What running books are you reading? What has helped you?

[ChromeDome Steve]

Hi Everyone,

Since I joined this blog my head has been flipped inside out and upside-down ... from being amazed at people's race reports (man you all are fast!) and gigantic training runs ... to running in Vibram five-fingers, technique discussions and the like ... it is a real eye-opener.

This month I have read or am reading:

Books
Brain Training for Runners, Matt Fitzgerald
Born to Run, Christopher McDougall

Blogs/Web, daily:
Fastrunning Blog of course!
Barefoot running blog: runningbarefoot.org
occasionally:
Runners World web site/postings
POSE method www.posetech.com



In the past I have read books by Hal Higdon and some other random ones I no longer recall. I used to base my previous "training" as it was, on Higdon's workout plans.

I am also looking into Explosive Running and maybe Lore of Running also, as those were mentioned on this site. I'd love to know what other books/resources others are reading, or what else is out there I don't know about that other people read for technique/training as well as inspiration.

Thanks for the site, it is helping me a lot!

C.D.S.

[Jon Allen]

I just read Born to Run and loved it.  There is always the classic fantasy read Once a Runner.  Great book. 

The only training book I keep on hand is Advanced Marathoning, by Pete Pfitzinger.  I have flipped through Lore of Running, and it scared me that someone might actually read and understand everything.

[Steve P]

I am about 800 pages into Lore of Running (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873229592?ie=UTF8&tag=stevepiccolsb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0873229592).

At risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to say that I believe there is no book that comes even remotely close to this book in quality (at least related to running research). Its large size is daunting at first. It's not for casual reading. But if you want to learn what scientists have discovered over the past century about running, this is excellent. The author is well respected (sits on editorial boards for well regarded academic journals, is long-time faculty at University of Cape Town, has an MD, has run marathons and ultramarathons, etc.). And he is very fair about not making too strong of claims but rather letting the science speak for itself. Obviously, scientific knowledge is always evolving, so you have to keep that in mind. But this book lays it out there for you to judge.

Part of what the book is about is explaining various "models" that people have proposed over the years regarding what determines how well people can perform in running...or what limits their performance. Some have been mentioned on this blog... Some say delivery of oxygen to the muscles (anaerobic model). Others say glycogen depletion in the muscles is most important. There are others. He explains these and explains his own model ("Central Governor") along with extensive scientific evidence to back it up. I could explain a bit about this model, but I'll leave that to another post if anyone is interested.

If you want light reading or extensive training regimens or someone's theories based on anectdotal evidence, this book is not for you.

Once you get into it, it's really not as daunting as it seems. There are also some very entertaining portions of the book, including one chapter in which he talks about runners who he feels have been most influential in the past century or two.

Anyway, as you can tell, I recommend this book highly. I will use it as a standard against which I will compare any running advice that people give me (and there's plenty out there!).

[Sasha Pachev]

I believe the Central Governor model of fatigue is the most accurate. I've done enough workouts, watched my HR, pacing, paid attention to my breathing, and how I feel in general to know that lactate accumulation fatigue theory could not explain why I could not go faster. Also, reaching the point of failure at RER 1.06 in a VO2 Max test gives a nice discrediting punch to the lactate accumulation theory, especially if you experience it yourself.

Fuel fatigue is real, though, but again I've had enough experiences in the second half of the marathon to know there is more than fuel in the picture. For example, once I observed something really odd. I hit the wall bad in the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, AL and was doing a cool-down at 7:05 pace to the finish, as fast as I could go to make my flight that was leaving from Atlanta with barely enough time for me to drive there. I was getting passed left and right, but in spite of everything I was gaining on another runner. I would come up on him, and then he would surge away and leave me in the dust. This went on for 4 miles. I ended up passing him eventually, but I was perplexed. He was obviously out of fuel, his stride was unsteady, he kept veering off to the side from time to time, his head was leaning from side to side as well. But somehow he was finding the energy to surge! And not just once - he probably did it 10 times or more in those 4 miles. How in the world was he doing that? And why would he not just go steady? Maybe he was a diabetic. But even then, his surges were quite fast, he was speeding up to about 5:45, more than I would expect from a sudden influx of blood sugar.

Also, I have noticed that I cannot run a strong second half regardless of how slow I start. If fuel was the only limiter, I would have been able to speed up my second half by slowing down in the first. Instead, I've run my best marathons running the first half within a minute of what I could have done all out, and my worst getting to the half leisurely with a nice 4+ minute cushion off all out effort.

[Steve P]

Interesting. Tim Noakes, author of Lore of Running, believes that glycogen stores in the liver (and associated blood sugar) are more important than glycogen levels in muscles (though he believes the latter are important to a certain extent) in determining marathon performance. One reason is that studies have shown that runners can improve their performance by replenishing their liver glycogen through ingesting carbs, but it takes something like 3 hours (if I remember correctly) to replace muscle glycogen stores.

This runner that you describe may have been keeping his blood sugar high enough to make those surges, even though his conscious mind was telling him to slow down when you were aways back. Or something like that.

[Sasha Pachev]

Yes, I believe the liver is critical to success in the marathon. One reason there is such a discrepancy between 10 K times and the marathon in the US (28:00 10 K runner, not necessarily a natural marathoner, should be running in the 2:08-2:10 range, 29:00 should be able to hit 2:12-2:14, 30:00 - 2:16-2:18, but it rarely happens) is that the average collegiate runner liver has been damaged by alcohol, soda pop, and fast food. You do not need a good liver to run a screaming 10 K time, but you do in the marathon.

[Steve P]

I remembered some other running books that I have really enjoyed:

• The Four Minute Mile (by Roger Bannister)
• Steve Prefontaine's biography (I think it's called "Pre")
• The Complete Book of Running (by Jim Fixx)

These ones are all for fun, rather than serious reading. The first two I found to be inspirational. The third is a classic, though a bit outdated.

[Cheryl Keith]

I seldom hear anyone mention Chi Running, by Danny Dreyer, as a good running book.  Has anyone read it and have a comment on it?  I think if you're able to master the technique he talks about, it is the best way to run; effortless, injury free running, you use motion more than muscle and you feel like you can run forever because it is truly almost "effortless."  Big emphasis on relaxation when you run.  I'd be interested in what others think.

[Sasha Pachev]

I just got my hands on a great running book. Run Faster by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald. It is really by Brad Hudson with some edits and suggestions by Matt Fitzgerald, it seems from the way it flows. Also I have not seen Matt Fitzgerald's style anywhere in the book so far, so I am not quite sure what his contribution is aside from suggesting the term Adaptive Running.

It is not very common that I spend my money on a running book. The last time I bought a book was two years ago and it was Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald. The one before was in 1998 and it was Jack Daniels Running Formula. I will not buy a book unless I feel strongly I have something to learn from it. Not that I could not learn something from any book, but I only have so much money, and so much time to read those books, especially nowadays as I have more kids to support, so I make my reading count. In 1998 I did not know a whole lot, so any reasonable book would have been good. Brain Training was interesting to me because it was the first piece of literature I encountered that focused on addressing a brain-centered rather than muscle-centered model of fatigue.

Now I need to explain why Run Faster. I really like Brad Hudson's approach. Learn everything you can, take everything with a grain of salt, try it out, see if it works. Use common sense. In the day when the public clamors for pre-baked 18 weeks to marathon training plans he has the integrity to say that such things do not work - you need to learn the principles of running, and then apply them to yourself on a daily basis. There is no short cut. Thus not a whole lot of training plans in the book, and the ones there come with a huge disclaimer that those should be in pencil and not in ink, and you need to know what you are doing before you start following them.

I was also impressed with his understanding of the role of what I call Quality X. He calls it neuromuscular fitness. He makes two statements I have known to be true but never seen in print before. One - standing broad jump and all out speed for a distance runner is as much of a performance predictor as is VO2 Max. He says some studies proved it, but does not say which ones.  Two - performance can be limited by the lack of aerobic fitness, but it can also be limited by the lack of neuromuscular fitness.

He is also very humble and generous with giving credit to others. Which is rare in our world of racing to patent the new and revolutionary ways to tie shoelaces or wipe your nose.

One drawback of the book comes from the nature of Hudson's work. He works primarily with world-class runners. Not that the same principles do not apply to those with less talent, but the problem is that he rarely ends up with a runner that does not have a whole lot of time to train or does not have a few years of solid aerobic base. So naturally the focus of the book is how to make an already world-class runner shine brighter. So I would recommend this book after you've run at least 50 miles a week for three years and plateaued. Until then build your base.

[Chad Robinson]

The science of sport blog is very interesting.  The writers there talk a lot about the central governing system, cramping and hydration.

[Joe Furse]

I seldom hear anyone mention Chi Running, by Danny Dreyer, as a good running book.  Has anyone read it and have a comment on it?  I think if you're able to master the technique he talks about, it is the best way to run; effortless, injury free running, you use motion more than muscle and you feel like you can run forever because it is truly almost "effortless."  Big emphasis on relaxation when you run.  I'd be interested in what others think.

I've read Chi Running.  I liked a lot of the things he had to say and agree with many of them.  It's been awhile, so I don't remember many of the details.  I don't buy much into the whole idea of "chi" per se, but his ideas about mechanics and how to prevent injury seem worthwhile.   From what I remember, that was what most of the book was really about anyway.

[David S]

I second Brad Hudson's book.  It can be found on Google books for free, minus a couple pages.

My favorite book on running is Explosive Running:  http://www.amazon.com/Explosive-Running-Science-Kinesiology-Performance/dp/0809298996

[baldnspicy]

I'm no elite runner...not even close.  I'm currently reading Daniel's Running Formula.  I'm not very far into it yet, but so far I'm enjoying it.

I've read a little of Chi Running and I think the book is solid if you like the chi mentality.  I've also read Running Injury Free.  I didn't read every chapter, but I think it's a great book for keeping yourself from getting injured, if you're feeling "something" to get it checked out, and if you do get injured, how to diagnose the true cause of it and treat the symptoms too.

I've read Run Faster.  It's a good read too, but as Sasha said, it really didn't help me much. 

I'm hoping that I can take Daniel's book and put together a decent approach using his techniques.  I'll let you know!

[catherine]

Eric and I have really liked Racing Weight. I'm sure Eric has his own reasons, but I like the emphasis on long-term progress and changes.