Running Sports

Is there a large arse-shaped dent in your sofa? Unwatched workout DVDs gathering dust on your shelves? An eye-wateringly expensive (and rarely used) gym membership burning a hole in your bank account? Does the sight of your wobbly thighs leave you cowering under the duvet? Then it's time you faced the truth: the only option is to lace up and hit the ground running. Straight-talking, funny, and brutally honest, Run Fat Bitch Run will give you - yes, you - the push you need to get out of the door, pounding the pavements and shedding pounds.

David Clark went from the rock bottom of bankruptcy, addiction, and obesity to becoming an accomplished athlete. In this compelling story of his life, he not only shares his journey with complete honesty, but he also lays out a blueprint for change that anyone can use to redefine what is possible.

Champions, as the familiar adage preaches, are not born—they're made. Reaching the top of any sport, or any aspect of life, takes years upon years of dedication and proper preparation. But if there's a huge pool of individuals who have undertaken the same commitment and steps towards becoming the best, what truly separates the winners from everyone else? Joanna Zeiger believes proper mental preparation is the answer. The Champion Mindset is a much-needed and long overdue look into how to program a competitor's mind to achieve optimal success.

Twenty-six point two miles isn’t enough anymore. Obstacle course racing, which combines the endurance challenges of a marathon with the mind-bending rigors of overcoming obstacles along the way, is taking the world by storm. At the center of this phenomenon is Joe De Sena, the driving force behind the enormously popular Spartan Race. De Sena offers a simple philosophy: commit to a goal, put in the work, and get it done.

Marathons have become too easy for some runners. What was once the pinnacle of achievement in a runner's life is now a stepping stone for extraordinary adventure in ultramarathoning. The number of ultrarunners - those running distances of 50k (31 miles), 50 miles, 100k (62 miles), or 100 miles - is growing astronomically each year. To date, there has been no practical guide to ultramarathoning. Now, Bryon Powell has written Relentless Forward Progress, the first how-to manual for aspiring ultrarunners.

Est-il possible de reprendre la course une fois qu'on a tout laissé tomber? Après un arrêt complet de la course à pied, l'ultramarathonien Joan Roch entreprend un long retour vers son sport. Il raconte son parcours, cinq années semées de doutes, de douleurs et de joies. Le point culminant: son arrivée triomphale au sommet du mont Royal, à Montréal, au terme d'un périple improvisé de 1135 km amorcé en Gaspésie.

According to the rule books, a marathon is 26.2 grueling yet exhilarating miles. Millions of people run marathons around the world. Many more millions dream of doing it. But for novice or veteran runners, marathons require training and plenty of it. Certified marathon coach David Levine and dedicated marathoner Paula Petrella know how to get anyone in shape for the race and share the entire procedure in clear, jargon-free language.

As recently as 1966, women were forbidden to run in the marathon. Professionals - including doctors - believed it was physically impossible and dangerous for women to run more than a mile and a half. But as with many other barriers women have faced over time, we fought our way in. Today, women make up almost half of the marathoning population. Yet most marathon training manuals are written by men. And while these men are experts when it comes to how men can and should train, women need training programs tailored to our bodies....

We live in a world where jobs requires us to sit still and society forces us to eat processed food because there is no time for anything, let alone cook. We buy gym tool to exercise at home and leave them in a corner room after a week. We join the local gym and never show again after just a month. We do those mistakes due to the lack of right information and a step-by-step guide to help us tracking the progress. Running is a complete sport with various benefits other than loosing weight; it decreases depression, boosts self-esteem, strengthens muscles, and allows for better sleep.

Susan and Carlos were unlikely friends. She was a young, overweight college professor and a bit of a trainwreck - juggling a divorce, a pack-a-day habit, and hiding empty boxes of wine under her bed. He was her boss, an Ironman triathlete, with life figured out. She was a whiner, he was a hard-ass. He had his shit together, she most assuredly did not. Trash-talking workouts, breakdowns, a devastating diagnosis - this heartwarming story of training buddies reveals a deep and abiding friendship that traversed life, sport, and everything in between.

I've never had many friends. The only one I thought I could count on ended up stealing my scholarship—and then my boyfriend. Now, instead of spending my fall semester abroad, I'm stuck here in Iowa, with zero funds and even less hope that I'll get to study abroad at all before I graduate this spring. Even worse? My mentor asked me to take on the impossible—tutoring arrogant running back Logan Ford and helping him finally pass Chem 101. I'm about to give up before I start. But then I get a crazy idea. What if I can get Logan to be my date for the winter science ball?

In 490 BCE Pheidippides ran for 36 hours straight from Athens to Sparta to seek help in defending Athens from a Persian invasion in the Battle of Marathon. In doing so he saved the development of Western civilization and inspired the birth of the marathon as we know it. Even now, some 2,500 years later, that run stands enduringly as one of greatest physical accomplishments in the history of mankind.

Nedd Brockmann isn’t afraid to dream big. Fresh after running fifty marathons in fifty days, the twenty-three-year-old had an idea: a 4000-kilometre run across Australia, averaging 100 kilometres per day with the aim of completing it in the fastest known time of 43 days. He wasn’t chasing fame or public recognition. He just wanted to test his limits and raise a million dollars for homelessness in the process.

Why are so many people drawn to running? Why is running the most common physical activity? What is it about running that empowers so many people? And how can runners harness that power to create a more meaningful life? The Inner Runner addresses these questions and a whole lot more. This book is not about how to get faster or run a marathon; rather, it explores how the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other helps you harness your creative powers.

Elizabeth Clor wanted nothing more than to qualify for the prestigious Boston Marathon. Dead-set on achieving this goal, she found herself bound up in a vicious cycle of perfectionism and anxiety that thwarted her at every turn, despite making significant gains in her physical abilities over seven years. Boston Bound is the story of how Elizabeth discovered that her own brain was the culprit, and explains the steps she took to completely overhaul her mindset about her running and her life.

Despite believing he was bionic as a child, Ira Rainey was far from an elite athlete with superhuman running abilities like the ones he read about in books. He was in fact an overweight and unfit slacker who felt a bit sorry for himself because he had sore feet. Sure he ran a bit, but he also sat around a lot and ate and drank too much. Why? Because he could, and because he was a delusional optimist who thought everything would always be just fine.

It’s true that strength declines with age, and your abilities are changing with each passing year. That doesn’t have to mean you give up and let your body rot away. Your muscles can still be exercised and strengthened, and your balance and coordination can improve greatly. You just need to find different exercises that work for you -ones designed specifically for people your age.

No man has affected more runners in more ways than Bill Bowerman. During his 24-year tenure as track coach at the University of Oregon, he won four national team titles and his athletes set 13 world and 22 American records. He also ignited the jogging boom, invented the waffle-sole running shoe that helped establish Nike, and coached the US track and field team at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

The former middle-distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition but also in life. This is a heartbreakingly honest yet hopeful memoir reminiscent of Manic, Electroboy, and An Unquiet Mind.

To take Arne Haase as a role model: Germany's oldest marathon runner is still doing 20 kilometers twice a week at the age of 90. And it doesn't have to be that sporty. But wouldn't the Haase model be a nice vision of you in your old days, being "trapped" in the body of a 45-year-old? For millions of people, regular exercise is part of their lives. But almost all of us run the wrong way. To stay mobile from now until old age, we can make up our minds for a fundamental change. E.g. we mostly, unconsciously run as if we were training for a competition.