Running Book Reviews with Alan and Liz (Alan and Liz)

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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. 

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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

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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. 

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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:

1. Breakfast
2. Smoothies and juices
3. Snacks and sweets
4. Salads
5. Soups and Stews
6. Pasta and Noodles
7. Vegetarian Mains and sides
8. Seafood Mains
9. 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.

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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. 

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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=edb66

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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. 

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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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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.

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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!

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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

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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.

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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 that makes 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. 

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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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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

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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/

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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

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

1. In the shadow of Kilimanjaro – Which talks about Filbert’s upbringing and childhood
2. 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.
3. 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://a.co/d/ijDY8mL  

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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  

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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

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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 Slattery 

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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

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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

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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

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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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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!

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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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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

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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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

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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

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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:

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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

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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 Long
You can get a copy here: https://a.co/d/3Fu37FX

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

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

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

Taking Life in Stride, by Harvey Mitro
The 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 Bouma
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 here:  https://a.co/d/cDNB79v

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

Run Faster Marathons, by Chris Knighton
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

A Beautiful Work In Progress, by Mirna Valerio
Here 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 Pilon
You can get a copy here:

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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:

1. Lifestyle
2. Training
3. Supplemental training
4. 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.

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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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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:

1. The runner’s body
2. Body regions
3. Common conditions
4. 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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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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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
 

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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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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 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:

1. Quick Start
2. Skills and Techniques
3. Training and Plans
4. Beat Injury
5. Trail Gear
6. Nutrition and Hydration
7. 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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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 Recker
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/12932646

You (Only Faster), by Greg McMillan
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13077509

Do Hard Things, by Steve Magness
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13182349

Born to Run 2, by Christopher McDougall and Eric Orto
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13252421

Personal Best Running, by Mark Coogan and Scott Douglas
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13318397

Get to the Line in the Best Shape Possible, by Eoin Everard
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13351781

On The Run, published by Gestalten
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13528984

Run Healthy, by Emmi Aguillard, Jonathan Cane and Allison Goldstein
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13606756

Run Elite, by Andrew Snow
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13750159

Just Finish! by Sean Kachmarski
https://runningbookreviews.buzzsprout.com/976876/13750190

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

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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-F

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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.

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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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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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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:

1. Why do we run?
2. Why do we slow down or stop?
3. What will help me run faster?
4. What should I focus my attention on?
5. Can running help me feel better?
6. 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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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.

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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

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

1. The beginning: how she grew up, how she liked to hang out with boys and play sports, and what happened in puberty. 
2. 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.
3. 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. 
4. 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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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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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:

1. Our bodies and Systems
2. Becoming a resilient running
3. Mental skills for runners
4. Races, challenges and adventures
5. Practicalities
6. 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:

1. Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, by Claire Maxted
2. 80/20 Endurance Book + High Performance Coaching Course, by Matt Fitzgerald
3. Running Away From Cancer, by Greg Schnoor
4. The Psychology of Running, by Noel Brick and Stuart Holliday
5. Pain and Performance, by Ryan Whited and Matt Fitzgerald
6. Becoming a Sustainable Runner, by Tina Muir and Zoe Rom
7. There Is No Wall, by Allie Bailey
8. In The Spell of the Barkley, by Michiel Panhuysen
9. The Boston Marathon Handbook, by Marc Pollina
10. 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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/

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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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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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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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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: 

1. How it started… and how it’s going
2. Meet the parkrunners
3. The high-viz heros
4. A day in the life of a parkrun
5. Why you should parkrun for your health and well-being
6. Parkrun around the world
7. Training, destination and challenge inspiration 
8. The future 
9. 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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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:

1. Run Through, by SB Stone
2. The Race To Be Myself, by Caster Semenya
3. The Examined Run, by Sabrina Little
4. Smart Running, by Jen and Sim Benson
5. Running Rewired 2nd Ed., by Jay Dicharry
6. LOST: The Work That Goes Unseen, published by Ciele
7. How To Run The Perfect Race, by Matt Fitzgerald
8. Trails and Tribulations, by Susie Chan
9. Running Challenges, by Keri Wallace
10. 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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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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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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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:

1. Quick Start
2. Preparation and Skills
3. Physical Training
4. Hydration and Nutrition
5. Beat Injury
6. Ultra Gear
7. 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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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 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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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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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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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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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:

1. The rationale; what is going on with the runner’s body.

2. How to drive your run in a customised fashion with targeted precision and performance exercises.

3. 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

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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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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

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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. 

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:

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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  

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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.

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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 

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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

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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  

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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

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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:

1.     You are a runner

2.     Motivation beyond the clock

3.     Breaking down discomfort VS pain

4.     Don’t play the injury game

5.     Dreaming just big enough

6.     The perfect training plan

7.     What is solid training?

8.     Managing runger to avoid hangry times

9.     Understanding the final 10%

10.  Owning race day

11.  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 

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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!!). 

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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 

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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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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.

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