Running: Cheaper than Therapy is a witty and expertly compiled compendium of running wisdom and humour. From fantastic running quotes (`How do you know if someone ran a marathon? Don't worry, they'll tell you.' -Jimmy Fallon) and hilarious spectator signs (`Worst parade ever!') to witty potted profiles of different types of runners (charity muggers, gadget gurus and inexplicably good old dears) and PB-busting training tips, Running: Cheaper than Therapy is designed to be the perfect gift for the runner, jogger or triathlete in your life. Written by a Telegraph and Guardian journalist and self-confessed running nut, this smartly packaged and brilliantly knowing miscellany details entertaining, real-life runners' stories (being overtaken by a kid/OAP or getting lost while training) and takes a humorous look at the mistakes runners make (wearing a brand new pair of trainers for half marathon or getting so pumped by your morning run you have arguments with everyone at work).

This is a celebration of running, and what lots of us think about when we run. Part escape, part self-discovery, part therapy, part fitness. Part simple childlike joy of running when you could be walking. Vassos Alexander shares the highs and lows of falling in love with running, from his first paltry efforts to reach the end of his street to completing ultra marathons and triathlons in the same weekend. Each of the 26.2 chapters also features a fascinating insight into how others first started, from Paula Radcliffe to Steve Cram, the Brownlees to Jenson Button, Nicky Campbell to Nell McAndrew. Funny, inspiring, honest - the perfect read for anyone with well-worn trainers by the door (or thinking of buying a pair...).

Triathlon Swimming reveals the rewarding and rigorous Tower 26 program for mastering open-water swimming by the world's leading open-water swimming coach Gerry Rodrigues and former pro triathlete Emma-Kate Lidbury. Triathlon swimming is unique in its challenges and physical and mental limits. Over his lifetime of over 100 open-water swim race wins and over 30 years of coaching, Rodrigues has perfected the art and science of open-water swimming. His famed Tower 26 swimming program trains athletes in both the pool and in rough open water conditions, making triathletes and swimmers skilled, confident, capable, and fast in any condition. In Triathlon Swimming, Rodrigues and Lidbury break down open-water swimming technique and show how triathlon swimming requires different form. From kicking to sighting, Triathlon Swimming describes the best technique for swimming in open water. This guide shares the best gear for open-water swimming, shows how to create your own effective open-water swim workouts, and shares a plan for race prep and taper. Tower 26 offers the best open-water swimming technique. With Rodrigues' coaching approach and Lidbury's first-hand experience and insight, Triathlon Swimming can help you become a master open-water swimmer for faster, fearless racing.

Every triathlete wants to be leaner, faster, and more successful. But for most athletes, training is not enough. You need to focus on diet as well as training volume to achieve your optimal weight. Weight Management for Triathletes provides detailed and practical information and the tools that can help frustrated triathletes to improve their body composition for performance and aesthetics. This book is aimed to help triathletes competing on every level and distance from sprint to Olympic and longer distances. Well researched and insightful, this book offers easy-to-follow strategies for various diets, describes the importance of low body fat, and shows how to use body fat data in order to implement a weight control program for the long haul. You will find the motivation and encouragement to lose weight, and with a leaner and fitter body, and an understanding of proper nutrition you will quickly perform better in races.

Running: it's as simple as striding forward just one foot after another, but as author Michael Clinton has learned over more than 40 years as a runner, it s so much more than just exercise. It s a test of physical and mental endurance and a way to connect with the environment, the global community of runners, and, ultimately, yourself. From the streets of Paris, Buenos Aires, all the way to Sydney, Clinton has gone the distance, never forgetting his running shoes in all of his globetrotting adventures to over 120 countries. In Tales from the Trails, Clinton along with numerous contributors, including George A. Hirsch, chairman of the New York Road Runners and founder of the New York City five-borough marathon, detail inspirational stories of trial, tribulation, and triumph, revealing how running has helped one find love, strengthened a relationship with God, and assisted in overcoming fear and disappointment. Tales from the Trails is a reminder to lace up and hit the trails to run for your life, love, and happiness.

Eric Liddell was the British athlete who gave up his chance of an Olympic gold medal in 1924 because he would not run on a Sunday. He then riveted the world by unexpectedly winning gold in a different race altogether.

Back home he abandoned fame and sporting glory to become a missionary in China, where he braved the frontline perils of one of the world's ugliest wars and died in Japanese internment. He inspired the Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire and is still revered in China today.

In this revised and updated edition of her best-selling biography, journalist Sally Magnusson asks: 'What are we to make of a life that comprehended both drive and serenity, will to achieve and the grace to give in, absolute principles and utter humanity, charisma and ordinariness?'

In pursuit of the answer, she uncovers a story which has everything: sport, war, romance and faith.

Eric Liddell, the Scottish 400m Olympic champion from the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris was immortalized in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. His refusal to race on a Sunday is now legendary. His story, however, goes far beyond the restrictions of a 2-hour movie. This vivid biography recounts the highs and lows of Liddell's athletics career, and uncovers his life after the Olympics as a missionary, and internment camp prisoner, in war-torn China. Drawing upon interviews with Liddell's surviving family and friends, Julian Wilson brings Eric to life through fascinating anecdotes, reminiscences, extracts from his letters and rare photographs. Discover the secret behind Eric Liddell's enduring legacy - the complete surrender of his life to God.

On 4 August 2012 Jessica Ennis kicked off what some described as the greatest night in British sporting history. For her it was the end of a long, winding, and sometimes harrowing road. Hers is an inspiring tale of following your dreams no matter what life throws at you. Unbelievable is a refreshingly candid account of her rise to fame in a highly charged world in which body image issues and drug abuses lurk. From the unique pressures facing her, to behind-the-scenes glimpses into the greatest show on earth, and a revealing account of her love-hate relationship with her long-term coach, Jessica reveals the truth behind the smiles for the first time. Unbelievable includes exclusive behind-the-scenes photos. This is the story of how the girl next door became London's poster girl, and how an ordinary woman used an extraordinary talent to claim the title of the world's greatest all-round female sports star.

In the 1960s and 1970s, America experienced a sports revolution. New professional sports franchises and leagues were established, new stadiums were built, football and basketball grew in popularity, and the proliferation of television enabled people across the country to support their favorite teams and athletes from the comfort of their homes. At the same time, the civil rights and feminist movements were reshaping the nation, broadening the boundaries of social and political participation. The Sports Revolution tells how these forces came together in the Lone Star State. Tracing events from the end of Jim Crow to the 1980s, Frank Guridy chronicles the unlikely alliances that integrated professional and collegiate sports and launched women's tennis. He explores the new forms of inclusion and exclusion that emerged during the era, including the role the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders played in defining womanhood in the age of second-wave feminism. Guridy explains how the sexual revolution, desegregation, and changing demographics played out both on and off the field as he recounts how the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers and how Mexican American fans and their support for the Spurs fostered a revival of professional basketball in San Antonio. Guridy argues that the catalysts for these changes were undone by the same forces of commercialization that set them in motion and reveals that, for better and for worse, Texas was at the center of America's expanding political, economic, and emotional investments in sport.

Reviews of The Science of Running: "The Science of Running sets the new standard for training theory and physiological data. Every veteran and beginner distance coach needs to have this on their book shelf." -Alan Webb American Record Holder-Mile 3:46.91 "For anyone serious about running, The Science of Running offers the latest information and research for optimizing not only your understanding of training but also your performance. If you want to delve deeper into the world of running and training, this book is for you. You will never look at running the same." -Jackie Areson, 15th at the 2013 World Championships in the 5k. 15:12 5,000m best If you are looking for how to finish your first 5k, this book isn't for you. The Science of Running is written for those of us looking to maximize our performance, get as close to our limits as possible, and more than anything find out how good we can be, or how good our athletes can be. In The Science of Running, elite coach and exercise physiologist Steve Magness integrates the latest research with the training processes of the world's best runners, to deliver an in depth look at how to maximize your performance. It is a unique book that conquers both the scientific and practical points of running in two different sections. The first is aimed at identifying what limits running performance from a scientific standpoint. You will take a tour through the inside of the body, learning what causes fatigue, how we produce energy to run, and how the brain functions to hold you back from super-human performance. In section two, we turn to the practical application of this information and focus on the process of training to achieve your goals. You will learn how to develop training plans and to look at training in a completely different way. The Science of Running does not hold back information and is sure to challenge you to become a better athlete, coach, or exercise scientist in covering such topics as: . What is fatigue? The latest research on looking at fatigue from a brain centered view. . Why VO2max is the most overrated and misunderstood concept in both the lab and on the track . Why "zone" training leads to suboptimal performance. . How to properly individualize training for your own unique physiology. . How to look at the training process in a unique way in terms of stimulus and adaptation. . Full sample training programs from 800m to the marathon."

Triathlons - three separate and gruelling tests of endurance in their own right, all rolled into on epic test of mind, body, and determination. Comprised of long distance running, swimming, and cycling, triathlons are the pinnacle of human endurance, taken on by men and women with a burning ambition to push themselves to the very limit. In the pages that follow you will discover inspirational quotes and words of wisdom that will make you smile and reach for your running shoes/swimming gear/cycling helmet with renewed vigour, learn need-to-know stuff, history, and tips from the experts. It might also become your passion, as you discover what it really takes to become a triathlete. The Little Book of Triathlon is a journey on to a path that is less trodden, but rich in fulfilment, self-discovery, and everything in-between. On your marks, set... and on we go.

The story of Ben Smith, who decided to run 401 marathons in 401 days. People thought he was mad, until they heard his story, then they began to understand. Having endured years of bullying as a child, Ben tried to take his own life. In adulthood, Ben struggled to feel content with the life that was mapped out for him. But having found his passion in running, Ben sold his possessions, escaped his old life and set off on what seemed like an impossible mission - The 401 Challenge.

During his 10,506.2-mile odyssey criss-crossing the UK, Ben ran in 309 different locations, accompanied by more than 13,500 people. He visited 101 schools, burned an estimated 2.4 million calories, wrecked his back and braved every extreme of the British weather, while raising £330,000 for charity, touching the lives of millions.

This is the inspiring journey of a previously lost and broken man who discovered that anything is possible, if only you choose to search for what makes you truly happy.

The greatest athletes in the world today are not the Olympic champions or the stars of professional sports, but the "marathon monks" of Japan's sacred Mount Hiei. Over a seven-year training period, these "running buddhas" figuratively circle the globe on foot. During one incredible 100-day stretch, they cover 52.5 miles daily-twice the length of an Olympic marathon. And the prize they seek to capture is the greatest thing a human being can achieve: enlightenment in the here and now.

This book is about these amazing men, the magic mountain on which they train, and the philosophy of Tendai Buddhism, which inspires them in their quest for the supreme. The reader will learn about the monks' death-defying fasts, their vegetarian training diet, their handmade straw running shoes, and feats of endurance such as their ceremonial leap into a waterfall. Illustrated with superb photographs, the book also contains the first full-length study in English of Mount Hiei and Tendai Buddhism.

John Stevens lived in Japan for thirty-five years, where he was a professor of Buddhist studies at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai. Stevens is a widely respected translator, an ordained Buddhist priest, a curator of several major exhibitions of Zen art, and an aikido instructor. He has authored more than thirty books and is one of the foremost Western experts on aikido, holding a ranking of 7th dan Aikikai. Stevens has also studied calligraphy for decades, authoring the classic "Sacred Calligraphy of the East." Other John Stevens titles that are likely to be of interest include "Extraordinary Zen Masters" and "The Philosophy of Aikido."

The inspirational, bittersweet story of Tamsin Imber's journey as a runner. Starting out as a busy mum, she secretly trains for a marathon - and ends up completing nine in a year, running joyfully in the rainy North York Moors with a group of like-minded lunatics. But talented Tamsin's London Marathon attempt is thwarted by a mysterious fatigue. Running My Way explores the empowering sense of freedom and achievement that running can bring into the chaotic, stressful life of a typically selfless mum. Mocked by an old friend, Tamsin sets off on a bumpy road that leads to a rewarding new social life and countless hilarious adventures. Trophy-winning runs attract the attention of a coach who helps her toward qualification for a championship place in the London Marathon. Ultimately, an appreciation of running free with wild abandon - whether in glorious countryside or in competition - is sharpened by Tamsin's diagnosis with debilitating CFS/ME. Now her positivity and sense of humour are sure to inspire others to take up the sport.

How Not To Run: A Journey to the Roof of the World is the story of a weekend runner who only ever wanted to keep fit to ride her horses with a little more finesse. Shauney always said she would never race. 'I just don't see the point. I don't think it would be for me,' she used to say. However, four and a half years later she found herself standing in the midst of the towering Himalayas, on the start line of the Everest Marathon, one of the toughest races anywhere in the world. With numerous 10Ks, half-marathons, full marathons, trail races and ultra-marathons already under her belt, the road from adamant non-racer to extreme long-distance runner had not been a smooth one - and was about to reach new heights of risk, danger and near disaster. Follow Shauney's journey over thousands of painful yet joyous miles, from some of the most beautiful, hidden parts of Scotland, via unforgettable, eye-watering races, all the way to the heights of the Himalayas - for the pinnacle of her racing and fundraising career so far.

Are you thinking about getting into triathlon or doing your first race? Have you finished a couple of races and are keen to improve your time?

Do you find the whole sport daunting and confusing? Are you a little intimidated by everybody else who looks like they know what they are doing?

This easy to understand and insightful book is packed with practical ways you can improve and it will help you:

Understand the sport of triathlon "what is triathlon and how does it work?"

Develop a training plan together that simplifies your season

Train effectively so you minimise the risk of getting injured

Stop you making the mistakes which cost a lot of time and money

Make you feel confident when you are on the start line

Decide what race length is best for you from sprint to Ironman

Buy the right triathlon kit to suit your ability and your aspirations

A personal note from the author:

"This book is gathered from years of training and racing but not only from my triathlon experience but from the experience of champions. I have trained with and raced with elite athletes and winners from all over the world but I started not knowing what I was doing and was scared to death when I did my first race. I wish I had this book when I started out. I would have saved myself a lot of heart ache and stress I wrote this to help all triathlon rookies get over their nerves and enjoy this fantastic sport."

"Triathlon for beginners" is the start to finish complete guide which covers all the areas of training and racing including:

Where to start - types of races, what you need to know and where to begin

Jargon buster - helping you understand the terms of the sport so you can understand what people are talking about when they say "T1" or "Brick"

Training rules and techniques

Swimming technique and etiquette

Running technique and how to prevent injury and run faster

Cycling in a pack what to do and what not to do

Transition - how to lay it out, what to bring and how to be effective

Understanding nutrition and why it is key, how best to manage your nutrition and what is best to eat for triathlon training and racing

Race day - what to look out for, how to prepare and what to expect

This guide takes you from start to finish so you can feel confident and comfortable when you train and race.

Here are some of the comments we have had from readers...

I loved this book

I have completed a few triathlons- sprint and Olympic distance. This book really simplified what is important to focus on. There is so much to know and learn that sometimes you feel overwhelmed. It is an easy, entertaining read but packed with good knowledge that made a big difference to my racing.

Charlotte Campbell, World Games triathlon gold medallist

I wish this was around before

I did a number of Triathlons over the last few years. When I first took it up I had to ask people's advice which at best was disjointed and worst, confusing. I also read some very good stuff on the internet, however this was also disjointed and incomplete. This book would have been ideal, as it puts it all together clearly and concisely.

Liam Harrington; sprint triathlete

This book is an inspirational journey seen through the eyes, mind, and heart of Alexandra Panayotou, an ultra endurance athlete who ran 2010 km in 31 days, promoting the European Athletics Championships - Barcelona 2010. Apart from taking you through the, at times, harrowing days and torturous nights, she will also take you with her on her inner voyage, allowing you to follow her thoughts and her emotions, and to participate in her struggles and triumphs. Motivational for both runners and non-runners alike, this book talks about reaching one's goals through personal excellence.

The ultimate pain-to-personal-best guide to running injuries, covering prevention, detection and rehabilitation. Runners suffer from the highest injury rates of all recreational athletes. Whether you are a novice or elite-level runner, guide yourself through a step-by-step process of avoiding and managing injury. Written by a globally respected physiotherapist who has worked with Olympic and World Champion athletes, Running Free of Injuries will help runners to understand their body, identify weaknesses and develop a natural defence against injury. The book covers the most common running injuries that occur to the foot, ankle, lower leg, hip, knee and pelvis and includes key exercises applicable to all levels of fitness.

In the increasingly popular sport of parkour, athletes run, jump, climb, flip, and vault through city streetscapes, resembling urban gymnasts to passersby and awestruck spectators. In Parkour and the City, cultural sociologist Jeffrey L. Kidder examines the ways in which this sport involves a creative appropriation of urban spaces as well as a method of everyday risk-taking by a youth culture that valorizes individuals who successfully manage danger.   Parkour’s modern development has been tied closely to the growth of the internet. The sport is inevitably a YouTube phenomenon, making it exemplary of new forms of globalized communication. Parkour’s dangerous stunts resonate, too, Kidder contends, with a neoliberal ideology that is ambivalent about risk. Moreover, as a male-dominated sport, parkour, with its glorification of strength and daring, reflects contemporary Western notions of masculinity. At the same time, Kidder writes, most athletes (known as “traceurs� or “freerunners�) reject a “daredevil� label, preferring a deliberate, reasoned hedging of bets with their own safety—rather than a “pushing the edge� ethos normally associated with extreme sports.    

Renowned marathon expert and leading sports scientist Professor John Brewer reveals why many of the concepts surrounding marathon training and running are wrong -- and suggests how the latest sports science research transforms the way marathons should be approached. Run Smart uses the latest scientific research to show how preparing for, and running, marathons can be made easier, and in doing so challenges many of the myths that surround marathon running. The book will draw on the author's experience as one of the UK's leading sports scientists, his extensive research background in marathon running, and his experience as a marathon runner, to provide credible advice to runners to support their preparation for a marathon. The book will challenge many current concepts, myths and ideas, and provide science-based alternatives in areas such as training and nutrition that will optimise and ease a runner's preparation for, and completion of, the 26.2 mile distance. This highly accessible book will use the latest scientific findings to support new runners training for their first marathon and help more experienced athletes improve and train smarter.

This handy trivia book is packed with everything you need to know about running, including potted history, quirky facts, sayings and hints about the planet's most popular exercise form.

It includes running philosophy and advice on how to get more out of your daily run. From science to humour, tips to tales, it runs the reader through everything they need to know about pounding the pavement.

This pocket-sized guide to running is the perfect gift for runners of all ages and experience levels.

In 2011, Belgian runner Stefaan Engels set the record for the most consecutive marathons run - 365. He was 49 years of age.

A study at the University of Oxford concluded that the post-run buzz people get after running is sparked by cannabinoids - the same substance that's found in marijuana.