Running Sports

For runners, cyclists, triathletes, swimmers, and cross-country skiers, getting older doesn't have to mean getting slower. Drawing from the most current research on aging and sports performance, Joe Friel—America's leading endurance sports coach—shows how athletes can race strong and stay healthy well past age 50. In his groundbreaking book Fast After 50, Friel offers a smart approach for athletes to ward off the effects of age. Friel shows athletes how to extend their racing careers for decades—and race to win.

Kara Goucher grew up with Olympic dreams. She excelled at running from a young age and was offered a Nike sponsorship deal when she graduated from college. Then in 2004, she was invited to join a secretive, lavishly funded new team, dubbed the Nike Oregon Project. Coached by distance running legend Alberto Salazar, it seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. Kara was soon winning a World Championship medal, going to the Olympics, and standing on the podium at the New York and Boston marathons, just like her coach. But behind the scenes, Salazar was hiding dark secrets.

Push the reset button to unleash your body’s power and endurance for running naturally. If you’re like 80 percent of runners, an injury is going to force you to stop your running routine at some point this year, and the demands of daily life only add to the wear and tear on your body. Life in the modern world has trashed and undercut dedicated runners’ ability to transform their running. The harsh effects of too much sitting and too much time wearing the wrong shoes has left us shackled to lower back problems, chronic knee injuries, and debilitating foot pain.

In 80/20 Running, respected running and fitness expert Matt Fitzgerald introduced his revolutionary training program and explained why doing 80 percent of runs at a lower intensity and just 20 percent at a higher intensity is the best way for runners at all levels - as well as cyclists, triathletes, and even weight-loss seekers - to improve their performance. Now, in this eye-opening follow-up, Fitzgerald teams with Olympic coach Ben Rosario to expand and update the 80/20 program to include ultramarathon training and such popular developments as the use of power meters.

Discover the blueprint used by Olympic gold medalists and world record holders to achieve their best performances. Andrew Snow, a powerhouse in the running community with over 27 years of experience offers his highly acclaimed, results-proven triphasic model that runners have used to set lifetime PRs from the 5K to the marathon in as little as three months—even in their 40s and 50s!

Every runner knows pacing is critical. It can be the difference between a PR and a DNF. In On Pace, acclaimed running coach and author Matt Fitzgerald reveals how conventional training and device overdependence keep runners from accessing the full power of pacing. With a mix of fascinating science and compelling stories from every corner of the sport, Fitzgerald shows that pacing is the art of finding your limit—running at a pace to finish the workout or cross the finish line completely out of gas.

Jennifer Pharr Davis, the former record holder of the FKT (or Fastest Known Time) on the Appalachian Trail, tells the story of her meteoric rise in the world of endurance hiking and, in doing so, unpacks key traits that make women uniquely suited to endurance. With a storyteller's ear for fascinating detail and description, she takes us with her as she sets the record on the Appalachian Trail and introduces us to the mentors who helped her to identify and unlock different facets of her endurance capabilities.

Triathlon for Beginners is a complete start-to-finish guide that covers all areas of training and racing, including what you need to know and how to begin; how to understand the jargon of the sport; training rules and techniques; swimming, cycling, and running techniques; race etiquette; and how to get faster and better performances.

This book is a blueprint for those who may not fit the image of a “traditional” runner—that is, someone who is larger in size, less athletic, out of shape, or dealing with any kind of health issue that slows them down—to feel empowered to lace up their shoes and embrace the body they have right now.

When Meb Keflezighi - the first person in history to win both the Boston and New York City marathons as well as an Olympic marathon medal - ran his final marathon in New York in 2017, it marked the end of an extraordinary distance-running career. Meb's last marathon was also his 26th, and each of those marathons has come with its own unique challenges, rewards, and outcomes. In 26 Marathons, Meb takes listeners on those legendary races, along every hill, bend, and unexpected turn of events that made each marathon an exceptional learning experience, and a fascinating story.

A breakthrough program for triathletes - beginner, intermediate, and advanced - showing how to balance training intensity to maximize performance - from a fitness expert and elite coach. Cutting-edge research has proven that triathletes and other endurance athletes experience their greatest performance when they do 80 percent of their training at low intensity and the remaining 20 percent at moderate to high intensity.

The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women is a fun training manual for women who don't believe that running is their biological destiny but who dream of crossing the finish line nonetheless. Dais' audiobook features a realistic training schedule and is chock-full of how-to's and funny observations, which she felt were lacking in the guides she had consulted.

Running Through the Dark is Jen’s account of her ultra-journey. Playing out on the moors of the Pennines, the fells of the Lake District and the mountains of Wales and Scotland, this is much more than a running book, it is a story about resilience, about never giving up, and about battling through the night and always believing that there will be a new dawn.

Shut Up and Run is Robin’s love letter to the sport; written in her one-of-a-kind voice with big energy and style. It celebrates the excitement of running while offering tips, tricks, and visual motivation to help every runner cultivate miles of sweat, laughter, swagger, and friendship.

Ross Edgley has spent decades perfecting the principles and practice of extreme fitness to achieve the impossible. Following a career-threatening injury in 2018, Ross was forced to reassess his training and take the next steps in a lifelong journey of redefining what the human body is capable of. In Blueprint, Ross shares the cutting-edge training program that empowered him to rebuild his body from surgery and a doctor’s gloomy prognosis in just 365 days to complete a world record swim.

Welcome to the Barkley Marathons, a fever dream of an ultra event, inspired by a prison break, heralded by a conch blast, paid for in cigarettes and socks, and completed only by a select few. A race in which competitors haul themselves up mountains, through extreme weather conditions, beyond pain and exhaustion, mile after mile. Completed 60 miles? That’s just the fun run. In the Spell of the Barkley is a story of sporting obsession, exploring what drives individuals to challenge themselves at the limits of what is possible – and what it takes to succeed.

Long before Cory Reese strapped on his first pair of running shoes, he learned the key to being a successful ultrarunner: He knew how to suffer. In Nowhere Near First, Cory shares his deeply personal story about experiencing his father’s suicide at a young age, and how this led to a career in endurance running and a desire to live life to the fullest. Nowhere Near First is a humorous, captivating, and uplifting account of Cory’s memorable ultramarathon experiences.

Why does it make sense to Ethiopian runners to get up at three a.m. to run up and down a hill? Who would choose to train on almost impossibly steep and rocky terrain, in hyena territory? And how come Ethiopian men hold six of the top 10 fastest marathon times ever? Michael Crawley spent 15 months in Ethiopia training alongside (and sometimes a fair way behind) runners at all levels of the sport, from night watchmen hoping to change their lives to world-class marathon runners, in order to answer these questions.

The acclaimed author of Flipped delivers a powerful and healing story that’s perfect for anyone who’s ever thought that something was impossible. Listeners will revel in the story of a girl who puts herself back together - and learns to dream bigger than ever before - after she’s told she’ll never run again. Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She's not comforted by the news that she'll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

A smart and refreshingly brilliant running book designed for the all-too-often overlooked middle-of-the-pack runner, written by Marathon Talk’s Martin Yelling and Anji Andrews. Welcome to the midpack! Running pushes us, stretches us, asks us difficult questions, challenges us. It gives us space, calms us down, picks us up, boosts our energy, rewards, inspires and fulfils us.