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...).

Your First Half-Distance Triathlon will guide any triathlete who wished to finish his or her first half-distance triathlon from the beginning of the preparation until race day. The half-distance triathlon consists of a 1.2-mile swim, 56 miles of cycling and a 13.1-mile run. It is anything but an easy option, but it represents a fascinating challenge for any well-trained endurance athlete. Considered a Long Course it covers more miles than the Olympic distance and provides the perfect stepping stone to the ITU Long Distance races and even the Ultra Distance Ironman triathlon. This book offers a great amount of detailed training plans. There are in-depth examples of core and peripheral training and heart-rate dependent pace levels T1-T8, which help to illustrate the year-round training recommendations. It also features advice on swimming, cycling, and running training, cross training, equipment, strengthening and stretching, typical training errors, recovery, self-motivating performance testing and motivation tips, as well as anecdotes and emotional stories from competitions. With this guide, anyone can finish their first half-distance triathlon.

Every runner at every level wants to run faster, stronger, and pain-free. Injury prevention is essential to the athlete focused on achieving his or her highest level of performance. Remaining injury-free can lead runners through a lifetime of roads and trails that offer fun, challenge, victory, camaraderie, solace, good health, good attitude, and, as some like to point out, the freedom to enjoy good food. Dr. Metzl's savvy, up-to-date book will take the reader on a heel-to-head tour of the specific kinetic chain involved in running and provide a friendly, accessible, and illustrated view of the muscles, bones, and joints used and impacted. He'll help runners define their kinetic style so that they are best equipped to adapt Metzl's injury-prevention advice to their running lifestyle.

How much power does your human engine have? How much power do you need for running in different conditions? How can you optimize your training and racing performance? How can you use power meters to improve your results? What are the ultimate limits of human performance?The Secret of Running answers all of these questions. All factors determining the performance in running (from 800-meter race to marathon) are explained step by step: training, nutrition, body weight, running form, wind, hills, temperature, running gear, power meters and much more. Written in a crystal-clear and lively style, this book is a wealth of information for every ambitious runner. This title also contains brand new insights on how the balance of the power of your human engine and the power requirement for running in different conditions determines your performance. It shows how power meters can be used to optimize your training, running economy and race result. This book is lavishly illustrated and packed with useful data. Being already a bestseller in the Netherlands and Belgium, The Secret of Running can be considered the ultimate textbook for all serious runners and their coaches.

I'm 4 years off 40 yet but after reading this I'm already looking forward to it! A simple, no nonsense approach to a healthier body and happier mind. Gemma Atkinson, author of The Ultimate Body Plan The perfect book for fans of Joe Wicks and Michael Mosley. Make your midlife your best life, with the only guide aimed at fitness in your 40s. Peak 40 is for anyone wanting to rediscover the best version of themselves coming into their middle years. Author and elite performance nutritionist Dr Marc Bubbs has a portfolio of professional and Olympic athletes - but he is also the dad of three girls, all under 7! Dr.. Bubbs is here with you, in the eye of the mid-life storm and he has created the ultimate book to help you through it. Create a bespoke program that works for YOU from diet, to sleep, type of training and mindset, this book has all the tools you need. Guiding us through the myriad of confusion lifestyle messages, you will learn: Increase flexibility and learn how to train with achy joints, knees, back or shoulders Whether a plant-based diet is right for your body type How to maintain bone health Whether to lift weights Who should do HIIT (and who shouldn't) The importance of glucose control in your diet Advice on dealing with anxiety and low mood Setting realistic expectations and goals For fans of Joe Wicks and Michael Mosley, Dr. Bubbs offers simple, evidence-based and time-efficient strategies to reignite your energy and passion. His realistic, grown-up and non-judgemental approach is to explain the effect some food groups and lack of exercise and sleep have on our body. The advice is easy to digest and can be tailored to your body and personality type. In his expert opinion, small changes such as not eating after 8pm for five out of seven days can have a big impact on weight loss and positive mood. Rather than eliminating certain food groups like fats and carbohydrates, he looks at turning the dial on them depending on individual needs. If life has become too sedentary, he provides ways to increase suppleness so that you can start to reintroduce movement into your life without causing pain. Start living your Peak 40 life today!

Ultramarathons don't leave much room for mistakes. Don't learn the hard way: get a jump on training for an ultramarathon with Hal Koerner's Field Guide to Ultrarunning, a comprehensive handbook to running 30 to 100 miles and beyond, written by one of the most experienced and recognized athletes in the sport. Hal Koerner is among America's best ultrarunners with podium results in more than 90 ultramarathons. In his smart, down-to-earth handbook, Koerner shares hard-earned wisdom, field-tested habits, and insider tips to help you prepare for your ultra. You'll find guidance on exactly what you need to know to prepare for ultramarathon, including: best gear for ultrarunningfueling and hydration guidelineschoosing an ultratrail-running techniquefirst-aid advicebeating altitude, storms, and heatrace-day game planscrew and pacer tipsmental strategies to get you to the finish line The guide offers three detailed training plans to prepare for 50K, 50-mile to 100K, and 100-mile ultramarathons.Start your ultra with confidence and finish it strong with Hal Koerner's Field Guide to Ultrarunning!

Just as George Plimpton had his proverbial cup of coffee in the NFL as the un-recruited and certainly unwanted fourth-string quarterback for the Detroit Lions, so, too, did Will McGough immerse himself in a sport he had no business trying. Like Plimpton, whose football folly turned into the bestselling Paper Lion, travel and outdoor writer McGough writes of his participation in, around, and over the course of one of the world's premier triathlons, the annual 140.6-mile Ironman in Tempe, Arizona. McGough chronicles the Ironman's history, his unorthodox training, the pageantry of the race weekend, and his attempt to finish the epic event. The narrative follows not just his race but also explores the cult and habits of the triathlete community, beginning with the first Ironman competition in Hawaii in 1978. This is a light-hearted, self-deprecating, and at times hilarious look at one man's attempt to conquer the ultimate endurance sport, with a conclusion that will surprise and delight both dedicated triathletes as well as strangers to the sport.

Rachel Toor was a bookish egghead who ran only to catch a bus. How such an unlikely athlete became a runner of ultramarathons is the story of Personal Record, an exhilarating meditation on the making, and the minutiae, of a runner’s life. The food, the clothes, the races, the injuries, the watch (and Toor loves her watch) are all essential to the runner, as readers discover here, and discover why.              A chronicle of Toor’s relationship with the sport of running, from her early incarnation as an Oreo-eating couch potato to her emergence as a hard-bodied marathoner, this book explores the sport of running, the community it brings into being, and the personal satisfaction of pursuing it to its limit. Alternating with Toor’s account of becoming a runner are the stories—meditations, examinations, celebrations—of how runners become a pack. An homage to running, a literary take on how an activity can turn into a passion, and how a passion can become a way of life, this book runs all the way from individual achievement—a personal record—to the world of friendship and belonging, the community that runners inevitably find.

The Women's Guide to Triathlon is the definitive companion for female triathletes. Authored by the national governing body of the sport, USA Triathlon, this landmark resource features expert instruction and personal insights from 20 of the world's top female coaches and athletes: Rachel Sears Casanta Sarah Haskins Stacy T. Sims Siri Lindley Sage Rountree Sara McLarty Lindsay Hyman Margie Shapiro Melissa Mantak Tara S. Comer Melissa Stockwell Krista Austin Gale Bernhardt Wendy Francke Rebeccah Wassner Laurel Wassner Shelly O'Brien Melanie McQuaid Celeste Callahan Brenda Barrera With the latest research, proven techniques, and expert advice, this authoritative guide addresses the unique demands of today's female triathletes. You'll find the most effective strategies for training and competing through all of life's stages; avoiding and overcoming common injuries; and balancing the constant demands of the sport, family, and work. For women, by women, The Women's Guide to Triathlon is the one guide that every female triathlete should own.

Running is not just a sport. It reconnects us to our bodies and the places in which we live, breaking down our increasingly structured and demanding lives. It allows us to feel the world beneath our feet, lifts the spirit, allows our minds out to play and helps us to slip away from the demands of the modern world. When Vybarr Cregan-Reid set out to discover why running meant so much to so many, he began a journey which would take him out to tread London's cobbled streets, climbing to sites that have seen a millennium of hangings, and down the crumbling alleyways of Ruskin's Venice. Footnotes transports you to the cliff tops of Hardy's Dorset, the deserted shorelines of Seattle, the giant redwood forests of California, and to the world's most advanced running laboratories and research centres, using debates in literature, philosophy and biology to explore that simple human desire to run. Liberating and inspiring, this book reminds us why feeling the earth beneath our feet is a necessary and healing part of our lives.

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.

Tap into a powerful mind-body connection to optimize performance and boost happiness-on and off the running trails. What if the key to improving your running, shaping your body, and boosting your happiness was all in your mind? In Mindful Running, lifelong runner, coach, and fitness journalist Mackenzie L. Havey recounts her personal practice of meditative running and the influence it has had on her life. She taps a wide range of sources--from weekend warriors to Olympic runners, from coaches and sports psychologists to neuroscientists and meditation experts--to examine how training mental fitness through mindfulness can enhance your running practice and lead to a more contented existence. The research is clear: Mindfulness changes the very structure of the brain. Paired with physical training, mindful running has the potential to give you an edge when you're out logging miles, as well as help you hone the ability to exist in the present, endure challenges and hardship with ease and find greater happiness in all things big and small. Mindful running is a total body and mind fitness regimen with serious benefits that continue even when the race is over. Regardless of your fitness level, the Mindful Running process is the same: We focus in on the body, mind and surroundings and begin to notice what thoughts, feelings and sensations exist in that moment; we fathom that information, consider how it all fits together from a holistic standpoint, and decide if we need to make adjustments; and by following these steps we enter flow, a state that embodies present moment awareness, concentration, confidence, optimal performance and joy.

In his previous book, Running Hot & Cold, Doug described his journey from couch potato in late middle age to running long-distance races across deserts, mountains, jungles and snow fields in locations as diverse as the Sahara Desert and the polar ice-cap of Greenland. Having completed major events on four of Earth's continents, Can We Run With You, Grandfather? describes Doug's ongoing journey towards his ultimate dream of running at least a half marathon on all seven continents before his 70th birthday. Still living with occasional bouts of anxiety and depression, as well as other health scares, Doug combines his running travels with motivating and inspiring others, of all ages and abilities, to discover the physical and mental health benefits that running can bring. Join Doug as he tackles new adventures including the villages and temples of central Myanmar, the heat of the Australian outback and the frozen wilderness of Antarctica.