Running Book Reviews with Alan and Liz – Details, episodes & analysis

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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

Link for 20% discount on Caffeine Bullet  https://caffeinebullet.com/RUNNINGBOOK 
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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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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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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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Any feedback or suggestions on this review or any of our other podcast episodes would be greatly welcomed. Leave us a review using your favorite podcast player or contact us on social media.

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For those 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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