

Essential Concepts for Marathon Success – Which talks about knowing your “why?”, some running rules, the right way to increase mileage, improving running form, and the importance of a good warm-up.
The Six Phases of Marathon Training – Which explains each of the 6 phases of marathon training starting with base building, and ending with post-race recovery.
Supplemental Practices to Go Beyond “Just Running.” – Which talks about strength training, stretching, massage, and choosing running shoes.

This book is just the facts without all the stories about study results etc., and so you can read it quickly and get started with implementing some of the advice.

Chris Knighton is a USATF Level 1 Coach. He is the head coach at Knighton Runs Marathon Coaching, and Track & Field and Cross Country Coach at St. Mary’s Academy in Riverside, Rhode Island. Knighton Runs Marathon Coaching was founded in the Summer of 2019, and their mission is to help passionate athletes run faster marathons and develop their confidence to take on any life challenge. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Chris didn't start running until his late twenties but grew up watching the Boston marathon which is what later inspired him to try and qualify. He has been a vegan athlete for his entire adult life and credits much of his success in sports to making healthy diet and lifestyle choices. In 2014, Chris left his job to pursue his dreams. He thru-hiked the 2180-mile Appalachian Trail that summer and realized if he had the courage and capacity to accomplish this journey, he should easily be able to take on any life challenge. Chris brings this mentally to his own running and coaching. He believes that the skills and confidence we develop to run faster marathons directly correlate to what’s needed to overcome any personal or professional challenge. Chris is also a husband, and a father to a 9-month old girl.

If you are interested in signing up for Chris’ newsletter, want to inquire about his coaching service, or are interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, you can go to his website https://knightonruns.com

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Run Your Best Marathon is a guide to training and racing the marathon distance. The marathon has many challenges if you are trying to run at your full potential; you need to run at a hard effort while managing fuel stores and try to stay focussed for several hours. This book uses science as a base, for concrete tips and recommendations for approaching everything from training, to race day execution and many other topics in between.
The book has 19 chapters which are divided into 6 sections:
Section 1: On Training
Section 2: The marathon programmes
Section 3: The practicalities
Section 4: Body maintenance
Section 5: On your marks
Section 6: Nutrition and hydration

Sam Murphy has spent her career in journalism and took time off to complete a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science. She has been a lifelong advocate for spending time outside and has participated in a variety of endurance sports including running distances from 5k to ultramarathons, swimming, and triathlon. Sam is an England Athletics-qualified coach and has been writing the Murphy’s Lore column in Runner’s World (UK) magazine for several years. She is also not a first-time book author; Sam has written 4 other books including 3 more about running and one called The Official British Army Fitness Guide.

If you are looking to get a copy of the book, Sam suggests getting it through bookshop.org, and you can choose your favourite local bookshop to give the sale profit to (...but it looks like this only works in the US, UK, and Spain). Here is the book on the website: https://bookshop.org/p/books/run-your-best-marathon-your-trusted-guide-to-training-and-racing-better-sam-murphy/17856726?ean=9781472989529

If you would like to know more about Sam, she can be found on Instagram and Twitter as @sammurphyruns, or you can head to her website where you can find this book and also her previous books: https://www.sam-murphy.co.uk

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Villanova Track Story is the story of Villanova University’s dominance in the DMR, distance medley relay, at the Penn Relays from 1966 to 1981. The book features this piece of running history, the athletes involved, and the circumstances that brought it all together. The author, Jerry Bouma, was himself a scholarship athlete from 1970 to 1974, but he tells the story by piecing together information gathered from many people who were present during a more than 16-year span.

Jerry Bouma grew up on a family dairy farm in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, and was the first Canadian to receive a track scholarship to Villanova University. After graduating from Villanova with a bachelor of science of mathematics, he went on to earn a Masters degree in agricultural economics from the University of Guelph, has spent his professional career in the agriculture and food industry, and currently lives in the province of Alberta, Canada. Jerry started off his running career, before joining Villanova, as a self-coached athlete and was the holder of several under-18 Canadian records in the 800m, 1500m, and mile events. In 1976, after graduating from Villanova, Jerry continued running at a high level and was 6th in the Canadian Olympic trials 1500m in a time of 3:44.8. He has not only represented Canada internationally as a runner, but has contributed to the Track and Field community by helped organize large scale athletic events in Canada like:
The 2001 Legends of Gold Gala
The 2015 Pan-American Junior Championships
The 2016 Canadian Athletics Olympic Trials
As an author, this is not Jerry’s first writing venture. He has done technical writing, and previously published 3 poetry books.

Proceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to Villanova University and will go towards student mental health resources. You can get a copy on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Villanova-Track-Story-1966-1981-Greatness/dp/0993670261

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None

Taking Life in Stride is Harvey’s memoire divided into short stories. The stories are divided into themes, and each theme section has an introduction story. There are 6 themes:
Racing
Moments
Fun on the run
Life’s Little Difficulties
People
Family
The stories can be read independently but some characters are featured in multiple stories throughout the book, like Harvey’s first dog Chachka.

Harvey Mitro is a husband and father who lives in Toronto. With a degree in Kinesiology, he has been working as a personal trainer and has guided exercise for people ranging from age 4 to 101. He has been a runner for over thirty years, has broken four-minutes for the mile, and has represented Canada internationally. His best performances were in the 80’s and 90’s when he has won some of the most competitive races in North America like the Cherry Blossom Mile.

The proceeds from the book are donated to Athletics Ontario and you can get a copy from the book website: https://takinglifeinstride.ca
If you would like to get an autographed copy, you can send an email to Harvey (his email address is also on the website). There is also an audiobook copy available if you want to listen on the run instead of reading it!

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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A Runner’s High; My Life in Motion is the story of Dean Karnazes’ return to Western States 100 in his 50’s, at a time when he is also wondering about the future of his running career. He is waitlisted, so doesn’t feel the motivation to train. As he gets to within only a few months of race day, Dean enters a 100k race to kick off his training. Throughout the book Dean reminisces about the past, talks about his family and how they have supported him throughout his life and his running career, and recounts anecdotes about people he meets during ultras.

Who is Dean Karnazes? What do you mean you don’t know about Dean Karnazes?! Well we would need a whole podcast just to list all of his accomplishments so we’ve listed only a few things from his resume. Dean has run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days, he has run across Death Valley in the middle of summer, he has run a marathon to the South Pole, and he has run a 200 mile relay race solo. He has also won the Badwater Ultramarathon, known as the toughest race on earth, and the 4 Deserts Challenge, which involves racing in the hottest, driest, windiest and coldest places on earth. As an author, has authored and co-authored several books. The most well know is probably Ultramarathon Man, but he also wrote a book with Matt Fitzgerald called 50/50; Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons In 50 Days. Dean is a graduate of the USF McLaren School of Business & Management, and an accomplished businessman with a notable professional career working for several Fortune 500 companies and startups.

If you would like to get a copy of A Runner’s High, you can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062955500/ref=as_li_tl?camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062955500&ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&linkId=252d4b253b1a1b91081199045e5cde61&tag=ultramarathon-20

If you would like to tour Greece while running, check our Dean’s website to find out more about his running tour of Greece at https://www.greekrunningtours.com

You can also find out more about Dean and find links to all his social media by going to his website https://ultramarathonman.com

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A Runner’s High: My Life in Motion

Out and Back; A Runner’s Story of Survival Against All Odds is about Hillary Allen’s miraculous survival and recovery after she fell off a ridge in Tromso Norway during the 2017 Tromso Skyrace 57k. Hillary’s survival and recovery was not only due to her perseverance and desire to live, but also because she had the right help at exactly the right time. During the race there was another competitor, Manu, that was tracking Hillary less than 10 seconds behind her and he saw the fall. He immediately scrambled down to Hillary’s broken body and realized she was still alive. Manu has trained in mountain rescue, and he took immediate action to try and stop the bleeding while other people, who also witnessed the fall, called the race organization. Miraculously, Hillary survived, but it was a long road to recovery and she had to learn to accept help along the way; difficult for someone that has always been proud of her independence.

Hillary Allen grew up in Fort Collins Colorado, to an outdoorsy and scientific family, who have supported her in all her pursuits. She earned a masters degree in neuroscience physiology and structural biology at the university of Colorado in Denver. Hillary started out very passionate about tennis, until it led to an eating disorder. Soon after recovering from her eating disorder, she discovered trail running and this solidified her recovery because she quickly realized that she needs to eat to perform. Hillary taught part time while running professionally and was also a North Face athlete until 2022 when she joined Brooks.

If you would like to get a copy of the book then you can find it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Out-Back-Runners-Survival-Against/dp/194451595X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2HVD6YWI8UQYU&keywords=out+and+back&qid=1675209053&sprefix=out+and+back%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1

You can follow Hillary through her website: https://hillaryallen.com/about/

If you would like to watch the Ted Talk where Hillary talks about her accident and recovery, it can be found here: https://youtu.be/4wfY5A7YiMg

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Out and Back: A Runner's Story of Survival Against All Odds

Fast 5k; 25 Crucial Keys and 4 Training Plans is about two-thirds reading and one-third training plans. The reading consists of 25 short chapters, each one about a key to running a fast 5k. There are 15 training keys, 5 lifestyle, diet and gear keys, 5 race day keys, and a bonus key for masters athletes with age-related adjustments and advice. There are various charts and tables throughout the book to demonstrate the principles visually.

Pete Magill is a masters runner, coach, and writer. In addition to Fast 5k, he is the lead author of the book Build Your Running Body, and author of The Born Again Runner and Speedrunner. Pete is a former senior writer and columnist for Running Times magazine, former Editor for Double Runner magazine, and a frequent contributor to Runner's World and the Podium Runner website. In his 30’s, Pete Magill was a screenwriter, and wrote scripts for New Line Cinema and Disney. He has coached at the youth, high school, open, and masters levels. As a masters athlete, he’s led his Southern California clubs to 19 national championships in cross country and road racing. He’s also a five-time USA Masters Cross Country Runner of the Year, the fastest-ever American distance runner over age 50 in the 5K and 10K (15:01, 31:11, respectively), and holds multiple American and world age group records.

If you are interested in getting a copy of Fast 5k then you can find it here: https://www.amazon.ca/Fast-5K-Crucial-Training-Plans/dp/1937715922

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Fast 5K: 25 Crucial Keys and 4 Training Plans

The Mock Olympian is the story of author Michael Long’s journey to run in every Olympic city, 23 in total, between the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games. Although he tried to combine trips if he was in a particular corner of the world, this goal required a lot of travel and even a month off once it was time to run in North America, which luckily, Michael’s employer approved. The book is divided into 25 short chapters. The first 2 chapters are general background about how the idea came about and a little about Michael. The 23 remaining chapters are dedicated to each of the 23 Olympic cities that Michael ran in.

Michael Long started running in his late 20’s, but this didn’t prevent him from running quite a few fast times in various distances… including a half marathon under 1:20! Michael was working in London during the 2012 summer Olympics, which is where the idea for his adventure was born, but he has lived in many other cities including Athens, Brussels, Perth, Newcastle, and Sydney. Michael loves to travel and has been to over 75 different countries. He loves travelling so much that he studied tourism in university and has been in the industry ever since!

If you would like to order the book for yourself, you can find it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Mock-Olympian-Michael-Long/dp/1524662887

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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What do you mean we have read another 10 books? Already?! Well then we are due for another reflection on the things we remember, and how all this reading helped us.
Here are the books we chat about in this episode:

Breakthrough Women’s Running, by Neely Spence Gracey and Cindy Kuzma
Running The Orient, by Gavin Boyter
Running Throughout Time, by Roger Robinson
Chase That Smile, by Harold Cabrera
Depression Hates a Moving Target, by Nita Sweeney
On Pace, by Matt Fitzgerald
Endure, by Alex Hutchinson
Catch Me If You Can, by Filbert Bayi
Running With The Kenyans, by Adharanand Finn
How She Did It, by Molly Huddle and Sara SlatteryAny feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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How She Did It is a compilation of stories from 50 legendary female distance runners spanning 6 decades! The book starts with a short introductory section called “Part 1: The Experts”, that addresses some key factors you need to pay attention to if you want to perform to your full potential. These are physical health, hormonal health, sound nutrition and mental health. “Part 2: The Athletes”, is where you find the 50 female athlete profiles . This section is divided into sub-sections:
The pioneers 1960s-1970s
The 1980s
The 1990s
The early 2000s-2010
2010-2020
The book ends with a section called “The Cooldown” where there is a compilation of funny stories provided by some of the featured athletes, and another section called “Favorite Workouts”. At the end of the book you can test your ability to identify pictures of some of the women as young girls… before they became legends.

Molly Huddle is an American long-distance runner who competes in track and cross-country running events. She set the American record in the 5000 m at the 2014 Herculis Diamond League meet in Fontvieille, Monaco, which has since been lowered. Molly Huddle is a two-time Olympian who holds the American record at 10,000 meters. She placed fourth at the 2018 New York City Marathon in a personal best of 2:26:44. Besides her impressive running career, she also writes for Runner’s World magazine.

Sara Slattery is an American middle- and long-distance runner who mainly competes on the track. She has represented the United States at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships at both junior and senior level. After a successful NCAA and professional career, Sara went on to coaching. She worked for eight seasons as the GCU (Grand Canyon University) men’s and women’s cross country head coach, and her athletes have broken many school records since her arrival. Sara decided to leave her coaching job to be home more often as her children are at an age that they need their mom around.

During the interview Alan mentioned a video of the 2012 Olympic Trials 5000m final. Here it is if you want to watch to for yourself: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsafpa

If you would like to get a copy of the book, you can find all the online outlets on the How She Did It website:https://howshediditbook.com

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running With The Kenyans is the story of how Adharanand moved his family to Kenya for 6 months so that he could explore why Kenyan runners are so dominant. Adharanand discovered a talent for running at a young age, but like many kids in sport, ended up getting distracted along the way and not realizing his potential. He continued to run in adulthood, but never really pushed his limits due to family obligations with 3 young kids. As the world was watching Kenyan athletes rise to the top and sweep the podiums of many major races, Adharanand was wondering what their secret is. With the approval of his wife (who was up for the adventure), they moved their 3 young kids to Kenya for 6 months so that Adharanand could train with the best runners in the world. The book is divided into 25 numbered chapters. Each chapter included a piece of Adharanand’s journey to improve his own running, find the Kenyan running secret and some side stories about people that Adharanand met along the way.

Adharanand Finn is an Assistant production editor for the Guardian newspaper in the UK, freelance writer and author of 3 award winning running books:
Running with Kenyans - the topic of this episode
The Way of the Runner - Which talks about Japanese obsessive running culture
Rise of the Ultra Runners – Which talks about ultra-endurance runners and what makes them want to complete gruelling endurance events like the Marathon des Sables.

If you are interested in Adharanand’s most recent book, Rise of the Ultra Runners, you can check out our previous episodes because we had the pleasure of interviewing him!

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, you can find it on amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Kenyans-Adharanand-Finn/dp/0571274064/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667771695&sr=8-1

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running with the Kenyans: Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth

Catch me if you can is the story of 1970’s running legend, Filbert Bayi’s, life. The book is divided into 3 parts:

In the shadow of Kilimanjaro – Which talks about Filbert’s upbringing and childhood
Setting the pace – Which talks about Filbert’s introduction to the sport and the hurdles he had to overcome during his long and successful running career.
Chasing a legacy – Which talks about Filbert’s life after retiring his spikes, and all the other contributions he has made, and continues to make, to Tanzania and the sport he loves.

The book contains many black and white pictures of Filbert along with some other well known runners from the 70’s, as well as pictures of his family.

Filbert Bayi is a legendary Mile and 1500m runner from the 1970’s, and an Olympic Silver medalist in the Steeplechase at the 1980 Moscow games. He has run multiple world records throughout his career while serving in the Tanzanian military, but is most well-known for his front-running race tactic, which was not common at the time and considered risky if you wanted to win. The common run-to-win style at the time was to “sit and kick”. Although known worldwide for his running, Filbert has continued to serve his country and help the Tanzanian people in many ways after he hung up his spikes. Filbert and his wife Anna started a school in their home with the goal of offering quality education while also transmitting their values of being kind and contributing positively to the community. Prior to this, Tanzanian Parents would send their kids to Kenya or Uganda if they wanted a good education for them, and opening this school meant that parents were able to have them nearby and watch them grow. Today there are separate building for primary and secondary schools under the Filbert Bayi school banner, and they have a scholarship program called “2020 and Beyond” that helps send students to the US for higher education and a chance to continue their sporting journey. Filbert learned aircraft mechanics while in the army, and later studied education at UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso), graduating in 1988. It was our pleasure to have Filbert Bayi on this episode!

If you would like to follow Filbert, he is available on Whatsapp or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/filbertbayi_schools/. You can also search for Filbert Bayi on YouTube and watch all the videos of his gutsy front running tactic.

If you would like to get your own copy of Catch Me If You Can, it is available through all the following outlets:
Soulstice Publishing website https://soulsticepublishing.com/product/bayi-book/
Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/Catch-Me-You-Can-Revolutionizing/dp/1734989947/ref=sr_1_24?crid=G0T0HE6FBFZR&keywords=catch+me+if+you+can&qid=1666833005&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIzLjgxIiwicXNhIjoiMy41MCIsInFzcCI6IjMuMTkifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=catch+me+if+you+can%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-24
The book depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Catch-Me-If-You-Can-Filbert-Bayi/9781782552536?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base4&utm_source=CA&utm_content=Catch-Me-If-Yo

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Endure; Mind, body, and the curiously elastic limits of Human Performance explores all the science that has been done to find out what limits or endurance performance. The book has a total of 13 chapters divided into 3 parts:
Part I: Mind and muscle
Part II: Limits
Part III: Limit breaker

Alex Hutchinson holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge and has worked as a researcher for the U.S. National Security Agency. He is a columnist for Outside magazine and was a long-time columnist for Runner's World. A National Magazine Award winner, Alex is a regular contributor to The New Yorker online, pens the weekly "Jockology" column in the Toronto Globe and Mail, and writes for the New York Times. FiveThirtyEight recently named him one of their "favorite running science geeks". Alex is a great runner too!! He was a two-time finalist in the 1,500 meters at the Canadian Olympic Trials, and represented Canada internationally in track, cross-country, road racing, and mountain running competitions.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, you can find several options for purchase on Harper Collins Canada website: https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062499981/endure/

If you are in the USA, then you can visit Harper Collins Publishers to find even more options: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/endure-alex-hutchinson?variant=32127167561762

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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On Pace is Matt Fitzgerald’s most recent book where he delves into pacing. He talks about the importance of pacing to get the most out of yourself, how good the pros are at pacing, why the rest of us are not so good at pacing, and how we can get better.

There are 8 chapters about pacing:
1. Why Pacing matters
2. The science of pacing
3. Why you suck at pacing
4. Pacing as self-regulation
5. The mind of a pacing master
6. Pacing in training
7. Pacing in competition
8. Macro pacing

The last 4 chapters are training plans that are based on effort (instead of pace) for 5k, 10k, half-marathon, and marathon distances.

Matt Fitzgerald is a Lifelong runner and endurance athlete. He is an acclaimed endurance sportswriter and has authored and co-authored more than 30 books, and written for many sports journals (Men’s health, men’s fitness, Outside) and websites (active.com). Matt is also a running and triathlon coach, and certified sports nutritionist. He has a website called Mattfitzgerald.org and is cofounder of the 80/20 endurance training website. New on his resume is that he has founded a publishing house called 80/20 Publishing, with On Pace as their first official release.

If you would like to follow Matt, his website is: https://mattfitzgerald.org
You can also find links to all his social media profiles.

If you would like to get your own copy of On Pace, it is available directly on the new 8020 Publishing website: https://www.8020endurance.com/all-books/

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Depression Hates A Moving Target is about author Nita Sweeney’s experience with crippling anxiety and depression and how she got into running despite often not being able to get out of bed before taking up the sport. Nita was inspired by some posts from her Facebook friend who got into “jogging” by following a run-walk plan, and one day took the kitchen timer and her dog Morgan out to try it out for herself. Nita’s mind was not her only challenge to overcome, she also had an ankle that would swell when she ran too much which made her doubt that she was built for running. By dedicating a lot of time and energy to finding solutions that helped her keep running, she was able to slowly increase mileage over time enabling her to train for her first half-marathon, and later her first marathon. Running changed Nita’s life in many ways aside from making her physically fit; it started by helping her get out of bed on the days she ran, and with time helped her deal with anxiety and depression and gave her energy to start writing again.

Nita Sweeney has a law degree, had been writing for most of her life, and officially authored 3 books; she wrote many more books, but most of them have not yet been published. She started running with her dog in 2010 while also dealing with crippling depression that kept her in bed most hours of most days. Nita has since run many training miles, one ultramarathon, 3 marathons, 29 half-marathons, and over 100 shorter races.

If you would like to follow Nita, she has a website where you can sign up for her email newsletter and find links to all her social media channels: https://nitasweeney.com

If you are interested in getting a copy of Depression Hates A Moving Target, it is available on Nita's website or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Depression-Hates-Moving-Target-Running/dp/1642500135/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1B3WQNFFX32K&keywords=depression+hates+a+moving+target&qid=1663438667&sprefix=depression+hates%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-1

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running With My Dog Brought Me Back From the Brink (Running Can Be the Best Therapy for Depression)

Chase That Smile is Harold Cabrera’s autobiography and account of how he managed to train for 3 big endurance events in the year he turned 40: The Paris marathon, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro (this one was with his wife Tania), and completing an Ironman Triathlon. The book has 3 sections that correspond to the 3 challenges. Each section is sub-divided with dates in chronological order like a journal, but the journal entries talk about more than just what happened that day. Harold has a full-time job and two young children so training for these big goals proves to be challenging because of the time required to complete the training. The Ironman training alone involves mid-week long runs and 6 hour bike rides, and then there are the hikes he does with his wife in order to be able to climb Kilimanjaro. More than just a personal account of each training session he did, Harold also provides insight into his nutrition, the importance of training plans and most importantly how he developed the right mindset needed to take on these big endurance challenges.

Harold Cabrera was born in the Philippines, grew up in Winnipeg, Canada and currentlu lives in London, England. He studied software engineering in Canada and currently works as a Software Developer and Data Scientist for Wise Traders where he develops stock trading systems. When he is not training for some difficult long-distance event, he spends most of his time with his family. Harold is not a first-time author. He co-authored and published C# for Java Programmers (Syngress Publishing, 2002) to help Java developers learn the C# programming language.

If you would like to follow Harold, he has a website where you can see the book and also read his blog: https://chasethatsmile.com
You can also follow him on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/chase.that.smile/

If you are interested in getting a copy of Chase That Smile, it is available on Harold's website or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Chase-That-Smile-Harold-Cabrera/dp/180313075X

Big thank you to Harold for providing a review copy of the book and for speaking with us.

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Running Through Time aims to tell key stories about the history and evolution of running. A comprehensive book of every story thatmakes up running history would be massive, so this book tries to pick stories that were not told as often or not told correctly. It starts with the story of the marathon and how it became the 42.2km distance we know today, and ends with Alison Roe from New Zealand and her inspiring but short professional running career. All the stories chosen in this book have influenced how we experience our sport today, including the inclusion of women.

Roger Robinson is a true fan of the sport of running. He was born in England but has moved to several countries throughout his life to run and even ended up marrying another famous runner! Roger was an elite runner in the 1960’s and 1970’s running cross country worlds on several occasions including for the English team in 1966, and the New Zealand team in 1977. He then went on to be a high-level master’s athlete and running a master record for the marathon in Vancouver in 1981. Of course, you are all interested in knowing that he ran a time of 2:18:44. He also set other records including an over 50 marathon record. Roger got a PHD in literature from Cambridge University; he went on to a lectureship at the University of Canterbury, was a professor of English at the University of Wellington, was an announcer at big running events, and became a great running writer. He has authored and co-authored several other books including: Running in Literature, and 26.2 Marathon Stories with Katherine Switzer (his wife). Since the last time we spoke with Roger he was busy, not just writing this book, but also with his own running: He broke the 80+ Wellington record for the 5000m in a time of 26:45.15 in November 2021.

If you would like to follow Roger's work, he writes for Runner's World and the Podium Runner website: https://www.podiumrunner.com

If you are interested in getting a copy of Running Throughout Time, it is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Running-Throughout-Time-Robinson/dp/1782552413

Big thank you to the publisher, Meyer and Meyer Sport, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Roger Robinson, for speaking with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running the Orient is the story of Gavin Boyter’s 2300 mile run across Europe with his girlfriend Aradhna who follows him in their camper-van Roxy. The Orient Express was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883. It started in Paris and end in Istanbul, and along the way stopped in Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, and Bucharest. Gavin’s goal was to run the same route and stop at each of the station locations in the corresponding cities. Along the way Gavin and Aradhna don’t just have navigation challenges, but also endless chores that come with running and living out of a van, and some friction in their relationship.

Gavin is a writer, director, and copywriter. He has been running since his 30’s and Running the Orient is not his first ultra-running adventure. He previously ran from John O'Groats to Land's End which is the longest straight line across Britain, joining the Southwest to the Northeast. Gavin’s love of writing started very early in grade school when he wrote his first multi-part sci-fi story called Invasion of the Blood-Spitters. He later completed a Philosophy and English degree at Edinburgh University, and an MA in Film and TV Drama in Sheffield.

If you are looking to get a copy of this book, it can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Running-The-Orient/dp/1912101378

If you would like to follow Gavin, he can be found on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/gavin.boyter/ or Twitter at https://twitter.com/Gavin_Boyter?s=20&t=CfTZImKMm5W9JX1_yy6xow or https://twitter.com/Long_Run_Film?s=20&t=CfTZImKMm5W9JX1_yy6xow
You can also visit his website https://www.gavinboyter.com to see some of his other work.

Big thank you to Gavin for providing review copies of the book and for spending time with us to record the podcast.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running The Orient

In this episode we start with some general run chatter before reflecting on everything we learned and thought about related to books 41 to 50.

Here is a list of the books we talk about:
One Last Mile, by Roger Saltsman
Run Like a Pro, by Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario
Race Across America, by Charles Kastner
Could Have Happened at Parkrun, by Simon C. Jones
Runner’s World Meals on the Run, Edited by Joanna Sayago Golub
Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, by Hal Higdon
Daniels’ Running Formula (4th Ed.), by Jack Daniels
26.2 miles to Happiness, by Paul Tonkinson
Finding Gobi, by Dion Leonard
Running With Purpose, by Jim Weber

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Breakthrough Women’s Running is a guide written by Neely Spence Gracey and Cindy Kuzma to help get female runners to their next breakthrough in running, regardless of their running ability. The book is divided into 4 parts and covers everything from goal setting to training plans you can follow for the 5k through marathon distances. In between it covers female specific challenges like training at different times during your menstrual cycle, running through pregnancy, and coming back to running post-partum and while breastfeeding. The book also covers a lot of the basics like recovery and strength training.

Neely Spence Gracey began running in eight grade and quickly saw success, which deepened her motivation to pursue big goals. At the high school level she won four Pennsylvania state championships. Upon graduation, she attended Shippensburg University (SU) and became an eight-time Division II national champion. During Neely’s time at SU, she studied human communication with a coaching minor because she knew she wanted to become a pro athlete and start coaching other runners toward their goals. In 2012 Neely signed her first pro contract and married her husband Dillon, in 2013 Get Running Coaching was born; Neely and Dillon are now also the proud parents of 2 boys: Athens born in 2018, and Rome born in 2021. Neely is inspired by the running community to keep working toward her goals as an athlete, coach, and mother.

Cindy Kuzma is a freelance writer, author, and podcaster; a regular contributor to Runner’s World, Women’s Running, and a wide variety of other sports, fitness, and health publications; and the coauthor of Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger From Sports Injuries. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes who accomplish extraordinary things, and the active community in Chicago. She has run 22 marathons—including seven in Boston—and she never gets tired of plotting her next breakthrough.

If you are looking to get a copy of this book, it can be found on the Human Kinetics Website: https://us.humankinetics.com/products/breakthrough-womens-running
If you are interested in a copy signed by Neely, you can get it on her website: https://getrunningcoaching.com/shirts/autographed-copy-breakthrough-womens-running

If you would like to follow Neely, she is @neelysgracey on Instagram and Twitter.
Cindy Kuzma can be found at http://cindykuzma.com or on Instagram and Twitter @cindykuzma. On her website you will find a full portfolio of articles, podcast appearances, and books!

Big thank you to Human Kinetics for providing review copies of the book. And an even bigger thank you to Neely and Cindy for spending time with us to record the podcast.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running with Purpose is Jim Weber’s story of how he developed his leadership qualities and was able to elevate Brooks to the power house running brand it is today. As a child Jim loved hockey and hoped to play professionally one day, which never happened despite his dedication to the sport. Luckily he discovered running and became just as passionate about helping runners through the development of quality technical running gear.

The book is divided into 2 parts:

Part 1 is about Jim’s beginnings and how he discovered that he wanted to run a company, but not necessarily own it. He worked in different industries including banking, the food industry, and consumer products; and talks about how these experiences helped shape him as a leader. At Brooks he helped narrow down the target customers so that they could focus product development instead of trying to be “everything to everyone”.
Part 2 talks about Jim’s time with Brooks and how the company has evolved along the way. They went from being a subsidiary of Froot of the Loom, which was bought by Berkshire Hathaway, to being its own independent entity under Berkshire after Warren Buffet noticed Brooks progress under Jim’s leadership. Brooks' upward trajectory is not without bumps in the road, and Jim talks about how they got through challenges in the market including the barefoot running trend and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jim Weber dreamed of being either a professional hockey player or a CEO when he grew up. He wasn’t tall enough for hockey, but did become CEO for the first time at the age of 30! He became CEO of Brooks in 2001, and has been pushing the brand forward for more than 20 years, finally making it a $1 billion dollar brand in May 2021. Jim won “Entrepreneur of the year” awarded by Ernest & Young in 2012, and was named one of the most influential innovators in the running industry by Runners World in 2015. Jim earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and a Masters of Business Administration with high distinction from Tuck School of business at Dartmouth College. On a personal level, Jim is a husband, father to 3 boys, and cancer survivor.

If you are looking to get a copy of this book, it can be found in both hard cover and paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Purpose-Outpaced-Goliath-Competitors/dp/140023168X
The book is also available through several other outlets which are featured on Harper Collins website: https://www.harpercollinsleadership.com/9781400231683/running-with-purpose/

Big thank you to Harper Collins for providing review copies of the book.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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None

Finding Gobi is both Dion’s memoire and the story of how a little dog from the Gobi desert ended up finding his way to a family in the UK. Dion talks about some difficult moments in his life like when his father died of an asthma attack when he was only 9 years old, and then how his mom told him that his dad was never really his dad. Despite a difficult start, Dion made a good life for himself and found the love of his life, Lucja.

Although neither Dion nor his wife were runners when they met, they both became avid ultra-runners who love a challenge. One of these challenges brought Dion to China for a 155 mile multi-day stage race through the Gobi desert where he found a little dog which he later named Gobi… actually it was more like the dog found Dion and then followed him while he ran the race... Dion fell in love with this little dog but trying to bring him home to the UK would prove to be another adventure, one that ended up bringing people together from all around the world to help make it happen.

Dion Leonard is an ultra marathon runner with many top 10 finishes in some of the world’s toughest races including the Badwater 135. He also won races including the Kalahari Extreme 155 mile race, Delirious W.E.S.T. 200 miles and become the first male to run the Grand Slam of 100's (silver buckling in all races), and the gruesome Leadman Series in one year. The race that changed Dion’s life forever was a 155 mile ultra-race in the Chinese Gobi Desert when a stray dog ran with him, forming an unbreakable bond that would become the ultimate challenge of overcoming adversity to achieving the unachievable.

Finding Gobi can be found through all the usual outlets, and you can also buy it directly off the publishers website: https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780008227975/finding-gobi-main-edition-the-true-story-of-a-little-dog-and-an-incredible-journey/

If you would like to follow Dion Leonard, his website is: https://www.dionleonard.com or you can go to https://www.findinggobi.com. You can also follow Gobi or Lara the cat on Instagram.

Big thank you to the publisher, Harper Collins, for providing a review copy of the book, and to the author Dion Leonard for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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26.2 Miles to Happiness is Paul Tonkinson’s memoire and an account of his sub-3 hour marathon. Paul lost his mother when he was very young, and he had a rocky relationship with his step-mom between the ages of 6 and 13. He explains some of the scars that this relationship left him with well into adulthood, and how running helped him overcome them. As a young boy Paul would wake up before anyone else in the household to sneak off for a run in an old pair of boots. As an adult, Paul spent some time enjoying food and alcohol a little too much, before getting back into running for health reasons. Paul’s work as a comedian means that he has some very good friends that are not runners, and this makes for some funny stories as he is trying to get ready to run his sub-3-hour marathon. There is one instance where he is in a restaurant with a friend and tries to order a healthy option with no alcohol; his friend waits for the waitress to leave and then offers to pay for his meal because he thinks that Paul is short on cash… why else would you leave out the alcohol?

Paul Tonkinson is a British comedian, radio presenter and television personality, best known for his presenting work on The Big Breakfast and The Sunday Show. He was winner of the 1992 Time Out New Act of the Year Award, and was Time Out Stand Up Comic of the Year in 1997. Paul has returned to running as an adult and is now in the sub-3-hour marathon club with a personal best of 2:59:21 at the London marathon. Along the way he has also started a podcast called Running Commentary where he and the cohost interview people while running. The author hopes that with his book he can convince at least one person to run a marathon.

26.2 Miles to Happiness can be found at the usual book outlets (Amazon, etc.), or you can get a copy directly from the publisher: https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/262-miles-to-happiness-9781472966261/

If you would like to follow Paul then you can find him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/paultonkinson_/

Big thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury, for providing a review copy of the book, and to the author Paul Tonkinson for taking the time to speak with us.

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Daniels’ Running Formula is a training guide based on principles that coach and exercise physiology PhD, Jack Daniels, has been using to train his athletes for decades.

The book is divided into two parts:
Part I: Understanding the formula for training
Part II: Applying the Formula to Competitive Events

The first part describes the fundamentals of what goes into good running performance, types of training intensities, the VDOT system, and other topics like treadmill and fitness training, as well as taking breaks. The second section contains plans that incorporate the principles discussed in the first part. There are plans for:
800 m
1500 m to 2 miles
5 k and 10 k
Cross country
15 k to 30 k
Marathon
Ultradistance
Triathlon

Jack Daniels has been called the world's best coach by Runner's World magazine. He has more than 50 years of experience coaching and mentoring some of world's top distance runners at both the collegiate and post collegiate levels, including Jim Ryun, Penny Werthner, Ken Martin, Jerry Lawson, Alicia Shay, Peter Gilmore, Lisa Martin, Magdalena Lewy Boulet, and Janet Cherobon-Bawcom. He also won two Olympic medals and one world championship medal in the men's modern pentathlon. Daniels has decades of experience as a track and cross-country coach at institutions such as Oklahoma City University, the University of Texas, Brevard College, and the State University of New York at Cortland. Under his guidance, Cortland runners won 8 NCAA Division III national championships, 30 individual national titles, and more than 130 All-America awards. He was named Women's Cross-Country Coach of the 20th Century by the NCAA Division III. Since 1997 Daniels has been the national running coach advisor for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program, which involves coaching thousands of marathon runners each year. He has also enjoyed coaching members of the Nike Farm Team and the Chasquis, a group of Peruvian marathoners.

Daniels has logged years of graduate study and research on distance running in both the United States and Sweden. He holds a doctoral degree in exercise physiology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He also studied exercise science at the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute in Stockholm under renowned sport scientist Per-Olaf Åstrand. In recent years, Daniels has been an associate professor in the human movement program at A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona, in addition to coaching Olympic runners.

If you are looking to get a copy of this book, it can be found on the Human Kinetics Website: https://canada.humankinetics.com/products/daniels-running-formula-4th-edition?_pos=1&_sid=edb66bc5e&_ss=r

Big thank you to Human Kinetics for providing review copies of the book.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Marathon, The Ultimate Training Guide is in it’s 5 edition and the original version came out in 1993. This book is solely dedicated to training and preparing to run the half-marathon or marathon distance. The book covers the entire marathon journey from the very beginning stages where someone is starting to run and maybe not even sure they will love the sport, to tapering and race day logistics. In between Hal covers a lot of topics that runners might have questions about like: Building mileage, diet, speedwork, cross training, heart rate training, qualifying for Boston, and many more. The book ends with training programs for novice to advanced runners for the half-marathon and marathon

Hal Higdon is the author of thirty-five books and hundreds of articles for a variety of magazines including Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and New York Times Magazine. He is a contributing editor for Runner’s World, was among the founders of the Road Runners Club of America, was a finalist in the competition to become NASA’s Journalist in Space, received the Career Achievement award from The American Society of Journalists and Authors, and his website, halhigdon.com, ranks among the top 20 running websites in the world. Hal is not only a great writer and journalist but has a lot of running experience as well. He has completed over 100 marathons, and coached many runner to improved times.

Marathon The Ultimate Training Guide can be found at local book stores, or you can get it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593137736?tag=randohouseinc27763-20

If you would like to follow Hal Higdon and see everything team Hal has to offer then you can find this on his website: https://www.halhigdon.com

Big thank you to the publisher, Rodale, for providing a review copy of the book, and to the author Hal Higdon for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Marathon, Revised and Updated 5th Edition: The Ultimate Training Guide: Advice, Plans, and Programs for Half and Full Marathons

Meals on the Run is a compilation of recipes from different authors and edited by Joanna Sayago Golub. The recipes come from various sources including several registered dieticians and elite Athletes; Kara Goucher has contributed a recipe along with the Forward to the book.

The book is broken up into 9 chapters, with each chapter being a category of foods:

Breakfast
Smoothies and juices
Snacks and sweets
Salads
Soups and Stews
Pasta and Noodles
Vegetarian Mains and sides
Seafood Mains
Meat and Poultry Mains

At the end of the book, the editor also included a “special recipe lists” section where the recipes are grouped into the following categories: prerun, recovery, vegetarian, vegan, low-calorie, gluten free, 5-minute fixes, 10 minute tops, and hydrating

This episode doesn't have any special guests, and we get a little off topic when we chat about recipes we tried. Liz mentions a chocolate chip cookie recipe that has become a workplace favorite. If you are looking for a fantastic chocolate chip cookie recipe, you can find the recipe here: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10813/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/

If you are looking to get a copy of this book, it can be found on amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Runners-World-Meals-Run-energy-packed/dp/162336583X/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAjwloCSBhAeEiwA3hVo_QK8qsADXGaIDwrC5sG8TzksCX8rc_K864-nlSj5g1XE-0tns47-yBoCtm0QAvD_BwE&hvadid=230014152437&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9000486&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=15848121629385991073&hvtargid=kwd-300673949885&hydadcr=15830_10272494&keywords=meals+on+the+run&qid=1648421506&s=books&sr=1-1

Big thank you to Rodale for providing review copies of the book.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Could Have Happened at Parkrun is a book of short stories written during Covid lockdown when parkruns... like many other activities… were cancelled. The uniting theme in all 12 stories is that they all play out at the Wycombe Rye parkrun in the UK. Each story is around a realistic scenario but is not a true story, and they come with some fun titles. Before each story there is a description of the origin of the story that sets the stage before you get into the story itself.

The stories are:
Run directors discuss the day's events
The volunteer coordinator
Darren and his short lead
The big thing in the city
Mr. Shouty Man saves the day
Edward Ready - Steady Eddy
Martin the funnel manager
The visitor from New Zealand
Bobble and Trevor make friends
Christopher, the competitive man in the queue
Petra and Johnathan manage the split
A parkrun tourist comes to Wycombe Rye

Simon Jones retired from 3M and the corporate world in June 2019. Along with being a first time author, he now works part-time for a local charity. He has been running the Wycombe Park parkrun and chasing PB’s since 2013, and has accumulated over 240 parkruns and over 40 volunteer days.

If you would like to learn more about parkrun, find a parkrun near you, or maybe even start a parkrun, you can find the website here: https://www.parkrun.com

If you would like to get a copy of Could Have Happened at Parkrun, it can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Could-Have-Happened-at-parkrun/dp/1800741138

If you will be in the area and would like to attend the Wycombe Rye parkrun, their Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/wycomberyeparkrun/?ref=page_internal

Big thank you to the author, Simon Jones, for providing review copies of the book and for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Could Have Happened at parkrun

In this episode we start by chatting about our sub-3 hour attempt in October 2021 and our plans for 2022 before reflecting on everything we learned in books 31 to 40.

Here is a list of the books we talk about:
Today We Die A Little, by Richard Askwith
The Running Drug, by Tim Beynon
When Running Made History, by Roger Robinson
Running the World, by Nick Butter
Mental Training for Ultrarunning, by Addie Bracy
Running Against The Odds ,by Desmond Dunham
The Ultra Mile, by Tim Wills
An Unstoppable Runner, by David Williams
Run Well, by Dr. Juliet McGrattan
The Anatomy of Speed, by Bill Parisi

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Race Across America takes place in the late 1920’s. In those years a decent living wage for a family was $2500 per year so when Charles Pyle announced that he was organizing a trans-American stage race with a first-place prize of $25 000 it’s no surprise that people signed up. Winning this first place prize would mean that your family was set for life. In the 1920’s running competitions were mostly for amateurs, and a race with prize money brought back the professionalization of the sport which had been present at the end of the 1800’s, but since disappeared. In addition to bringing back professional racing, there was no segregation and both black and white participants could race against each other even though some of the states the race ran through didn’t allow this. The book tells the story of the Bunion Derby (as the race was called), some of the participants (including one black American named Eddie Gardner), and what society was like for black Americans who were no longer slaves but not yet equal members of society.

Charles Kastner has written three books about the 1928 and 1929 “bunion derbies” including Race Across America, and all have been highly acclaimed. His interest in long distance running began when he joined the Inglemoor High School cross country team in 1970 and he has run over one hundred races ranging from five kilometers to the marathon and one ultra, during a career that spanned almost fifty years. He is a trained historian and veteran researcher, and holds a BA in History from Whitman College and a MA in History from Washington State University. He also has a MBA from Pacific Lutheran University, and a MS in Environmental Biology from Hood College. Charles Kastner has spoken about the Bunion Derby in magazines, podcasts, and public speaking engagements with the intention of giving the participants of this race the credit they deserve for their accomplishments, and has spent the last twenty years learning and writing about these great trans-America footraces.

Race Across America can be found on the Syracuse University Press website https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/2477/race-across-america/
You can find out what Charles is up to by visiting his website https://charleskastner.com

Big thank you to the publisher, Syracuse University Press, for providing a review copy of the book, and to the author Charles Kastner for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Run Like Pro Even If You’re Slow attempts to break down key habits and traits of professional runners and make them available to the rest of us. We tend to think that professional runners are somehow fundamentally different from the rest of us, but a lot of those differences are due to better lifestyle habits and more emotional intelligence which are things we can all improve to become faster runners. Each chapter of the book focuses on one topic such as managing mileage, balancing intensities, recovery, and many more. The chapters at the end contain training plans for 5k, 10k, half-marathon, marathon and ultramarathon distances. Each chapter ends with professional tips from Coach Ben Rosario.

Matt Fitzgerald is a lifelong runner and endurance athlete, and an acclaimed endurance sportswriter who has authored and co-authored more than 25 books (29 or 30 depending on how you count). He is also a running and triathlon coach, certified sports nutritionist, and journalist who has written for many sports journals (Men’s health, men’s fitness, Outside) and websites (active.com). He has a website called mattfitzgerald.org, and is cofounder of the 8020endurance.com training website. A recent addition to the list of places where you can find Matt is the Pace app where you can have him as your coach.

Coach Ben Rosario was a high level runner in his High School and College years. Currently he is the head coach of the Hoka Naz Elite professional distance running team in Flagstaff Arizona and his athletes have finished top 10 at major marathons including Boston, Chicago, New York and London, and won national titles (most well-known is Aliphine’s 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon win). In his past life, Ben co-owned a specialty running shop in Saint Louis Missouri called Big River Run Company. He has co-authored two previous books called Inside a marathon (2020), and Tradition, Class, Pride (2015) which are both about running.

Run Like Pro Even If You’re Slow will release on March 1st 2022 and can be pre-ordered here https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/667088/run-like-a-pro-even-if-youre-slow-by-matt-fitzgerald-and-ben-rosario/#.

You can find out what Matt is up to by visiting his websites https://mattfitzgerald.org or https://www.8020endurance.com, and you can follow Matt in Instagram @fitzgerald.matt. If you would like to follow Ben then he can be found on the Hoka NAZElite website https://www.nazelite.com or on Instagram @coachbenrosario1. You can also sign up to the NAZElite email list to see what the team is up to.

Big thank you to the publisher, Penguin Random House, for providing a review copy of the book, and to authors Matt Fitzgerald and Ben Rosario for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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One Last Mile is a fictional story of a talented but slightly arrogant high school track athlete named Eric who was certain he would be snagging a scholarship spot at any University he chose. He routinely won races but didn't always take his coaches directives seriously.mIn his senior year everything changed after an accident that left Eric with a broken ankle, and haunting images of his friend Buzzy’s death. Buzzy was intellectually handicapped and Eric felt responsible for his death even though Buzzy was not supposed to have followed him into that abandoned home. Overcome with guilt, Eric left his home town of Brevard after his graduation to stay with his uncle for the summer. The summer turned into 2 years, and Eric didn’t make any effort to keep in touch with his best friend Mary, or any of his other friends and running team mates. Although he was told that he may not run again after the accident, his doctor ended up clearing Eric for running, but told him to take things slow and didn’t think that high level running would be possible again. Eric finally went back home to Brevard but realized that he had a lot of work to do to get his friends back, as well as any potential for a scholarship.

Roger Saltsman in a first-time author and former distance runner at Brevard College from 1979-1981. He studied Business and Economics at Wofford College and currently lives and works in Mission Viejo California. In his spare time Roger also enjoys cycling, surfing, hiking, and reading.

If you would like to follow Roger on Instagram, he is at https://www.instagram.com/onelastmile1533/

If you would like to get a copy of the book, it is available on Amazon. If you would like a signed copy, the you can contact Roger by e-mail at onelastmile@yahoo.com

Big thank you to Roger Saltsman for providing a review copies of the book, and for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Anatomy of Speed is a very detailed book explaining what speed is, what you need in order to properly train for speed, and all the different components that make up speed. The book has 12 chapters:

Chapters 1 and 2 explain in depth what speed is and why it is important.
Chapters 3 through 10 are about the warm-up, strength, and different components of speed. These chapters have detailed explanations of the theory and also exercises to train the particular component being discussed in that chapter.
Chapter 11 discusses recovery, and chapter 12 has sample routines and an explanation of how to structure a training session.

If you are looking to earn some continuing education credits once you have read the book, the last page of the book has a discount code to buy the exam.

Bill Parisi is the founder and CEO of the Parisi speed school and of the Parisi Training System, a two-time track and field division I all American (1988 and 1989), and competed in the 1988 Track and Field Olympic trials in the javelin. He went to Finland in 1989 to train with and compete against some of the best athletes in the world. In 1992, while $50, 000 in dept, Bill founded his Speed school and traveled the US in a $500 van to give free speed sessions; this led him to later open his first speed school location, and there are now over 90 certified locations. The Parisi speed school now helps athletes from different sports with speed and also strength and conditioning. The school has produced first-line draft pics in every professional sport, and numerous Olympians.

Bill has been a co-author and contributor to several other books, and been a speaker and consultant to sports-related organizations including the NFL, USA football, Nike, and Reebok. The other books he has contributed to include: Success Patterns, Don’t “Should” on Your Kids, Fascia Training, Fascia in Sport and Movement, and Fascial Fitness.

If you would like to follow Bill to see what he is up to, you can follow him on Instagram at the following locations:
https://www.instagram.com/bill_parisi/
https://www.instagram.com/parisispeedschool/
https://www.instagram.com/fasciatrainingacademy/
You can also follow the handles @parisispeedschool and @fasciatrainingacademy on other social media platforms.

If you would like to get a copy of the book, it is available on the Anatomy of Speed website at https://anatomyofspeed.com or you can get it on Amazon.

Big thank you to the publisher, Human Kinetics, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Bill Parisi, for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Run Well, written by general practitioner Dr. Juliet McGrattan, is a book that answers common medical questions that runners have. The book is written in a question and answer format with a short introduction at the beginning of each chapter. The questions are grouped into chapters based on body systems, starting with the head, and there is one chapter at the end on self-care. Chapter introductions include drawings of relevant biology that you can refer to if needed. Throughout the book there are real life runner stories, “did you know?” segments, and summaries of things to try. The end of each chapter also has other resources you can consult for more information.

Dr. Juliet McGrattan is a medical doctor, author, and runner, and Run Well is not her first book. She wrote her first book, Sorted: The active Women’s Guide to Health, in 2017, and it won first place at the British medical association Book Awards. These accomplishments alone are extra-ordinary, but Dr. McGrattan is also: An international speaker, freelance writer, podcast host, Founder and Director of 261 Fearless Club UK, masters coach and women’s health lead for the 261 Fearless global women’s running network, and has appeared on national television and radio.

If you would like to follow Juliet to see what she is up to, or get a copy of her book, you can visit her website https://drjulietmcgrattan.com. There are links to her social medial, and different articles and blogposts she has written.

You can learn more about the 261 Fearless Global Women's Running Network at https://www.261fearless.org, and reach out to them if you would like to be involved.

Big thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury Sport, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Dr, Juliet McGrattan, for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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An Unstoppable Runner is the story of David Williams running journey and life. He starts running in high school but doesn’t continue afterwards. In early adulthood he starts drinking and smoking, and this habit continued until he realized that he was not very healthy. One day one of David’s colleagues told him to go buy a pair of running shoes, and this is how he started running again. David has over 40 years of running in his legs, and some very very very long runs. Although he started with the more popular distances and local races, he kept asking himself if he could go farther or run longer which brought him to discover ultra distance events.

In parallel to his running journey, David talks about his life journey which included some major life events including a divorce and the death of a child. David shows us how running helped him learn about himself, cope with adversity, and learn to be flexible with his goals.

David Williams is a long-time runner who still enjoys endurance events today in his 70’s. He has done many ultra-distance runs of all types in the trails and on the track and has participated in both measured distances and time-based events. Although ultra-running is popular today and anyone can find a race close to home, David started in the 80’s when you didn’t have access to the internet to search and register for races. He learned about events by word of mouth and by doing other events and was not always sure that his registration was received until he got his bib in the mail.

Another thing that David is as passionate about as running long distances is books! Although not related to his first job, David has owned a used bookstore, and still scours used book stores (and the internet) for running books he doesn’t have in his extensive collection. It’s only fitting that David is now an author of a running book, and we were honoured to have him with us for this episode.

If you would like to get a copy of David's book, it can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Runner-David-Williams/dp/1761091638/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
During our chat David also said that he can provide a signed copy with a personalized message if you e-mail him at: flinders.runner@hotmail.com

Big thank you to David for providing a review copy of the book, and for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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An Unstoppable Runner

Join us for a discussion with author Tim Wills, about his bookThe Ultra Mile. The Ultra Mile describes what goes into running the ultra distances, why something so difficult is also appealing, and how really long distances like 100 miles are really a team effort. The book introduces us to different aspects of running although it is not an exhaustive resource on any one topic. The book is divided into 6 parts:
1. Running
2. Preliminary training
3. The application of training
4. Training to simulate racing
5. Running ultra
6. The journey continues

Tim Wills is an Ultra Runner that has run races 100 miles and longer. He is a coach and offers consultations and online coaching to runners. He is an entrepreneur with a website offering running related products and services, and also a physical therapist assistant so has in depth knowledge about the human body and how running affects it.

If you would like to connect with Tim for coaching, or to see what new projects he is undertaking, you may go through his website https://gotheultramile.com/pages/coaching-services or follow him on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gotheultramile/

If you would like to get a copy of The Ultra Mile, you may purchase it on Amazon herehttps://www.amazon.ca/Ultra-Mile-Freedom-Opportunities-Running/dp/1098360931

Big thank you to Tim for providing a review copy of the book, and for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Ultra Mile: The Joy, Freedom, and Opportunities of Running

Running Against The Odds is a testament that past traumas and emotional blockades stand no chance against motivation, will power, and can only fuel the desire to become a champion and emerge victorious. This book is Coach Dez’s memoire. He divides his journey into 3 parts:

Childhood
College years
Coaching

His journey starts with a turbulent childhood which is when he also discovers running. He initially only tries out for the cross country team because it is his ticket to get on the basketball team, but ends up loving the sport. Dez’s childhood is not easy. His father is a Vietnam Veteran who became an alcoholic in his attempt to deal with the trauma from this experience, and ended up spending the money his parents had tried to save for their children's education. Dez later manages to get a scholarship, but also loses it and must find a way to pay for his studies. Despite all the early challenges, Desmond gets a degree, and becomes one of the most prolific coaches in high school cross-country and track & field, and a very caring and compassionate human being. Running Against the Odds is a reminder that you are not alone with all the challenges that the world presents.

Desmond Dunham is now a coach, mentor, and Under Armour Coach Ambassador, but he started out as a very driven young runner who risked his health to run in a championship meet in his last year of college eligibility. Coach Dunham is a youth sports expert with over two decades of coaching and teaching experience. He is a community-leader and truly cares about every athlete he coaches. He has gone as far as have missing bill payments to pay for his athletes to have competitive experiences when their parents didn’t have the means to send them. Coach Dunham founded Kids Elite Sports, a youth sports development organization that operates summer camps and specialized training for committed youth athletes seeking a competitive edge in their primary sport.

If you would like to know more about Desmond Dunham, you can visit his web site https://www.coachdezdunham.com or Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/coachdezdunham/. You can learn more about Kids Elite Sport summer camps at https://kidselitesports.com.

If you are interested in getting a copy of Running Against The Odds, it is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Running-Against-Odds-Inspirational-Journey-ebook/dp/B09HDHCKKP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2B7ZL7991YOW0&dchild=1&keywords=running+against+the+odds+dunham&qid=1632963988&sprefix=running+against%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1

Big thank you to Jimmy Dwyer from Dalyn Miller Public Relations for reaching out to let us know about this book, and for providing a review copy and helping set up the interview. Thanks you also to Coach Dez for the fantastic conversation.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running Against The Odds: An Inspirational Journey to Making High School Sports History

Ultra-endurance events have the highest dropout rates. While some people need to drop out due to injury, you may need to drop out because you are lacking the mental strength needed to get through a rough patch. Addie Bracy's book, Mental Training for Ultrarunning, has many exercises and techniques to help you build a tool box so that you have what you need to get you through a tough race. Although the examples and featured athletes are from ultra-running, many of the skill are transferable to shorter events, and even other life goals.

The book has 10 chapters each about a particular topic:

Why psychological breakdowns happen in ultrarunning
Find your why for running
Manage your stress response
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
Run the mile you are in
Stick to the grind
Be adaptable
Run with courage
Get out of your own way
Emotionally bounce back from physical setbacks

Addie Bracy is a long-time runner starting out on the track, and spending about 15 years running more traditional track and road races before discovering ultra-running. Although now a professional ultra-runner, Addie is a three-time USA Track & Field National Champion and a three-time USA Track & Field Women's Mountain Runner of the Year, and a Runners Alliance ambassador. She is also a Mental Performance Consultant to elite athletes across a range of sports, and is certified by the Association for Applied Sports Psychology.

If you would like to work on your mental game with Addie Bracy, her website is https://www.strivementalperformance.com. In case you are interested in finding a qualified person in your area, we mentioned that Association of Applied Mental Performance Psychology would be the place to look; their website is https://appliedsportpsych.org/certification/cmpc-directory/.
You can also follow Addie on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/addiebracy/

If you are interested in getting a copy of Mental Training for Ultrarunning, it is available on Amazon or directly on Human Kinetic's website https://us.humankinetics.com/products/mental-training-for-ultrarunning

Big thank you to the publisher, Human Kinetics, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Addie Bracy, for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running The World is Nick Butter’s story of his attempt to run a marathon in every country in the world as both a World Record attempt, and to raise money for prostate cancer UK. Every country, really means every country, including: North Korea, which had to be timed with the marathon held there in order to get into the country; Venezuela, where he ran in the city of Caracas, known as the “kidnapping capital of the world”; and countries which were at war like Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria. Nick wanted his last marathon to be the event held in Athens, Greece, on the 10th of November 2019 due to its symbolism as the birthplace of the marathon. Just to add an extra challenge along the way, he also attempted to run all the world marathon majors meaning that he actually ran more than once in some countries! As with many big projects, not much went according to plan, and both Nick, and his team back home in the UK, had to think on their feet and often rely on strangers to help make things happen.

Nick Butter is a British endurance athlete, adventurer, speaker and author. He held a more traditional corporate job in the past, but left it all behind to pursue his passions. Nick holds 4 world records, and 2 world firsts. He's also the first, and only person to have run a marathon in every country in the world, and he did so in just 674 days.

If you would like to follow Nick Butter's adventures, or donate to the 196 foundation, you can find everything on his website https://nickbutterrunning.com. You can also follow him on Instagram @nickbutterrun.

If you are interested in getting a copy of Running The World , it is available on Nick's website or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Running-World-World-Record-Breaking-Adventure/dp/1787631729/ref=asc_df_1787631729/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459331273088&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13263955116977780152&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000486&hvtargid=pla-920743716235&psc=1

Big thank you to the publisher, Bantam Press, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Nick Butter, for taking the time to speak with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Running The World: My World-Record Breaking Adventure to Run a Marathon in Every Country on Earth

In this episode we reflect on everything we learned in books 21 to 30. We know that all the things we have learned is making us into better runners.

Here is a list of the books we talk about:

My Noise Cancer Comeback, by Fitz Koehler
http://www.fitzness.com/blog/

Advanced Marathoning, by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas
https://us.humankinetics.com/products/advanced-marathoning-3rd-edition

Bravey, by Alexi Pappas
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591673/bravey-by-alexi-pappas/

Running in the Midpack, by Anji Andrews and Martin Yelling
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/running-in-the-midpack-9781472973405/

Running on Tired Legs, by Bill Graham
https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Tired-Legs-Bill-Graham/dp/B08VBS3V26

Make The Leap, by Bryan Green
https://maketheleapbook.com/discount/ALANANDLIZ (20% discount for listeners of the Running Book Reviews podcast!)

High Performance Nutrition for Masters Athletes, by Lauren Antonucci
https://canada.humankinetics.com/products/high-performance-nutrition-for-masters-athletes

I hate Running and You Can Too, by Brendan Leonard
You can support your local bookstore by buying the book from bookshop.org here: https://bookshop.org/books/i-hate-running-and-you-can-too-how-to-get-started-keep-going-and-make-sense-of-an-irrational-passion/9781579659882
The book can also be found on Artisan Books website: https://www.workman.com/products/i-hate-running-and-you-can-too

This Voice in My Heart, by Gilbert Tuhabonye
https://www.amazon.com/This-Voice-My-Heart-Forgiveness/dp/0060817534

Abdi’s World, by Abdi Abdirahman
https://soulsticepublishing.com/product/abdi-book/

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Running on Tired Legs

This Voice in My Heart: A Runner's Memoir of Genocide, Faith, and Forgiveness

When Running Made History is a book based on the authors memory of historic running events that he witnessed throughout his life, starting with the 1948 Olympic games in London when he was 9 years old and his uncle brought him to watch some track events. The book borders on being a historic reference about running because a lot of facts were added about each event and the circumstances at the time. Chapters are titled with a date and location in chronological order from the 1948 London Olympics to October 2016 when Roger saw the first woman over 65 run under 20 minutes for the 5k. Readers will marvel at how many historic moments the author witnessed throughout his life!

Roger Robinson is a true fan of the sport of running. He was born in England but has moved to several countries throughout his life to run and even ended up marrying another famous runner! Roger was an elite runner in the 1960’s and 1970’s running cross country worlds on several occasions including for the English team in 1966, and the New Zealand team in 1977. He then went on to be a high-level master’s athlete and running a master record for the marathon in Vancouver in 1981. Of course, you are all interested in knowing that he ran a time of 2:18:44. He also set other records including an over 50 marathon record. Roger got a PHD in literature from Cambridge University; he went on to a lectureship at the University of Canterbury, was a professor of English at the University of Wellington, was an announcer at big running events, and became a great running writer. He has authored and co-authored several other books including: Running in Literature, and 26.2 Marathon Stories with Katherine Switzer (his wife).

If you would like to follow Roger's work, he writes for Runner's World and the Podium Runner website: https://www.podiumrunner.com

If you are interested in getting a copy of When Running Made History is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Running-History-Professor-English-Robinson/dp/0815611005

Big thank you to the publisher, Syracuse University Press, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Roger Robinson, for speaking with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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When Running Made History (Sports and Entertainment)

The Running Drug is the story of how the author, Tim, discovered and fell in love with running after some sedentary years in his 20’s, and then he received some unexpected news at the age of 40. At age 40, men in the UK are invited to get their first routine health check, but only about one third of them go. Although Tim felt he was very healthy and didn’t need a health check, he went anyway, and was glad that he did.

Tim found out that his PSA level was elevated, and after repeated testing that confirmed the result, he was sent for further testing and diagnosed with prostate cancer. Tim was told that had he waited another 5 years for the next health check, his cancer may not have been curable. The book ends with Tim getting to the start of, and finishing, the 2019 London Marathon as part of the Prostate Cancer UK team. Throughout the book he shares his anxieties around training for and running his first marathon, and also his cancer treatment journey. Tim describes how running became like a drug; when he went for a run, he was able to clear his mind, think more clearly, and solve problems, a feeling that many runners will be able to relate to.

For those who don't know Tim Beynon, he is a UK journalist writing and editing national and international magazines on everything from Formula One to Premier League football. He is a passionate human interest storyteller, who has invested his time in sharing the inspirational stories of others' sporting and personal achievements. A committed blogger, amateur runner, and men's health champion, he has written about his own experiences of prostate cancer, marathon training and mental health, as well as life as a modern-day parent. As a runner, Tim can be found running along trails around his home county of Hampshire, England.

If you are interested in getting a copy of The Running Drug, it is available on the Amazon UK site at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Running-Drug-addiction-overcome-rediscover/dp/1838465812
For our fellow Canadian's you can find it on the Amazon Canada website at https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Drug-addiction-overcome-rediscover/dp/1838465812/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+running+drug&qid=1628897073&sr=8-1

Big thank you to Tim, for providing a review copy of the book, and for speaking with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Running Drug: How a running addiction helped one man overcome cancer, conquer a marathon and rediscover life

Today We Die A Little is the story of Czech runner Emil Zatopek’s life and his athletic success, but also a history lesson of the communist era in former Czechoslovakia. Emil was born in 1922 and was the seventh of his parents eight children. Although not particularly athletic, or someone who you would mark as talented, his work ethic was exemplary, and he became the world’s most dominant runner by sheer hard work. Emil was known for experimenting with training methods and was known for his ability to accept being uncomfortable.

This book tells an incredible story about a legend in the sport of running, while at the same time acknowledging the difficulty in making sense of the rumours, and the lack of, or inaccuracy of, the information documented during the communist era. He also explains the fear and difficulty people had to trust others, and how difficult it is to get people to talk about that time.

Richard Askwith is a UK Northamptonshire-based journalist and author whose passions include running, outdoor adventure and the traditions and ordinary people of the English countryside. He has written six books including Running Free, and Feet in the Clouds, an award winning book about fell running in the UK. He cohosts a Running and Writing workshop with another guest of ours, Adharanand Finn.

If you would like to follow Richard's work, he can be found on Twitter, but a better place to follow his work is on his website: https://richardaskwith.co.uk

If you are interested in getting a copy of Today We Die A Little, it is available on the Amazon UK site at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Today-We-Die-Little-Zátopek/dp/0224100343/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456765867&sr=1-1&keywords=Zátopek
For our fellow Canadian's you can find it on the Amazon Canada website at https://www.amazon.ca/Today-We-Die-Little-Inimitable/dp/1568585497/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=richard+askwith&qid=1627656748&sr=8-7

Big thank you to the publisher, Bold Type Books, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Richard Askwith, for speaking with us.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Today We Die a Little

Today We Die a Little!: The Inimitable Emil Zátopek, the Greatest Olympic Runner of All Time

Abdi's World is the story of Abdi Abdirahman's life starting when he left his home in Somalia in 1991 with his parents and siblings. Abdi was just barely a teen at the time. He and his family went from having a middle-class lifestyle to having only each other, but Abdi expresses gratitude throughout the book for the many people who helped him along the way. Abdi will represent the USA in the 2021 Olympics in the marathon, and is the oldest prson to qualify for a US Olympic team. He has had a long and successful career in running, and his journey, as well as the book, spans six Olympic cycles!

One thing that Abdi doesn't seem to pay much attention to is when people try to tell him that it might be time to retire his running shoes. He loves the sport and tries to learn from each experience. The book is divided into six Olympic cycles which each have a lesson:

PART I: SYDNEY 2000 - A LESSON IN POSSIBILITIES
PART II: ATHENS 2004 - A LESSON IN BELONGING
PART III: BEIJING 2008 - A LESSON IN BELIEF
PART IV: LONDON 2012 - A LESSON IN HUMILITY
PART V: RIO DE JANEIRO 2016 - A LESSON IN PERSEVERANCE
PART VI: TOKYO 2020-21 - A LESSON IN UNITY

Abdi Abdirahman is the only American distance runner to qualify for five Olympic Games. Born in Somalia, he came to Tucson, Arizona, at age 16 after his family escaped civil war in their home country. He became an American citizen in 2000 and has represented the United States at the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and soon the 2020 Olympics to be held in 2021.

If you are interested in getting a copy of Abdi's World, it is available on the Soulstice Publishing website at https://soulsticepublishing.com/product/abdi-book/

Big thank you to the publisher, Soulstice Publishing, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author, Abdi Abdirahman, for speaking with us. A special thanks to Rebekah Epstein for reaching out to suggest this fantastic read!

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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The Voice in My Heart is Gilbert Tuhabonye’s story of growing up in Burundi on a peaceful mountain side surrounded by family, discovering the sport of running as a child, and later being the only survivor of an attack on his school where the Hutu’s attacked about 100 Tutsi teachers and students with machetes, before putting all those that were still alive in a building which they doused in gasoline and lit on fire. Gilbert survived, but was badly burned and doctors told him he would not run again. During his recovery Gilbert describes the many emotions he had to deal with, including survivor’s guilt, anger towards Hutu’s, difficulty trusting people, and being constantly afraid that someone was going to poison him or kill him while he was recovering in the hospital.

The book is beautifully written, and the story is divided into 7 chapters:
1. Deliver us from Evil
2. Education is our Children’s Future
3. Acts of Contrition
4. Rise to Glory
5. Initiation and Advancement
6. Recovery and Reflection
7. The Road Back

The author, Gilbert Tuhabonye, made a full recovery to high level running. By 1996, three years after the attack, his running performances took him to the United States as part of an Olympic training program. He obtained a track scholarship to Abilene Christian University and was a national champion runner. He has since become the award-winning coach of the Gilbert's Gazelles Training Group in Texas. In 2006, he co-founded the Gazelle Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve life for people in Burundi without regard to tribal affiliations. Today Gilbert is a US citizen and lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and children.

If you are interested in getting a copy of The Voice in My Heart, it is available on Amazon. At the same time you can support the foundation through the AmazonSmile program by choosing Gazelle Foundation as your charity. To learn more about the foundation, you can see the website https://www.gazellefoundation.org

If you live in or near Austin Texas, and are looking for a club to run with, you can find information about Gilbert's Gazelles at https://www.gilbertsgazelles.com

Big thank you to the publisher, Amistad, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author Gilbert Tuhabonye for the interview. Thanks also to our friend, Jessica, for suggesting the book.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Are you a new runner trying to figure out why people love this running thing? Have you been a runner on and off throughout the years because somehow you would lose motivation or just feel like you don't like running anymore? If so, the you will love this interview with author Brendan Leonard about his new book I Hate Running and You Can Too: How to get started, keep going, and make sense of an irrational passion. And yes, if you already love running, then you will also really enjoy this episode.

I Hate Running is a fun book full of pictograms that attempt to make sense of our irrational passion for something that most people find hard. Like many runners have heard before, our sport is every other sports punishment. For those that are not really sure they like running, the book might help convince them that they will if they stick with it.

The book starts with an introduction, then has 13 chapters, and ends with an epilogue. The chapters are short and to the point with titles like:
Get comfortable about being uncomfortable
It’s only half about running
There are no hacks
Loving something is different than liking it
The chapters are very short, but contain entertaining pictograms in the same style that Brendan Leonard has on his website semi-rad.com, or featured on his instagram account by the same name.

If you are interested in getting a copy of I Hate Running, you can support your local bookstore by buying the book from bookshop.org here: https://bookshop.org/books/i-hate-running-and-you-can-too-how-to-get-started-keep-going-and-make-sense-of-an-irrational-passion/9781579659882
The book can also be found on Artisan Books website: https://www.workman.com/products/i-hate-running-and-you-can-too

Big thank you to the publisher, Artisan Books, for providing a review copy of the book, and author Brendan Leonard for the interview.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Have you been ignoring your nutrition? After listening to this episode you will realize what a disservice this is for your running progression... especially if you are over 35. In this episode we speak with author Lauren Antonucci about her new book High Performance Nutrition for Masters Athletes: Fuel Smartly and Efficiently at Age 35 and Beyond. This book is all about nutrition; it is based on overall good habits with some tweaks geared towards athletes and in particular, masters athletes. The book is divided into 3 parts:

Part I: Changing Physiology of the Masters Athlete
1. Defining the masters athlete
2. Demystifying age-related changes
3.Nutritional strategies to manage and Prevent Disease

Part II: Smart Fuelling
4. Nutrition principles for masters athletes
5. Energizing carbohydrate
6. Muscle-building protein
7. Healthy fat
8. Supplements
9. Fluid needs
10. Underfueling

Part III: Nutrient Timing
11. Precompetition fueling
12. Competition-day fueling
13. Recovery Nutrition

Lauren Antonucci is a Registered Dietician, and a board certified Sports Dietician. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychobiology from Binghamton University, a master’s degree in clinical nutrition from New York University, and was awarded a fellowship in nutritional biochemistry at the University of California. She is specialized in eating disorders , and is a diabetes educator. On top of all the degrees and experience in the field, Lauren also founded her company, Nutrition Energy, in 2003, wrote a monthly column for Triathlete Magazine for 3 years, and wrote for New York Road Runners for over a decade.

If you are interested in getting a copy of High Performance Nutrition for Masters Athletes, you can find it on Amazon or on the Human Kinetics Website here: https://canada.humankinetics.com/products/high-performance-nutrition-for-masters-athletes

Big thank you to the publisher, Human Kinetics, for providing a review copy of the book, and to author Lauren Antonucci for the interview. Thanks also to Lauren's friend Erica, from GoRunningTours Chicago, for suggesting the book and putting us in touch with Lauren.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.
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Have you ever started making huge progress in your training, and figured you would just keep improving at the same rate? If you have, then you probably already know that your porgress eventually slows down. Author and runner, Brian Green, noticed that there is a cycle of these performance jumps, and that you can do more than just training to help get yourself to the next level in your running. The best part is that what he teaches in his book, Make the Leap, is transferrable to other areas of your life as well!

Make the Leap is a book aimed at helping you think differently, so that you can benefit more from your training plan. It also makes you think about the things outside of your actual run training that will help your performance; Bryan calls this the “hidden training program”.

The book starts with "Ch. 1 What is a Leap", where Bryan explains the idea that performance improvements are not linear, they actually happen as a “leap” that gets you to a new normal and then the progress slows for a while until your body is ready for the next “leap”. The other chapters are grouped into two parts (part 1. Attributes, Beliefs, and Values, and part 2. Effort and Behaviour) and covers 11 optimal training principles which each have a dedicated chapter.

Big thanks to Bryan Green for coming on the podcast, and for the great chat! If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, it can be found directly on Bryan's website, and you will get a 20% discount by entering the code ALANANDLIZ at checkout. You can also just use this link to have the code applied automatically at checkout: https://maketheleapbook.com/discount/ALANANDLIZ

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Bill Graham is a runner who has enjoyed the sport for over four decades. He is a multiple time sub-3 hour marathoner, ran in the UK Cross Country national championships as a youth, and has lived and run in both the UK and South Africa. Bill is also a running coach and mentor to other runners. In this episode we get to chat with Bill about his new book, Running on Tired Legs.

Running on Tired legs is a memoire of Bill Graham’s life, and a parallel account of the Lakeland 100, which is a 100 km run in the English Lake District. Bill’s personal journey starts with a description of his childhood, introduction to sport and later running, and a reflection of what he was like as a kid. He was extremely shy, and had some issues with performance anxiety during competitions.

Through sports, and especially running, Bill builds on his confidence throughout his life, and he makes many friends along the way. During the parallel story of Bill's 100 km run, there are several times when Bill is not sure he will finish and he describes the variety of challenges he had along the way. The help of the race volunteers, and some runners he meets during the event, really highlight the camaraderie that exists in the running community and reminds us why we love this sport so much.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, it can be found directly on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Tired-Legs-Bill-Graham/dp/B08VBS3V26

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Running on Tired Legs

We often see books for either beginner runner's or the elites, but the largest portion of runners is somewhere in between. This is why authors Anji Andrews and Martin Yelling decided to write Running in the Midpack, How to be a Strong, Successful, and Happy Runner, which is a book for the midpack runner.

Midpackers train hard and have big goals, so this book aims to help them progress in their running. Midpackers also have jobs and families, so the book the book tries to give tips on incorporating best practice into busy lives.

There are 6 chapters and a conclusion:

The midpack runner
Psychology
Whole body health
Training
Nutrition
Race day
Conclusion

In this episode of the podcast we had the pleasure of interviewing both authors, and hope that you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. Thanks to Bloomsbury for providing review copies of the book, and also for helping to put us in touch with the authors.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, it can be found directly on the Bloomsbury website here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/running-in-the-midpack-9781472973405/

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Bravey was Alexi Pappas mantra, and also the title of her memoire. Alexi is an olympian in the 10 000 m event which she ran for Greece and got the national record at the 2016 Olympic games. Although Alexi is still young and has many years ahead of her, she has also had many life experiences which she reflects on to try and tease out valuable lessons.

In her book, Alexi talks about her experience growing up without a mother and how this was both painful and positive at the same time. She grew up with a burning desire to “matter”, and this fuelled her to work hard towards her goals. The book is organized in chapters around specific themes or subjects, but not necessarily in chronological order. Although it may sound like a sad book, it doesn't feel that way because Alexi always ends by telling us what positive lesson she learned from her experience.

We were not able to have Alexi for an interview, but we hope that you enjoy our chat about the book.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, consider a local book store if possible, or you can get it online through the publisher's website: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591673/bravey-by-alexi-pappas/

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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In this episode we had the pleasure of speaking with both Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas about the 3rd edition of their book, Advanced Marathoning. As you will hear in the episode, both of us will be using a plan from this book to train for our sub-3 hour marathon attempt, so we made sure to ask lots of questions.

The book is divided into 2 parts and has some new features, in addition to having been completely revised since the 2nd edition:

Training components

Ch. 1. Elements of training

Ch. 2. Nutrition and hydration

Ch. 3. Balancing training and recovery

Ch. 4. Supplementary training

Ch. 5. The older (and wiser) marathoner – New in 3rd ed.

Ch. 6. Tapering for peak marathon performance

Ch. 7. Race day strategy

Training programs

Ch. 8. Following the schedules

Ch. 9. Marathon training up to 55 miles (89 km) per week

Ch. 10. Marathon training on 55 to 70 miles (89 to 113 km) per week

Ch. 11. Marathon training on 70 to 85 miles (113-137 km) per week

Ch. 12. Marathon training on more than 85 miles (137 km) per week

Ch. 13. Multiple marathoning

New in the 3rd edition is Appendix B: Equivalent race times from 10k to marathon. Some more recent athletes are featured in the chapters, like Eliud Kipchoge, and Molly Huddle.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, it can be found directly on the Human Kinetics website here: https://us.humankinetics.com/products/advanced-marathoning-3rd-edition

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Similar to our "Throwback Thoughts on the First 10 Books" episode, we decided to go reflect on everything we learned in books 11 to 20. We know that all the things we have learned is making us into better runners.

Here is a list of the books we talk about:

Chasing Excellence, by Pat Melgares - https://soulsticepublishing.com/product/chasing-excellence-book/

Run to the Finish, by Amanda Brooks - https://www.amazon.ca/Run-Finish-Everyday-Avoiding-Ignoring/dp/0738285994

Win at All Costs, by Matt Hart - https://www.amazon.ca/Win-All-Costs-Running-Deception/dp/0062917773

Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall - https://www.amazon.ca/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

Running with Sherman, by Christopher McDougall - https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Sherman-Inspired-Rag-tag-Craziest/dp/0525433252

The Comeback Quotient, by Matt Fitzgerald - https://www.amazon.ca/Comeback-Quotient-Get-Real-Building-Fitness/dp/1948007169

Running Home, by Katie Arnold - https://www.amazon.ca/Running-Home-Memoir-Katie-Arnold/dp/0425284670

The Lost Art of Running, by Shane Benzie and Tim Major - https://www.amazon.ca/Lost-Art-Running-Rediscover-Forgotten/dp/1472968085

Out of Thin Air, by Michael Crawley - https://www.amazon.ca/Out-Thin-Air-Running-Ethiopia/dp/1472975324

Epic Runs of the World, by publisher Lonely Planet - https://www.amazon.ca/Lonely-Planet-Epic-Runs-World/dp/1788681266

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Running Home: A Memoir

Run to the Finish: The Everyday Runner's Guide to Avoiding Injury, Ignoring the Clock, and Loving the Run

Win at All Costs: Inside Nike Running and Its Culture of Deception

The Comeback Quotient: A Get-Real Guide to Building Mental Fitness in Sport and Life

Lost Art of Running, The: A Journey to Rediscover the Forgotten Essence of Human Movement

Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic from Above the Clouds in Ethiopia

Running with Sherman: How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America

Epic Runs of the World 1

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Can you imagine being healthy and fit your whole life... you eat healthy, exercise, and even your career is all about fitness... and then you get a cancer diagnosis?! This is what happened to one of USA's most sought-after running event announcers, Fitz Koehler.

My Noisy Cancer Comeback takes you through Fitz experience with breast cancer starting with a clear mammogram about 3 months prior to finding a lump in her breast. In the first chapter she describes her life as being a dream come true. Her work is a passion, she is in a healthy relationship, and has two healthy thriving children. By contrast, the second chapter is titled “I’m Definitely Dying”. Fitz takes us through he journey, in chronological order, from the moment she finds a lump and calls her doctor, to chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, more chemotherapy, and then trying to recover her fitness and getting rid of “chemo butt” in the remaining 16 chapters. Although Fitz is a very positive person, she describes in great detail the emotional roller coaster that she tried to keep somewhat private while it was happening.

Big thank you to Fitz for responding to our request, and for spending time with us to record this episode. If you are interested in getting a copy of the book, Fitz will personally sign any hard or soft cover copies purchased directly from her website: http://www.fitzness.com/blog/

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Epic Runs of the World is a compilation of running destinations, each described by a different author. The publisher, Lonely Planet, has a travel information website and has published many other travel books which are also featured on their website. We are not travelling at the moment but the website, and this book, can be a great resource for planning your future adventures. You may even realize that one of the epic runs are in your own back yard; we found out that Montreal's Mont-Royal is featured in the book! Since this book has no single author, we took a slightly different approach. We contacted a few of our running buddies who have done some of the runs in the book, and asked them to tell us about their experiences.

This is a “coffee table” style book in hard cover, and features colour photos of each destination. The runs are organized by continent starting with Africa, and followed by Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. There are the main runs listed in the table of contents, and each one is then followed by 3 other “more like this” runs which feature less detailed explanations and no pictures. The main runs each have descriptions and pictures over several pages, and include other useful information like where to stay and what to wear.

Big thank you to the publisher, Lonely Planet, for providing a review copy of the book. If you would like to purchase the book for yourself, you can get it through Lonely Planet's website: https://shop.lonelyplanet.com/categories/epic

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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We hear a lot about Kenyan running culture, and in recent years athletes from all over the world have gone to train in Kenya, but what about Ethiopia? Ethiopia has produced athletes like Tirunesh Dibaba, Kenenisa Bekele, and Haile Gebreselassie.

Out of Thin Air is the story of Michael Crawley's time living and training with some of the best runners in the world in Ethiopia. The book is divided into 14 chapters, and each chapter describes a facet of training life in Ethiopia, and some of the reasons and beliefs associated with it. There are a lot of little stories about Michael’s experience, like when he was woken up at 3 am for the first time to join the others for a night run. Because he spent 15 months training with the group, he really got a chance to develop friendships and integrate into the running scene. Despite being a 2:20 marathoner he always ended up struggling to complete the training runs, many done at altitude with blazing fast runners.

Big thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury, for providing a review copy of the book and for connecting us with the author. Thank you to Michael Crawley speaking with us about the book.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Whether you think working on running form is important, or not, this book is a must read. For the non-believers, the book makes some good arguments. For those who already believe form is important, the book will give you a different perspective on form; it is not about one component, like cadence, but about several components, including our lifestyle, which affect each other and our running.

The Lost Art of Running by Shane Benzie and Tim Major is part story and part self-improvement. It is divided into 3 parts: The Journey, The Foundations, and The Practical. Shane starts off by telling the story of how he noticed that in some areas of the world runners had a nicer running style and seemed to be able to run faster with less effort, and this observation eventually leads him to wonder if this quality can be taught. Shane ends up travelling the world in search of how he can teach good running form, and lays out a basic foundation that we can use to try and help improve our own running.

Big thank you to the publisher, Bloomsbury Sport, for providing a review copy of the book. We were not able to connect with the author for an interview, but we hope you enjoy our chat anyway. If you are not able to get the book through your local book shop, you can find it on Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/Lost-Art-Running-Rediscover-Forgotten/dp/1472968085.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Lost Art of Running, The: A Journey to Rediscover the Forgotten Essence of Human Movement

In this episode we speak with ultra-runner, mother of two girls, and author, Katie Arnold, about her book Running Home. This book is a memoire about Katie’s life. She is a child of divorced parents who grew up in the 70's, and felt like she always needed to be a “good girl” and seek approval from her father. She later became a wife and mother herself, and struggled with mental health.

Katie's father introduced her to running as a child when he asked her if she would like to participate in a local 6 mile race, and she continued running throughout her life. Katie deals with a lot of anxiety and grief after the death of her father, and she uses ultra-trail running to help deal with both. She ends up discovering that she is good at it and wins several ultra races including the 2018 Leadville Trail 100, and is now sponsored by GU Energy Labs, and Balega Socks.

Although us runners would like to call this a running book, the story is about more than just running, and many people can relate to the thoughts and feelings that Katie describes.

Thank you to Katie Arnold for getting in touch with us, and taking time to come on the podcast. If you want to find out more about Katie, you may read about her on her website https://katiearnold.net/bio. You can also order the book through Katie's website, or get it from your local book store.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Matt Fitzgerald's second book release in 2020?... You better believe it!

In this episode we have Matt Fitzgerald back to talk about his newest book, The Comeback Quotient, that will start shipping in December. This book is part self-help book, part personal experience, and part compilation of inspiring stories about defying the odds.

There are 9 chapters, with a portion of Matt’s training journey leading up to the Santa Rosa Ironman Triathlon, at the end of each chapter. Matt wanted to make a comeback of his own, and he tried to apply some of the things he learned to make the best of his situation. In the first chapter, Matt explains what an “ultrarealist” is, and the other chapters detail how ultrarealists deal with setbacks and the steps we can take to be more like an ultrarealist. There are many stories about famous athletes who have accomplished spectacular things in the face of adversity: Lionel Sanders, Molly Seidel, Petra Majdic, and Bob Krar, just to name a few. The last two chapters are about coming back from self-sabotage, and what happens when comebacks fail.

Thank you to Velopress for providing us a review copy, and also putting us in contact with the author for an interview. If you want to find out more about Matt Fitzgerald, his personal website https://mattfitzgerald.org has a list of books he has written and co-authored. You can also pre-order the book through Matt's website.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Have you ever heard of Burro Racing? We hadn't either until we read Christopher McDougall's new book, Running with Sherman. In this book Chris shares his story of how he ended up adopting a sick rescue donkey who ended up with the name Sherman, and then training to run a race with him.

Reminiscent of Chris' well known book, Born to Run, Running with Sherman is also peppered with interesting facts and side stories about the people he meets. Among other things, we learn why and how humans started bonding with animals, and how this relationship is essential to our wellbeing. We had the pleasure of interviewing Chris, and talking about some of the people that helped him in his journey to get Sherman healthy and ready to run the burro racing World Championships.

Thanks to Vintage Books for providing us an advance review copy, and also putting us in contact with the author for the interview.

If you would like get a copy of this book, and see a short video about the book, take a look at Chris McDougall's website https://www.chrismcdougall.com/running-with-sherman/

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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What?!! You haven't read Born to Run?! Even if you have read Born to Run, this episode should remind you of all the details you've forgotten.

Born to Run is Christopher McDougal's journey to find out why running always got him injured. It leads him to discovering a tribe of running people who live in the Mexican Copper Canyons, and are so shy that very few people have seen them. The Tarahumara use running as transportation, and also for fun, running very long distances, on rough terrain, in home-made sandals, and never get injured; this is why Chris decides to try to find this tribe, and this brings him on an epic adventure. He ends up meeting many people along the way and the book is peppered with stories.

We were not able to get the author for this episode, but we talk you through the book, and add our own thoughts and discoveries.

We are dedicating this episode to a member of the running community, and one of our loyal listeners, who passed away recently. This episode is dedicated to Michel Bonnell (a.k.a. Mike Runs). Our hearts go out to Michel's family and friends.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, please consider helping your local bookstore if possible. If you are looking to buy online (or get the Kindle version), you can also help-out the podcast by using this Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2IUvSX5

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Matt Hart's recently released book, Win at All Costs, gives us an insight into Nikes secretive running program, The Nike Oregon Project. It details the investigation by USADA into Head Coach, Alberto Salazar, and a Houston endocrinologist, Dr. Jeffrey Brown, and their practices with Nike Oregon Project athletes.

Matt's book is filled with stories of Nike employees and athletes like former assistant coach Steve Magness, and Olympians Kara and Adam Goucher, who broke the silence about practices within the Nike Oregon Project that were causing them serious ethical dilemas. It also lifts the curtain on the male dominated exploitation and Win at All Cost culture within the Nike organisation.

Divided into 20 chapters, the book charts us through a 12 year process that began in 2007 with a voicemail tip-off from Danny Mackay, to the eventual 4 year ban of Salazar and Brown in 2019. At times it seems almost like a James Bond spy story, but like Lance Armstrong, another Nike affiliate, the stories were all too real.

Thank you to Harper Collins for providing us an advance review copy, and also putting us in contact with the author for the interview.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, please consider helping your local bookstore if possible. Matt suggested checking out the Bookshop.org website, which also supports local bookstores (thanks Matt!!).

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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From basic equipment and training principles to the importance of psychology and dreaming “just big enough”, Run to the Finish by Amanda Brooks, is an overview of everything running. It covers a wide range of topics in an easy to understand way that is accessible to new runners, but provides information that is also good for runners who are not new to the sport and want to improve. It was specifically written for the "middle of the pack" who find that some of the other books out there are a little intimidating because they seem to speak to a more elite group.

The book is divided into 11 chapters:

You are a runner
Motivation beyond the clock
Breaking down discomfort VS pain
Don’t play the injury game
Dreaming just big enough
The perfect training plan
What is solid training?
Managing runger to avoid hangry times
Understanding the final 10%
Owning race day
Developing a lasting PR

The author, Amanda Brooks, has been a runner, running coach, and personal trainer for several years. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, and has been featured in many running magazines as well as women’s health and fitness forums. Amanda is also the author of the successful RunToTheFinish.com website.

Thank you to Go Hachette Books for providing us a review copy, and also putting us in contact with the author for the interview.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, please consider helping your local bookstore if possible. If you are looking to get the book online, and also helping out the podcast, you can get the book through our Amazon.ca affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2SnkzrC

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Run to the Finish: The Everyday Runner's Guide to Avoiding Injury, Ignoring the Clock, and Loving the Run

We’ve realized that reading running books has changed us. This is why we decided to go through the first 10 books we reviewed to recap the things we have learned, and the things that have made us better runners.

Here is a list of the books we talk about (and a link to each one on Amazon.ca):

Hanson’s Marathon Method, by Luke Humphrey - https://amzn.to/3c1SQWD

Kicksology, by Brian Metzler - https://amzn.to/3hzkfR6

Running Rewired, by Jay Dicharry - https://amzn.to/3bXx6Lm

Runner, by Lizzy Hawker - https://amzn.to/3mhl2JV

Strong, by Kara Goucher - https://amzn.to/32sjtkA

Happy Runner, by David and Megan Roche - https://amzn.to/3bUaOKF

Running the Dream, by Matt Fitzgerald - https://amzn.to/2NEATSO

Girls Running, by Melody Fairchild and Elizabeth Carey - https://www.velopress.com/books/girls-running/

North, by Scott Jurek - https://amzn.to/39VKe2Z

The Rise of the Ultra Runners, by Adharanand Finn - https://amzn.to/2XTUqUO

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Strong: A Runner's Guide to Boosting Confidence and Becoming the Best Version of You

Running the Dream: One Summer Living, Training, and Racing with a Team of World-Class Runners Half My Age

Running Rewired: Reinvent Your Run for Stability, Strength, and Speed

The Happy Runner: Love the Process, Get Faster, Run Longer

North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail

Kicksology: The Hype, Science, Culture & Cool of Running Shoes

Hansons Marathon Method: Run Your Fastest Marathon the Hansons Way

Runner: A short story about a long run

The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance

For those who have never heard of Coach Vigil, he is a legend in the coaching of US Track and Filed, Cross Country, and distance running. He has helped develop a coaching program for coaching runners, and has taught coaches all over the US, and in many other countries around the world. Although he has accomplished many things, gotten many awards, and coached dozens of Olympians, Coach Vigil is most loved for his compassion and caring for the “whole person” and not just the athlete.

Chasing Excellence is a book about Coach Vigil’s life. It starts by telling us how Joe Vigil grew up to a single mom who worked very hard to provide food and shelter for 3 boys and made sure that they were always in line. They didn’t have very much in terms of material but with the work ethic instilled by his mom, his desire to help people, and his passion for sports, Joe ended up accomplishing many things that some would not have thought possible.

Coach Joe Vigil has touched the lives of many people he has met, and this book is full of stories about the impact he had on different people. Not all his runners went to the Olympics, but many did great things because Coach Vigil not only believed in them, but also helped them believe in themselves.

In this episode of Running Book Reviews we had the pleasure of interviewing the author (and one of Coach Vigil's former athletes), Pat Melgares.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, please consider getting it straight from the publisher, Soulstice Publishing. A portion of the proceeds are going to establish the Joe I. Vigil Scholarship at Adams State University, and buying the from the publisher helps with this: https://soulsticepublishing.com/product/chasing-excellence-book/

Pat Melgares has also been compiling more stories about Adams State and Joe I. Vigil’s life at the following website: https://melgares.wixsite.com/chasingexcellence

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Ever wonder why someone would want to run distances longer than the marathon? Isn't the marathon hard enough? What about hundreds of miles through the woods, across the desert, or up a mountain? If you ever wondered how any runner becomes an ultra runner, and why, these are the questions explored in Adharanand Finn's latest book The Rise of the Ultra Runners.
Adharanand Finn is a journalist and a runner living and working in the UK. This book reads like a story but provides lots of information about ultra-running, well known (and some not so well known) ultra-runners, and Adharanand's own journey into becoming an ultra-runner. In this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the author and he tells us about his journey to become an ultra-runner and how the experience changed him. Adharanand completed a series of ultra-races including the Oman Desert Marathon, the Miwok 100, the Comrades Marathon (this name is misleading as it is actually a 90 km race), the Dorset Coast 45 mile race, a 24-hour track race, and the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB). He tells us about the experience of running these races, and about some of the people he met along the way.

Thank you to Pegasus Books for providing us a review copy, and also putting us in contact with the author for the interview.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, please consider helping your local bookstore if possible. If you are looking to get the book online, and also helping out the podcast, you can get the book through our Amazon.ca affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2XTUqUO

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance

Scott Jurek, 7 times winner of Western States Ultra and one of the greatest ultra-runners in the sports history, describes in his book, North, his final herculean running challenge, the FKT (fastest known time) for the Appalachian Trail (AT).

The AT is 2189 miles of rugged difficult track with over 500,000 ft of elevation change. What’s more, Scott decides to do it going in the more difficult “North” direction at the same time as hurricane Bill hits the eastern mountains of the USA! Suffering a serious injury with still 30 plus days to go at 50 miles per day, Scott is going to have to dig deeper than he has ever has before.

Alan and Liz talk through Scott and Jenny’s adventure and speak with their friend Nestor who ran with Scott during his record-breaking attempt.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy this book, you can help support the podcast at the same time by getting your copy through our affiliate link here: https://amzn.to/39VKe2Z

You can message us at any time at runningbookreviews@gmail.com

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North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail

If you have an athletic teen girl or young woman in your life, this book should be your next gift to her. Girls Running is a book by Melody Fairchild (once the fastest girl in the world for her age) and Elizabeth Carey (writer and running coach), that aims to answer questions that girls and young women have about running, and how puberty and female hormones can affect performance.

The book consists of 11 chapters starting with topics related to the physiology of running, and the changes that happen to women during puberty. The book goes on to discuss what constitutes a winning mindset, tips for "racing fierce", the importance of fuelling and problems with food and body issues, team building, and running gear.

In this episode we had the pleasure of interviewing the authors about their book. The official release date is August 11th, 2020. If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, it is available for pre-order on the Velo Press website: https://www.velopress.com/books/girls-running/

Thank you Velo Press for providing us a copy of the book for review, and connecting us with the authors.

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Have you ever dreamt of what it would be like to train like an elite runner? To have your whole life revolve around running, and see how good you could get if there were no other distractions? Accomplished endurance athlete, coach, and author, Matt Fitzgerald, did exactly this in 2017, and wrote about it in his most recent book Running the Dream. If you are familiar with some of Matt Fitzgerald’s other books, this one doesn’t have the traditional layout with chapters dedicated to different topics. Instead, the book reads like a journal, and each chapter is titled with the number of days left until his goal race, the Chicago Marathon.

In this episode we get to interview Matt, and he provides additional insight to his “fake pro runner” experience. He tells us about the things he had to do in addition to the running to be able to sustain the training and speculates what his performance may have been if he had not felt his injury coming back during the race.

Thank you to Pegasus Books for providing us a review copy, and also putting us in contact with the author for an interview. If you want to find out more about Matt Fitzgerald, his personal website https://mattfitzgerald.org has a list of books he has written and co-authored. You can also access his coaching services through this website.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, please consider helping your local bookstore if possible. If you are looking to get the book online, and also helping out the podcast, you can get the book through our Amazon.ca affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2NEATSO

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Running the Dream: One Summer Living, Training, and Racing with a Team of World-Class Runners Half My Age

In Happy Runner, a 2-part book published by Human Kinetics (thanks for the book!), David and Megan explain the importance of being a happy runner (part 1) and outline the training principles they use with their running team SWAP (part 2). The acronym stands for “some work all play”, which is their goal when coaching their athletes. The book is written as a combined first-person perspective of both authors (we), but occasionally shifts to the perspective of either David or Megan, or their dog Addie who is very present in part 1 of the book. Addie represents unconditional love and support, which is what David and Megan believe we all need to have for ourselves.

David and Megan are highly educated, and great runners. Both have numerous Team USA appearances and distinguished pedigrees in trail running.

Part 1 - Happy Runner Rules

The first section is the longest, and all about mindset. David and Megan believe we need to live in the moment and be happy with our running in order to progress. They have 3 rules:

Rule 1: Embrace the Process

Rule 2: Know Your “Why?”

In order to enjoy your running, you need to know why you do it. In this section the reader is told to ask him/herself 4 questions:

1) Why do I run at all?

2) Why do I run each day?

3) Why am I racing at all?

4) Why do I have my long-term goals?

Rule 3: Power Yourself with Kindness

Megan and David believe that being kind to yourself and others will improve your happiness, and your running!

Part 2 - Happy Runner Training Principles

This section is all about the training principles used by David when coaching SWAP team members. There are 5 basic principles:

Principle 1: Easy means Easy

Principle 2: Learn to Run Fast before practicing Running Hard

Principle 4: Specificity Matters but less than you think

Principle 5: Healthy Running is Active and Earned

Each principle is explained, and David gives examples of many athletes who have excelled with SWAP. Even though David’s athletes train hard, he also explains that the body knows stress not miles, and stress comes from training and life!

Everyone is different in the amount of stress they can handle, but incorporating some dynamic exercises, rolling and stretching, getting enough sleep, and eating enough can help increase the amount of running stress you can handle.

As a final note in the book, David, Megan, and Addie want you to know that you are awesome, you are enough, and you should believe in yourself.

Book Overall

The book is a nicely presented softback. David and Megan included some black and white photos at the start of each chapter, so we get to see who they are (and yes, there are pictures of Addie dog also!).

The book is easy to read and has lots of stories and humour. Addie dog speaks in all CAPS which serves its purpose of making her unconditional love for everyone and everything stand out.

The book is about mindset first and then applying principles for the training to be smart. It does not offer a specific training plan for a specific race distance, but does explain each principle with enough detail to apply it to your own training.

Listen to the podcast to hear more details, and as usual, some of our own stories!

If you are interested in purchasing a copy this book, you can help support the podcast at the same time by getting your copy through our affiliate link at: https://amzn.to/2N5Z1xo

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The Happy Runner: Love the Process, Get Faster, Run Longer

Kara Goucher's book Strong: A Runner's Guide to Boosting Confidence and Becoming the Best Version of You was published by Blue Star Press in 2018. In the name of full disclosure, Blue Star Press was kind enough to provide us a free copy to review. Kara Goucher is one of the USA's most decorated, and most recognizable female runners. She has a long list of accomplishments both on the track and on the road and has been on the US Olympic team in 2012 and 2016. Her book aims to help other athletes boost their self-confidence using the same sports psychology techniques that she used during her career. Kara doesn't claim to BE a sports psychologist, but rather she recognizes that many runners deal with confidence issues, and wants to share techniques that were helpful for her.

The techniques Kara provides in the book are:

· Positive self-talk

· Mantra

· Setting goals

· Enclothed cognition

· Power pose

· Visualization

· Power words

· Social connection

This book has limited theoretical backgrounds about each individual technique, but this is not the goal of the book anyway. It provides questions and exercises to guide the reader in applying the technique and provides examples from Kara Goucher's own confidence journal as examples.

Kara also has other female athletes (Molly Huddle and Emma Coburn, to name a couple) contribute their own struggles and ideas about confidence, and it really shows how the elites struggle with the same demons as we do. Kara tells us how she used to feel like she didn't belong when she would line up to run high caliber races.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, and also helping out the podcast, you can get the book through this Amazon.ca affiliate link: Strong: A Runner's Guide to Being the Best Version of You

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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Strong: A Runner's Guide to Boosting Confidence and Becoming the Best Version of You

Runner, a Short Story About a Long Run, by Lizzy Hawker, is a memoire about how Lizzy accidently discovered ultra-running, and her journey of self-discovery through testing her limits with running.

Who Is Lizzy Hawker?

A Ph.D. in oceanography, a Briton with great adventuring spirit now sharing her time between Switzerland and Nepal. Her list of accomplishments includes:

o 100 km women’s world champion in 2006

o 5-time winner of the UTMB, most prestigious Ultra in Europe (unprecedented)

o 24-hour record on the road in 2011

o First woman to be on the overall winner’s podium at Spartathlon

o 2013 National Geographic Adventurer of the year

o Ran 320 km through the Himalayas from Everest Basecamp to Kathmandu in Nepal

The book has 16 chapters but falls into 3 distinct parts

Part 1: A Journey of Discovery.

Lizzy shows her thirst for the experience of tough challenges and begins winning major Ultra events almost by accident.

Part 2: A Journey of Exploration

Lizzy falls in love with Nepal and the Himalayas. She also sets FKTs for Everest base camp to Kathmandu. During this episode Alan tries to explain how this feels through his own discovery of trail running and journey to the Himalayas. Liz gets lost a bit in the unfamiliar geography.

Part 3: A Journey of Rediscovery and Exploration

Lizzy battles with injury, a repeated series of stress fractures. Liz marvels at her ability to treat this as another type of challenge and opportunity to learn. Alan is amazed.

At the end Liz has some reservations about the book and Alan is a starry-eyed groupie!

The book itself is nicely presented by UK publisher Aurum Press. (now White Lion)

If you are interested in purchasing a copy this book, you can help support the podcast at the same time by getting your copy through our affiliate link at: Runner: A short story about a long run

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Runner: A short story about a long run

Jay Dicharry’s book explains how to reinvent your running for better stability, speed and strength.

Alan and Liz take you through it in detail covering each of the books 3 parts:

The rationale; what is going on with the runner’s body.
How to drive your run in a customised fashion with targeted precision and performance exercises.
How to rewire your running brain with workouts to reinforce the new behaviours.

Training harder might just be reinforcing poor running patterns. Stop forcing “plan B”, and switch to your “plan A”. Jay uses a step by step approach to tells us how to do this, and why it is important.

There are clear explanations of what is going on inside your mind and body, demystifying some of the more common scientific jargon we hear around running.

Discover how to find out what YOUR body needs to do to be a better runner, and then convince your brain to send it a revised set of instructions! Sounds magical? Well it’s going to take some work.

Jay shows us each drill and exercise in sumptuous illustrated form, before assembling them into a menu of routines. Each person can then select routines from the menu based on needs, skill level, and where they are in their training plan.

Liz offers her advanced experience with the programs in the book, and Alan contributes his beginner experience trying to get his glutes to show up for a run!

As usual the team give the book a thorough and enthusiastic examination. Is it the book for you? You will certainly know by the end.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, and also helping out the podcast, you can get the book through this affiliate link: Running Rewired: Reinvent Your Run for Stability, Strength, and Speed

Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our podcasts would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/runningbookreviews/

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Running Rewired: Reinvent Your Run for Stability, Strength, and Speed

The hype, science, culture and cool of running shoes is described brilliantly in Brian Metzler's book. In addition, all the historic and controversial milestones are described.

Alan has lived through most of this history and describes it from a first hand perspective, with some great feedback from Liz on the new magic shoe development in today's market. Nestor gives his input on minimalist shoes and customization.

Runners have an emotional relationship with their shoes and this book introduces us to all the pioneers, researchers, and companies, who made this true and continue to do so.

A series of famous runners also present their favorite shoes. We are left in no doubt as to what Liz's favorite shoe is!

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This book describes a unique marathon training program developed by Kevin and Keith Hanson, and trained by coach Luke Humphrey, one of Hanson’s early students.

The program is interesting as it promotes shorter long runs, and more running days, with lots of easy runs. The idea is to build up aerobic endurance through consistent volume and customized speed sessions, rather than a weekend warrior approach.

Both Alan and Liz have tried it, and will describe the rationale and advice in the book, and their hands-on experience with it.

If you're looking for a new plan, ideas to improve your marathon performance, or ensure you finish, this is a great book for every runner from novice to elite.

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