BOOKS

Love Running? Need Motivation? Then you will love the books on this page, as recommended by the members of the 10×10 Challenge!
The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances – By The Oatmeal

Book Description
Publication Date: September 30, 2014

This is not just a book about running. It’s a book about cupcakes. It’s a book about suffering.

It’s a book about gluttony, vanity, bliss, electrical storms, ranch dressing, and Godzilla. It’s a book about all the terrible and wonderful reasons we wake up each day and propel our bodies through rain, shine, heaven, and hell.

From #1 New York Times best-selling author, Matthew Inman, AKA The Oatmeal, comes this hilarious, beautiful, poignant collection of comics and stories about running, eating, and one cartoonist’s reasons for jogging across mountains until his toenails fall off.

Containing over 70 pages of never-before-seen material, including “A Lazy Cartoonist’s Guide to Becoming a Runner” and “The Blerch’s Guide to Dieting,” this book also comes with Blerch race stickers.

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

Book Description
Publication Date: May 4, 2009

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?

In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong. Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art.

For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder. With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons.

Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower – By Matt Fitzgerald

Book Description
Published September 2, 2014

TRAIN EASIER TO RUN FASTER

This revolutionary training method has been embraced by elite runners—with extraordinary results—and now you can do it, too.

Respected running and fitness expert Matt Fitzgerald explains how the 80/20 running program—in which you do 80 percent of runs at a lower intensity and just 20 percent at a higher intensity—is the best change runners of all abilities can make to improve their performance. With a thorough examination of the science and research behind this training method, 80/20 Running is a hands-on guide for runners of all levels with training programs for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon distances.

In 80/20 Running, you’ll discover how to transform your workouts to avoid burnout.
Runs will become more pleasant and less draining
You’ll carry less fatigue from one run to the next
Your performance will improve in the few high-intensity runs
Your fitness levels will reach new heights

80/20 Running promotes a message that all runners—as well as cyclists, triathletes, and even weight-loss seekers—can embrace: Get better results by making the majority of your workouts easier.

The Running Revolution: How to Run Faster, Farther, and Injury-Free–for Life – By Nicholas Romanov

Book Description
Published September 30, 2014

From a two-time Olympic coach and creator of the Pose Method who has trained the running elite, an essential guide for all runners seeking to go faster and farther without injury

Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run—and the wildly popular natural running trend it sparked—changed the way we think about running, but it has also prompted many questions: Have we been running the wrong way? And, have we been running in the wrong kind of shoe? What is the safest type of foot strike? How many types are there? And what is a foot strike anyway? No existing guide has clearly addressed these concerns—until now. The Running Revolution provides both beginning and experienced runners with everything they need to know in order to safely and efficiently transition to and master a safer and more biomechanically efficient way of running that is guaranteed to improve performance and minimize wear and tear on the body.

More than a one-size-fits-all guide, The Running Revolution will provide readers with clear instructions that they can easily integrate into their unique running histories in order to run safely, intelligently, and efficiently for many years to come.

Older, Faster, Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer – By Margaret Webb

Book Description
Published October 7, 2014

One part personal quest to discover running greatness after age 50, one part investigation into what the women’s running boom can teach athletes about becoming fitter, stronger, and faster as we age, Older, Faster, Stronger is an engrossing narrative sure to inspire women of all ages. A former overweight smoker turned marathoner, Margaret Webb runs with elite older women, follows a high-performance training plan devised by experts, and examines research that shows how endurance training can stall aging. She then tests herself against the world’s best older runners at the world masters games in Torino, Italy.

Millions of women have taken up running in recent decades—the first generation of women to train in great numbers. Women are qualifying for the Olympic marathon in their 50s, running 100-mile ultra marathons in their 60s, completing Ironmans in their 80s, competing for world masters records in their 90s. What are the secrets of these ageless wonders? How do they get stronger and faster long after their “athletic prime”? Is there an evolutionary reason women can maintain endurance into advanced years? Webb immerses herself in these questions as she as she trains to see just how fast she can get after 50.

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