Running Book Reviews with Alan and Liz

Send us Fan Mail 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 o...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 t...

Send us Fan Mail 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 lif...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 perfor...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail Meals on the Run is a compilation of recipes from different authors and edited by Joanna Sayago Golub.  The recipes come from various sources including several registered dieticians and elite Athletes; Kara Goucher has contributed a recipe along with the Forward to the book. The book is broken up into 9 chapters, with each chapter being a category of foods: Breakfast Smoothies and...

Send us Fan Mail 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 de...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 compet...

Send us Fan Mail Run Like Pro Even If You’re Slow attempts to break down key habits and traits of professional runners and make them available to the rest of us. We tend to think that professional runners are somehow fundamentally different from the rest of us, but a lot of those differences are due to better lifestyle habits and more emotional intelligence which are things we can all improve to b...

Send us Fan Mail One Last Mile is a fictional story of a talented but slightly arrogant high school track athlete named Eric who was certain he would be snagging a scholarship spot at any University he chose. He routinely won races but didn't always take his coaches directives seriously.mIn his senior year everything changed after an accident that left Eric with a broken ankle, and haunting i...

Send us Fan Mail Anatomy of Speed is a very detailed book explaining what speed is, what you need in order to properly train for speed, and all the different components that make up speed. The book has 12 chapters:  Chapters 1 and 2 explain in depth what speed is and why it is important. Chapters 3 through 10 are about the warm-up, strength, and different components of speed. These chapters have d...

Send us Fan Mail Run Well , written by general practitioner Dr. Juliet McGrattan, is a book that answers common medical questions that runners have. The book is written in a question and answer format with a short introduction at the beginning of each chapter. The questions are grouped into chapters based on body systems, starting with the head, and there is one chapter at the end on self-care. Ch...

Send us Fan Mail An Unstoppable Runner is the story of David Williams running journey and life. He starts running in high school but doesn’t continue afterwards. In early adulthood he starts drinking and smoking, and this habit continued until he realized that he was not very healthy. One day one of David’s colleagues told him to go buy a pair of running shoes, and this is how he started running a...

Send us Fan Mail Join us for a discussion with author Tim Wills, about his book The Ultra Mile. The Ultra Mile describes what goes into running the ultra distances, why something so difficult is also appealing, and how really long distances like 100 miles are really a team effort. The book introduces us to different aspects of running although it is not an exhaustive resource on any one topic. The...

Send us Fan Mail Running Against The Odds is a testament that past traumas and emotional blockades stand no chance against motivation, will power, and can only fuel the desire to become a champion and emerge victorious.  This book is Coach Dez’s memoire. He divides his journey into 3 parts: 1. Childhood 2. College years 3. Coaching His journey starts with a turbulent childhood which is when he als...

Send us Fan Mail Ultra-endurance events have the highest dropout rates. While some people need to drop out due to injury, you may need to drop out because you are lacking the mental strength needed to get through a rough patch.  Addie Bracy's book, Mental Training for Ultrarunning, has many exercises and techniques to help you build a tool box so that you have what you need to get you through...

Send us Fan Mail Running The World   is Nick Butter’s story of his attempt to run a marathon in every country in the world as both a World Record attempt, and to raise money for prostate cancer UK. Every country, really means every country, including: North Korea, which had to be timed with the marathon held there in order to get into the country; Venezuela, where he ran in the city of Caracas, kn...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we reflect on everything we learned in books 21 to 30. We know that all the things we have learned is making us into better runners. Here is a list of the books we talk about: My Noise Cancer Comeback , by Fitz Koehler http://www.fitzness.com/blog/ Advanced Marathoning , by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas https://us.humankinetics.com/products/advanced-marathoning...

Send us Fan Mail When Running Made History is a book based on the authors memory of historic running events that he witnessed throughout his life, starting with the 1948 Olympic games in London when he was 9 years old and his uncle brought him to watch some track events. The book borders on being a historic reference about running because a lot of facts were added about each event and the circumst...

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

Send us Fan Mail Today We Die A Little is the story of Czech runner Emil Zatopek’s life and his athletic success, but also a history lesson of the communist era in former Czechoslovakia. Emil was born in 1922 and was the seventh of his parents eight children.  Although not particularly athletic, or someone who you would mark as talented, his work ethic was exemplary, and he became the world’s most...

Send us Fan Mail Abdi's World is the story of Abdi Abdirahman's life starting when he left his home in Somalia in 1991 with his parents and siblings. Abdi was just barely a teen at the time. He and his family went from having a middle-class lifestyle to having only each other, but Abdi expresses gratitude throughout the book for the many people who helped him along the way.  Abdi will re...