Recommended Running books?

DeepBlue

What running books would you recommend in any of the following categories:

• training, improving, running plans
• biographical / autobiographical
• inspirational (those you might read when the motivation is flagging)
• other

What books have you found helped you the most?

OOnegative

DeepBlue wrote: »

What running books would you recommend in any of the following categories:

• training, improving, running plans
• biographical / autobiographical
• inspirational (those you might read when the motivation is flagging)
• other

What books have you found helped you the most?

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056326122/1/#post73261564

ewc78

Last two I've bought were 80/20 training by Matt Fitzgerald and
Don't stop me know by Vassos Alexander Don't Stop Me Now: 26.2 Tales of a Runner's Obsession https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472921542/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_18KxDbT9K1G8M

Miklos

I really enjoyed Murakami’s ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’. He takes you through his experience with running, how it’s affected his life and his writing.

Huzzah!

DeepBlue wrote: »

What running books would you recommend in any of the following categories:

• training, improving, running plans
• biographical / autobiographical
• inspirational (those you might read when the motivation is flagging)
• other

What books have you found helped you the most?

• training, improving, running plans
  
  Faster Road Running - Peter Pfitzinger and Philip Latter
  Any of the Hanson Method books
  Daniels' Running Formula
  
  
• biographical / autobiographical
  
  Emile Zatopek - Today We die a Little
  
  
• inspirational (those you might read when the motivation is flagging)
  
  Mostly covered here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056326122&page=1#post73261564
  

6run28

"Murakami’s ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" +1. A great book

rm75

Charlie Spedding Last to 1st
Running with the Buffaloes
Once a Runner
The Perfect Mile
British Marathon Legends of the 1980's (bit dry but good to dip in and out of)

Advanced Marathon Running
Daniels Running Formula

2nd the Zatopek one above,

ArtieFufkin

'Rise of the Ultras' and 'Running with the Kenyans' by Adharanand Finn are good.
Also-Eat and Run by Scott Jurek.
All of these are semi-biograhic but inspiring to a certain extent.

Running Beyond by Ian Corless is a great coffee table book with amazing pictures from iconic trail races.

weldoninhio

DeepBlue wrote: »

What running books would you recommend in any of the following categories:

• training, improving, running plans
• biographical / autobiographical
• inspirational (those you might read when the motivation is flagging)
• other

What books have you found helped you the most?

Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes are both brilliant. Both by Christopher McDougal.

Evan Scully

Lopez Lomongs book "Running For My Life" is one of the best books out there. He was a Lost Boy. Basically he was kidnapped when he was 6 from a militant Sudanese army. He became one of the Children's Army. Ran to Kenya and started running. Ran in 3 Olympics and won the American championships this year.

BeepBeep67

Here are the last 16 or so running / running related books in my Audible library
• Peak Performance – Stulberg / Magness
• My life on the run – Bart Yasso
• Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
• Running up that hill and Don’t stop me now are entertaining by Vassos Alexander
• Endure – Alex Hutchinson
• The brave athlete – Marshall / Paterson
• The Ghost Runner – Bill Jones (super story)
• Let your mind run – Denna Kastor
• Running for my life – Lopez Lomong (compelling)
• How running makes us human – Vybarr, Cregan-Reid
• The Peter Norman story – Webster / Norman
• 26 Marathons – Meb Keflezighi
• Primal Endurance – Sisson / Kearns
• Run the mile you’re in – Ryan Hall
• The rise of the ultra runners – Adharanand Finn
• The runner – Markus Torgeby

mrmoonlight

A book i purchased recently was Daniel's running formular, quite good

Newtown90

Big fan of Matt Fitzgerald

-How bad do you want it
-80/20 Running
-80/20 Triathlon
-Racing Weight

Also Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes is very hard to put down.

py

Why Running Matters by Ian Mortimer - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44322668-why-running-matters

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2195464.What_I_Talk_About_When_I_Talk_About_Running

Don't Stop Me Now: 26.2 Tales of a Runner’s Obsession by Vassos Alexander - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29539192-don-t-stop-me-now

Running Up That Hill: The Highs and Lows of Going That Bit Further by Vassos Alexander - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36747500-running-up-that-hill

Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner by Dean Karnazes - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87632.Ultramarathon_Man

Parkrun: much more than just a run in the park by Debra Bourne - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23637965-parkrun

Supercell

Currently reading : Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession by Richard Askwith and loving it, his description of the challenges, the friendships and the mental side of running is very engaging.

Top tip: Reserve running books online for your local library - they can be delivered to your local library from anywhere for free if its in the country, loads and loads of great running books to be reserved.

My librarian recommended What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (recommended above) and thats my next read.

py

Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon by Ed Caesar http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25917107-two-hours

Was interesting to read given it's now been broken.

py

Your Pace or Mine?: What Running Taught Me About Life, Laughter and Coming Last by Lisa Jackson - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29480025-your-pace-or-mine

I picked this up as part of the Kindle daily deals at 99p and forgot about it for a few months till I was reviewing my unread books on my kindle. Lisa is not your average runner, she's probably a below average runner but she never ever lets that get in the way of her enjoyment of running, whether it's a race (5k all the way to having completed Comrades twice) or a training run. This was one of the most positive thinking books I've read when it comes to running and has perked my motivation and self belief up by a huge amount. Would recommend it to any runner but also to any people you know who may have doubts as to whether or not they can run.

py

Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37979910-endure - twas mentioned above so thought I'd add a few words about it.

Really interesting book (for me anyway) about humans and their physical limits (mostly endurance limits but touched on other areas too). Endurance covers everything from the endurance of a 100 metre sprint through to cycling grand tours or running marathons. There are some theories and science about the topic discussed throughout. Well worth the read.

The table of contents provides a good insight into the topics ...

The Unforgiving Minute
The Human Machine
The Central Governor
The Conscious Quitter
Pain
Muscle
Oxygen
Heat
Thirst
Fuel
Training the Brain
Zapping the Brain
Belief

Supercell

Thanks py, @ £1.49 for the Kindle version currently I couldnt resist a read, already enjoying, thanks for the recommendation.

py

I was unsure if I was going to post this as technically it's not a running book but its contents will help your running through the power of recovery via sleep. If you can get a good nights sleep, you'll get oodles of legal HGH released within your body to aid recovery, who wouldn't want that?! This was my favourite book that I read in 2019.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Dr Matthew Walker - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep

Vast amount of information on everything sleep related. The author is the sleep expert and has been on dozens of podcasts (Trained by Nike, Kevin Rose, Joe Rogan .... and more on the net).

I utilised the information within the book to structure things like food and liquid intake throughout my day, track my sleep on a routine basis and watch for anomalies in HR spikes which may be illness or fatigue, develop a regular routine (albeit being ignored right now on holidays as it's past my bedtime ) and some other small items that help me get a good nights sleep.

countbezukov

py wrote: »

I was unsure if I was going to post this as technically it's not a running book but its contents will help your running through the power of recovery via sleep. If you can get a good nights sleep, you'll get oodles of legal HGH released within your body to aid recovery, who wouldn't want that?! This was my favourite book that I read in 2019.

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Dr Matthew Walker - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep

Vast amount of information on everything sleep related. The author is the sleep expert and has been on dozens of podcasts (Trained by Nike, Kevin Rose, Joe Rogan .... and more on the net).

I utilised the information within the book to structure things like food and liquid intake throughout my day, track my sleep on a routine basis and watch for anomalies in HR spikes which may be illness or fatigue, develop a regular routine (albeit being ignored right now on holidays as it's past my bedtime ) and some other small items that help me get a good nights sleep.

Haven't read this but I do know there has been some recent controversy about this book and has called into question some of the claims. This could probably be said for a lot of books, but worth pointing out all the same


https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

py

py wrote: »

Your Pace or Mine?: What Running Taught Me About Life, Laughter and Coming Last by Lisa Jackson - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29480025-your-pace-or-mine

I picked this up as part of the Kindle daily deals at 99p and forgot about it for a few months till I was reviewing my unread books on my kindle. Lisa is not your average runner, she's probably a below average runner but she never ever lets that get in the way of her enjoyment of running, whether it's a race (5k all the way to having completed Comrades twice) or a training run. This was one of the most positive thinking books I've read when it comes to running and has perked my motivation and self belief up by a huge amount. Would recommend it to any runner but also to any people you know who may have doubts as to whether or not they can run.

Lisa jackson was interviewed on a recent episode of the Free Weekly Timed podcast.

MisterDrak

While not a specif running improvement book, "Survival Of The Fittest: Understanding Health and Peak Physical Performance" by Dr Mike Sroud is excellent.

Describes a number of very challenging races and how humans adapt and can overcome these type of endeavors. Iv read it twice now and overdue to give it another go.

all the bais

Halfway through reading 'North' by Scott Jurek... Really enjoying it

stresshead101

There is an App called GoodReads, a friend recently introduced me to. Like Trip Advisor for books. Handy if anyone is looking for some decent reads.

py

Supercell wrote: »

Currently reading : Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession by Richard Askwith and loving it, his description of the challenges, the friendships and the mental side of running is very engaging.

I enjoyed Feet In the Clouds. It follows the author through a fell running season and latest attempt at the Bob Graham round. He has discussions with a lot of the greats within the sport, including its many devoted volunteers.

I've a few more from the thread to work through, will report back as I do.

py

Born to Run is 99p on Kindle today.

Swiper the fox

I really enjoyed listening to Paul Tonkinson’s book ‘26.2 miles to happiness’ on Audible over the past few days, very well written, he’s a comedian and Runners world columnist who charts his quest for a sub 3 marathon at London,

dna_leri

Just finished The Ghost Runner by Bill Jones - great story reasonably well told.
Started Duel in the Sun by John Brant - very engaging, quarter way through already.
Recently read The River Road by Dennis Barker - good, bit like Once a Runner, which is still the benchmark.
Other recommendations are Running with the Buffaloes and Last to First.
Few more lined up if this situation continues.

py

Newtown90 wrote: »

Big fan of Matt Fitzgerald

-How bad do you want it
-80/20 Running
-80/20 Triathlon
-Racing Weight

Have just finished his latest book "Running The Dream" - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49342140-running-the-dream He discusses how spent a summer training with a professional team prior to running the Chicago marathon. It was an interesting insight in to how they operate and how their routines worked for an amateur runner.

I've got 80/20 running waiting to be read soon.

KSU

py wrote: »

Have just finished his latest book "Running The Dream" - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49342140-running-the-dream He discusses how spent a summer training with a professional team prior to running the Chicago marathon. It was an interesting insight in to how they operate and how their routines worked for an amateur runner.

I've got 80/20 running waiting to be read soon.

If you liked that and can get your hands on it check out inside a marathon. A book produced by the same team (NAZ elite)

It’s basically a training log from both coach and athlete perspectives independently in his build up to top 10 finish in NYC marathon.