Running Book Reviews with Alan and Liz

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Book overview:

This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running. is a deeply motivating, funny, and unexpectedly moving book about what happens when we dare to step up to the starting lines in our lives. Drawing on the philosophy that has inspired millions around the world, Coach Bennett reframes running not as a test of speed, distance, or competition—but as a practice in showing up, moving forward, and discovering what’s possible when you take a chance on yourself.

Author Bio and Interesting Facts:

A competitive runner from New Jersey, Bennett ran at UNC-Chapel Hill before coaching future Olympians at the post-collegiate level and building what became the Northeast’s most successful high school cross-country program. When Nike asked him to come on as a full-time coach in 2014, he wrote his entire coaching philosophy down on a legal pad and handed it over. Those notes became the Nike Run Club Truths, and he’s been building on them ever since. And today, Chris Bennett is the Global Head Coach of Nike Running.

Now, he’s distilled that philosophy into his first book, This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running, a motivational guide for all runners.

Code Alan10 at Go Running tours
https://gorunningtours.com/p/canada/montreal/

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Book overview:

1500 Pairs of Hands is a brutally honest account of one of the most iconic ultramarathons in the world — told not by an elite athlete, but by a regular runner facing the limits of body and mind.

This is not a story about podiums.
It’s about survival.

Through extreme heat, long climbs, and endless miles of dusty singletrack, the race becomes a constant test of decision-making, resilience, and mental strength. Mistakes have consequences. Fatigue changes everything. And finishing is never guaranteed.

But this book reveals something most race reports overlook:

No one finishes Western States alone.

This is not a guide.

This is what it feels like to be there

Author Bio and Interesting Facts:

Christian Abele Plaza is a Spanish trail and ultratrail runner with a passion for endurance challenges and the stories they create.

Over the years, he has taken part in a wide range of trail races, from local events to some of the world's most iconic ultramarathons. It was his experience at the Western States 100 that inspired him to write his first book.

Rather than telling the story from the front of the race, Christian writes from the perspective of a non-elite runner—sharing the doubts, mistakes, determination, and quiet moments that define the journey to the finish line.

You can follow Christian @Christian_Abele_Plaza on IG

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Book overview:

The Art of Ultrarunning: Tried & Tested Strategies for Long-Distance Runners compiles coaching strategies with illustrative stories from professional ultrarunners to create a convenient resource to help you improve your running. An elite-level racer and coach, author Ian Sharman provides practical guidance for runners at all levels; whether you are at the back of the pack or are going for gold, there's something to learn from his decades of experience.

The book is broken down into three valuable sections: part 1 breaks down training, part 2 untangles the concepts of racing and part 3 grows past the racing in shining light on sustainable growth past the finish line.

Author Bio and Interesting Facts:

Ian Sharman is an ultrarunner, coach, and journalist from the United Kingdom who lives in the trail running hub of Bend, Oregon. He founded Sharman Ultra Coaching (SUC) in 2010, bringing together a team of some of the best ultrarunners as coaches. SUC has coached hundreds of runners, from back-of-the-pack participants to winners of the most prestigious ultras in the world.

Sharman was voted as high as second for Ultrarunning Magazine’s Ultrarunner of the Year as well as fourth for Ultrarunner of the Decade for the 2010s. Some running highlights include the all-time record for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning; four wins in the Leadville Trail 100 Run; three wins in the Rocky Raccoon 100, including setting the record; nine top 10 finishes at the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, including being the only person to complete the race 10 times with a combined finish time of under a week; multiple top finishes at Comrades Marathon in South Africa, including a Wally Hayward Medal; and a marathon best time of 2 hours and 21 minutes.

You can find Ian @sharmanian and on http://www.sharmanultra.com/

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Book overview:

Once a nationally ranked long-distance runner, Canadian Peter Whitby abandons his career as an engineer and moves to a small US town in the Pacific Northwest where he can train year-round and pursue his running dreams. After a chance encounter with a local entrepreneur, Peter finds himself drawn into the race of a lifetime with a substantial winner-take-all cash prize. With the help of a new training partner, a previous love interest and a coach with a dubious past, Peter has to find a way to outrun his insecurities … and beat the top long-distance runners in the world. Capturing the joy of running and the spirit of competition, Running in the Dark is a story of determination, the pursuit of excellence, and overcoming self-doubt. This book is a fictional story.

Author Bio and Interesting Facts:

Paul Walmsley is a professional engineer whose active lifestyle has taken him on numerous running, cycling, and hiking adventures across North America, the British Isles, Europe, and New Zealand. He has completed nine marathons and countless road races, providing him with the insights and inspiration for his writing.

​

Paul currently lives in Calgary, Alberta and enjoys spending his summers at a family cottage in Gananoque, Ontario.

https://www.paulwalmsley.ca/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-walmsley-67710629?originalSubdomain=ca

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Book overview:
Showing Up by Nedd Brockmann is a memoir about his incredible 3,953-kilometre run across Australia. At age 23, the former electrician ran from Perth to Sydney in 46 days to raise millions of dollars for homelessness. Written with raw humor, the book explores his "why can't I?" mindset, early discipline in sports, and the physical and mental toll of voluntary suffering to inspire readers to embrace discomfort and chase big goals

Author Bio and Interesting Facts:

Nedd Brockmann is an Australian ultramarathon runner, author, and philanthropist named the 2026 Young Australian of the Year. A former electrician from regional New South Wales, he rose to fame in 2022 by running nearly 4,000 kilometers across Australia in 46 days to raise millions for homelessness

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In this episode, Alan and Liz welcome back frequent-flyer guest Matt Fitzgerald to talk about his rawest and most personal book yet: Dying to Run: An Athlete's Quest for One More Finish. This is Matt like you've never read him. After long COVID took away not just running but his ability to move, work, and feel like himself, he made the reckless, wonderful decision to attempt a 100-kilometer ultramarathon in record-breaking desert heat. We dig into what long COVID actually is and why it can turn exercise into something close to poison, the brutal post-exertional malaise scale Matt created for a medical case study, and why he signed up for the Javelina Jundred giving himself just a 10 percent chance of even reaching the start line. We also get into the Stoic mindset that carried him through, the art of controlling the controllables when the desert hits 99 degrees, the surprising power of simply having something to anticipate again, one very relatable wardrobe malfunction five minutes before the gun, and why he believes it does not really matter how the story ends. It is a conversation about endurance in the truest sense of the word, and about what it means to keep going when your body betrays you.

About the Book Dying to Run is Matt Fitzgerald's most personal book to date, part memoir and part meditation on survival and self-acceptance. When long COVID struck, running became a distant memory, doctors had no answers, and every day blurred into fatigue and mental fog. With no promise of recovery, Matt set his sights on an audacious gamble: finishing the Javelina Jundred, a 100-kilometer ultramarathon across Arizona's Sonoran Desert, during a record-breaking heat wave.

• The Gamble: With his body refusing to cooperate and no medical fix in sight, Matt bets everything on one more finish, chasing closure and, just maybe, redemption in the scorching desert.
• The Mindset: Drawing on Stoic philosophy, modern psychology, and hard-won experience, he learns to separate what he can control from what he cannot, and to be as wise as he is tough.
• The Bigger Question: More than a race report, this is an honest reckoning with how we find meaning, and keep moving, when our bodies fail us.

Dying to Run is published by 80/20 Publishing and distributed by Simon & Schuster, arriving in print, digital, and audio in September.

About the Author Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports journalist, certified sports nutritionist, and bestselling author of nearly 40 books on running, nutrition, and mental toughness. Titles we have covered on the podcast include Running the Dream, 80/20 Coaching, The Comeback Quotient, How to Run Your Perfect Race, and Run Like a Pro (Even If You're Slow). He is the co-founder of 80/20 Endurance and head coach of Dream Run Camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, which he opened during his illness as a way to pivot into serving fellow runners.

A lifelong runner who has raced since age 11, Matt faced his hardest challenge yet when long COVID upended his life, the story he tells in Dying to Run. He lives in Flagstaff with his wife, Nataki, and their dog, Clementine.

Have you read Dying to Run, or fought your own way back from illness or injury? We would love to hear what kept you going. Reach out and let us know!

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In the running boom of the 80s the small town of Bernardsville New Jersey emerged as a magical place for the sport, producing champions at all levels of distance running. The young, passionate experimental coach of the junior program feeding a lot of the success was Mark Wetmore; before he became of the worlds best collegiate coaches. Blood Sweat and Spikes is a story of one of the runners in that town (Lyle Smith) and the people that made it unique in the history of the sport.

Lyle Smith has been a reporter,, a caddie, a grave digger, a marketing professional and a runner since he discovered the sport as a youngster growing up in Bernardsville , New Jersey. He now lives in Colorado with his wife Heather and son Aiden. You might hear him podcasting or see him running the trails of Boulder with his golden retriever Elsa.

Lyle's site, lylesmith.net, is where he can be reached, where you can learn more about him.

Lyle's IG: @nymblegram

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Here we are again with a recap of 10 running books. This time is a first with Shayan added to the usual Alan and Liz mix

Here's a list of all 10 books and and a link to the full podcast episodes in which they are featured.

Chasing the Grid by Ken Posner

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17934193

Fuel for Thought by Renee McGregor

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17951831

Ultra Women by Lily canter and Emma Wilkinson

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18088365

Road to Redemption by Tom Fitzgerald

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18196515

Practical Fueling for Endurance Athletes by Kylee van Horn

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18398279

Running the World by Robyn Godfrey

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18445395

Move Rest Recover by Erin Taylor

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18559534

Advanced Marathoning (4th Edn.) by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18560759

Still Running after all these Tears by Lisa jackson

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/18723464

What I Talk About when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami

https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/19076029

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In One Step Forward , we follow Gene from his initial unhealthy lifestyle as he transforms from sedentary starter to 11x Ironman finisher—with a 10-year Boston Marathon streak

During this journey Gene extracts over 100 life lessons from his running but applicable to all kinds of situations. They fall into 5 major categories

• Perseverance and Resilience
• Mental Strength and Self Talk
• Community and Support
• Personal Growth and Transformation
• Service and Giving Back

Gene Jochen is an endurance athlete who has completed over 100 marathons including his 11th Boston in 2022 and all six Abbott World Marathons—plus 11 Ironmans. A corporate leader, sales expert and entrepreneur, he sharpened his mindset testing limits on roads trails and triathlons . He shares hard -earned insights to help others conquer doubt, build resilience and break personal barriers. He's also a songwriter and jazz/rock drummer.

Gene's site, https://genejochen.com/, is where he can be reached, where you can learn more about his next book, and where you can find access to locations to purchase this book:

Gene's IG: https://www.instagram.com/grjochen/

Gene's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gene-jochen-bsmartinc330/

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Marathon Excellence for Everyone is a bible about marathon training and racing. It has 50 chapters divided into 8 sections (not counting the appendix):

• First steps
• The phases of marathon training
• Training plans
• Race day and beyond
• The science of marathon performance
• The science of fueling
• Overcoming illness, injury, and other setbacks
• Advanced training techniques

John Davis is a scientist, writer, and coach. His work uses modern machine learning and biostatistics to understand biomechanics, physiology, and human health. Recently, he’s focused on using these same tools to tackle problems in AI alignment and AI interpretability.

His site, https://johnjdavis.io/, is where he puts his technical write-ups and explainers on topics like AI, ML, and biomechanics. He can also be found at https://runningwritings.com/ where you can:

Get copies of the book: https://marathonexcellence.com/

Join John's newsletter to get links to all his new content: https://runningwritings.com/news

Follow him on Instagram (or FB): https://www.instagram.com/runningwritings/

Listen to his longer form content on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RunningWritings

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In this episode, we talk with author, former professional runner for the Nike Oregon Project and current Irish national runner, and Stanford medical student Mary Cain about her memoir: This is Not About Running. We ask her about her youth, growing up in an abusive athletics system, training for Alberto Salazar as a high schooler. We also talk about her work with Atalanta NYC and The Athlete's Survivors' Assist, her growth and the many hats she wears as a survivor, leader, mentor, student and professional runner. She speaks on what she wishes for young runners today, the challenges we face and where the conversation should be going to enact concrete change.

About the Book

In THIS IS NOT ABOUT RUNNING Cain shares her whole story, offering never-before told details and perspective to shed light on the normalized abuse in sports, and advocating for a better future for athletes. Cain is fearless in her storytelling. She has a passion for writing and each short chapter of the book recounts a vignette in present tense, bringing the reader alongside her. She gains speed, notches wins, and excels in school—and encounters cruelty and abuse starting early on and becoming deeper and darker throughout her time running for Nike.

The memoir is aptly organized into 5 gripping parts of Mary Cain’s young life and they are titled Talent, Rookie, Competitor, Professional and Champion.

This episode and book comes with trigger warnings on disordered eating, body shaming, sexual harassment, abuse, self-harm, mental health episodes and suicidal ideation.

About Mary Cain

Mary Cain is a medical student at Stanford University School of Medicine. After sharing her story with the world in a 2019 New York Times op-ed, Cain has dedicated her career to driving change in sport, with an emphasis on athlete well-being and gender equity. She is the founder of Atalanta NYC, a nonprofit that employs professional female runners to serve as mentors for young girls, and serves on the board of The Athlete Survivors’ Assist (formerly known as The Army of Survivors), a nonprofit that brings awareness, accountability, and transparency to sexual violence against athletes at all levels. She is also a runner. Cain had a record-breaking professional running career that included becoming the 2014 World Junior Champion in the 3000m and a 2013 World Championships finalist in the 1500m.

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In this episode, we dive into the transformative 31-day journey laid out by legendary ultrarunner and coach Allie Bailey. This isn't just a "how-to" for running; it’s a manual for the mental game of life. Whether you are training for your first 5K, an ultra, or just trying to navigate a career shift, Allie’s 1-2-3 structure (Focus, Example, and The Work) provides a realistic, down-to-earth roadmap to getting your head in the right place. We break down the 6-part framework, the power of her 5-day worksheets, and why honesty is the most important piece of gear you’ll ever own.

About the Book

More than a training plan, this book is a 31-day mental reset. Designed to be digested in 5-day sections with a final capstone day, it builds a foundation of resilience that transcends sport.

• The Focus: Every chapter centers on one vital mindset shift.
• The Reality: Allie shares unfiltered stories from her own 200+ marathons and coaching career.
• The Work: Actionable steps to help you master your internal dialogue and unlock your true potential.

About Allie Bailey

Allie Bailey is an ultrarunner, speaker, and coach who has conquered some of the most extreme environments on Earth. With over 200 marathons and ultramarathons under her belt, her most significant victory wasn't at a finish line—it was her ongoing recovery from depression and alcoholism.

After a life-changing mental health crisis in 2021, Allie walked away from a high-flying music industry career to help others find their own "why." Named one of the UK’s most inspiring female adventurers by The Guardian, Allie now lives in Yorkshire with her rescue dog, Pickle, coaching athletes to be as strong mentally as they are physically.

If anyone has already read the book, let us know what your biggest "lightbulb moment" from Allie’s 31-day program was. We'd love to hear about it!

If you'd like to read Allie's blog or get a copy of her book, both are available on her website (as well as links to her social media if you'd like to follow her): http://www.alliebailey.co.uk/about

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In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he’d completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and—even more important—on his writing.

Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.

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Here are a few of the discussion points in this episode:

Focus on your protein --- Lauren Antonnuchi , High Performance Nutrition for Masters athletes

Carbs are good! Fuel your training --- Renee McGregor, Fuel for Thought

Enclothed Cognition is a real thing! --- Kara Goucher, Strong

You can have running success as a warrior or a worrier --- Believe Journal, Lauren Fleshmann and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas

Animals and care for animals can teach you some wonderful things --- Running with Sherman, Chris McDougall and Finding Gobi, Dion Leonard

Running form drills are worthwhile – Born to Run2 , Chris McDougall and Eric Orton and Built to Run , Matt Silver

A good base build can be loads of easy volume with a few strides – Run Elite , Andrew Snow

Alberto Salazaar deserved his ban and Nike is a toxic company --- Win at All Costs, Matt Hart and Longest Run, Kara Goucher and Mary Pilon

Doing hard things can't be sustained with a macho, ‘can't hurt me’ attitude. Instead you need a realistic, responsive approach, that listens to your body but transcends discomfort ---- Do Hard Things , Steve Magness

Similarly, great athletes are Ultra Realists ---- Comeback Quotient, Matt Fitzgerald

Flow State , it’s a real thing --- Running Home , Katie Arnold

Inspiration and Motivation can come in many different forms ….. you just have to stay open to the messages …..all kinds of books and people

You can get improved performance by being smarter rather than working harder --- How to Run the Perfect Race, Matt Fitzgerald

No matter what the performance goals, feed and sustain the joy of running --- 26.2 miles to Happiness , Paul Tomkinson and The Happy Runner , David and Megan Roche

There is no precise training prescription but there are some general rules --- many training books

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Still Running After All These Tears is the newest book by Lisa Jackson, and it perfectly aligns with the realization I shared at the beginning of the episode. After years of sub-3 hour marathon attempts ending in disappointment, Liz took Alan's advice to "hold (her) goal lightly." Instead of focusing on the clock, her mantra became "run for those who can't." She explains in the intro story how she dedicated her miles to her late sister-in-law who passed away from breast cancer, a new friend recovering from breast cancer who waited for her at the finish line, and her husband who was sidelined with a bad back. Lisa’s book explores a similar shift, showing how running can be a survival manual for the broken-hearted rather than just a pursuit of performance.

The book covers:

• Navigating devastating grief and multiple bereavements
• Coping with debilitating injury and losing your running mojo
• Training for a 109th marathon in a loved one's honour
• Transitioning from heartache to hope
• The redemptive power of running and its life-enhancing lessons
• Thriving in the face of trauma
• What makes a good death
• How to lead a joyous, meaningful life

Lisa Jackson is a running writer and Runner’s World columnist, and the author of the best-selling books Your Pace or Mine?, Running Made Easy and Still Running After All These Tears: A Runner’s Journey Through Grief. A veteran of over 100 marathons and two 56-mile ultras, Lisa is Women’s Running’s hypnotherapy expert, and her writing has been published in Psychologies, Red, Prima, Top Santé, Healthy, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, The Independent and Mumsnet. She is also a keen traveller and, having backpacked through well over 100 countries, wrote two travelogues - Travel Seekness and Travel Agents - with her husband Graham Williams.

Lisa has presented talks at numerous events including The National Running Show and RunFestRun and is a frequent guest on running podcasts and the radio. She was one of 40 people featured in The Sunday Times’s Alternative Rich List aka The Enriched List, as someone whose life has been ‘rich in experience, rich in spirit, rich in life’. Lisa was nominated in the 2020 Women of the Year Awards, and in the 2018 Women’s Running Awards in the ‘Influencer of the Year’ category. She is an Ambassador for the multi-award-winning fitnesswear brand Flanci Activewear.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book, it can be found on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aCZqOAS

You can follow Lisa's writing in Runner's World and Women's Running, and find more about her work and ambassadorship with Flanci Activewear online @lisaflamingojackson on Instagram or Facebook, or at lisajackson43 on X.

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Advanced Marathoning (4th ed.) is the newest version of the training book Alan and I have been using for our sub-3 hour marathon attempts. This version, like the last one, is divided into 2 parts:

• Training components
• Elements of training
• Nutrition and hydration
• Balancing training and recovery
• Supplementary training

Advanced marathoning for masters runners (The older (and wiser) marathoner – in the 3rd ed.)

• Tapering for peak marathon performance
• Race day strategy
• Training program
• Following the schedules
• Marathon training up to 55 miles (89 km) per week
• Marathon training on 55 to 70 miles (89 to 113 km) per week
• Marathon training on 70 to 85 miles (113-137 km) per week
• Marathon training on more than 85 miles (137 km) per week
• Multiple marathoning

Pete Pfitzinger was the top American finisher in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic marathons. With a personal best of 2:11:43, Pfitzinger is a two-time winner of the San Francisco Marathon and placed third in the 1987 New York City Marathon. He was ranked the top American marathoner in 1984 by Track & Field News, and he is a member of the Road Runners Club of America’s Hall of Fame. He was a senior writer for Running Times from 1997 to 2007, in which his popular column, “The Pfitzinger Lab Report,” appeared. Pete has over 30 years of experience coaching marathon runners to achieve their goals. He is also the coauthor of Faster Road Racing.

Scott is a contributing writer for Runner’s World and Outside. He is the author or coauthor of several well-known running books, including Personal Best Running, Running Is My Therapy, and the New York Times bestsellers Meb for Mortals and 26 Marathons. Scott has run more than 130,000 miles since starting as a teen. He lives in North Yarmouth, Maine. He has also written about running for Slate, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and others.

If you’re interested in this book, the authors would like if you could first check your local book shop, specialty running shop, or bookshop.org (if you’re in the US). You can also find it online if all else fails.

They mentioned their Advanced Marathoning and Faster Road Racing FB page where you can follow them, and Scott Douglas is on Substack (where his profile photo is a photo of a dog with the Advanced Marathoning book).

The Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063961968481

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Move, Rest, Recover guides readers on the practice of rest and recovery. It tries to answer questions like:

• Why should I rest and recover?
• How do I know when to stop and rest?
• When I stop, what should I do?

The book is split into 4 sections:

• Understand recovery
• Activate recovery
• Strengthen recovery
• Keep recovering

Erin Taylor is an international recovery expert, writer, and yoga teacher. For 20 years she has coached professional athletes, everyday runners, pre- and post-natal women, office workers, and anyone looking to integrate practices that improve well-being and longevity. She is the creator of Balance Practice, a platform that offers practical tools to inspire and support mental and physical balance in all aspects of life. Erin is also the founder of Athletes for Yoga, the only athlete-led, on-demand video platform and app that puts yoga into the context of sport and well-being goals, and the author of Work IN and Hit Reset.

If you’d like to follow Erin, she can be found at https://erintaylor.works/ where you can get her book.

She is also on Instagram at @erintaylorworks or @athletesforyogahq.

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In this episode we speak with Author Robyn Godfrey about her book Running the World. Robyn didn’t plan to become a marathoner. She stumbled through adolescence as a clumsy teen and later partied through midlife while searching for purpose. Everything shifted the day she laced up her running shoes. What began as thirty seconds on a treadmill grew into a running journey that redefined her life. Running the World follows Robyn’s quest to conquer all six World Marathon Majors—Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City—while navigating her husband’s stage 4 cancer diagnosis, injuries, weather disasters, and waves of self-doubt. With honesty and humor, she shares the grit, setbacks, and triumphs that shaped her path through marathons, half marathons, and beyond. This is more than a running memoir. It is an inspirational story of resilience, reinvention, and the courage to start again.

Robyn Godfrey is a speaker, accomplished runner, pacer, Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) Certified Level 1 coach, and writer, who began her running journey at the age of 47. What started as a personal quest to improve her health and overcome her relationship with alcohol soon evolved into a remarkable achievement: completing seven marathons, including the prestigious World Marathon Majors — London, Chicago, Berlin, Boston, New York, and Tokyo achieving the Six Star Medal in 2024. A dedicated member of the Wilmington Road Runners Club since 2013, Robyn has made a significant impact by coaching and pacing runners, helping them unlock their potential and reach their goals. In addition to her coaching, she has volunteered with organizations like Girls on the Run, empowering young girls to grow both physically and personally through running.

If you’d like to read the book for yourself then it can be found here: https://books2read.com/runningtheworld

To learn more about the author she can be found here: https://www.robyngodfrey.com/

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Practical Fueling for Endurance Athletes delivers the practical, science-based information and strategies you need for long-term health and superior performance in your sport.

Kylee Van Horn—registered dietitian, endurance athlete, and coach—will help you navigate the challenges of endurance sports with the following:

• Essential nutrition concepts that aren’t directed at weight loss
• The smart use of supplements
• Strategies for developing your ideal personal nutrition plan
• Unique nutrient needs of female athletes, including during pregnancy and menopause
• Plant-based fueling
• Special dietary needs
• Planning meals and snacks

You’ll learn to design, test, and implement sport-specific nutrient intake for before, during, and after your workout or event to ensure your body has the right amount of energy at the right time.

Throughout, you will find checklists, charts, and 28 easy-to-make recipes to help you take in adequate and appropriate nutrients for your unique needs. Get inspiration from the stories and strategies shared by endurance athletes such as Camille Herron, Sage Canaday, Nicole Mericle, and many others, showcasing how their nutrition plans fueled their success.

Kylee Van Horn, RDN, is a registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Flynutrition LLC, a virtual sports nutrition private practice that exclusively serves the endurance athlete population.

With a mission of separating facts from fads, Van Horn provides practical guidance for endurance athletes to direct them to a sustainable approach to fueling their activities for long-term health and performance.

Van Horn writes a monthly nutrition column published in Outside Run Magazine and has written for FasterSkier and Gnarly Sports Nutrition. She is quoted frequently in articles for Outside Magazine and speaks regularly to athletes and professionals on topics related to endurance sports nutrition for running, skiing, climbing, triathlon, obstacle course racing, and mountaineering.

She is the cohost of the podcast Your Diet Sucks, which seeks to provide thoughtful conversations—backed by science—around controversial topics in the diet and fitness space.

She has also been featured on numerous podcasts, including The Running Explained Podcast, The Strength Running Podcast, Consummate Athlete, Bodies in Motion, and Off the Couch.

You can find Kylee's podcast here: https://www.yourdietsuckspodcast.com/

If you're interested in getting a copy of the book for yourself, it is available here: https://a.co/d/itxkuSZ

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For today's episode we got to read another fictional running story. These are rare but we've enjoyed every single one we read so far and this one was no exception.

Toeing the start line of the 1983 Boston Marathon, Cooper McKenzie (the main character) finds himself in a race to make meaning of his troubled, unimpressive life. Cooper McKenzie is contending with the stark realities of middle age—he is fully disenchanted with his career, he is struggling to meet the financial needs of his young family, and he has accumulated an unbearable number of “what ifs” and regrets. Staring down a serious medical diagnosis, Cooper takes inventory of the pivotal moments of his life—things left unfinished, unfortunate outcomes, and a negative sense of self. He resolves to rewrite his script of failure even as his own body is failing him. A story of resilience builds as Cooper makes his way to the start of the Boston Marathon to run a distance he has never attempted, let alone completed. His reasons for risking it all to finish are painfully clear, but with such high stakes, finishing could mean the end. The Road to Redemption captures a personal journey that is altogether universal. We must traverse our lived experience, particularly those moments of vulnerability and shame, to reach the end goal of knowing the truth of what we can do and who we are.

In this episode we had two guests... Tom's son, Matt Fitzgerald (yes, the same Matt Fitzgerald who has written more than 30 books about endurance), was there to help with questions if needed and Tom's other son, Sean, was in the background to help set up the technology. I guess we had 3 guests?

Tom Fitzgerald doesn't always write about running but has his own impressive resume. He has authored a wide-ranging collection of impactful books, including the bestselling novel Chocolate Charlie, the popular fitness title Get Tough!, and the critically acclaimed Poor Richard's Lament. Raised in Upstate New York on the St. Lawrence River, Fitzgerald completed a series of solo open-water swims in his late teens and early 20s before joining the United States Navy and serving in Vietnam as a member of the Special Forces. He later ran the Boston Marathon three times. Fitzgerald began working on Road to Redemption (originally titled A Private Agony) in 1982, completing the novel after a lengthy hiatus at the urging of the second of his three sons, Matt Fitzgerald, himself the author of many books on running.

If you'd like to learn more about the author, his website is: https://www.kingsleybooks.info/

If you'd like to see some of the other titles published by 8020 Publishing then you can find this book and others in their catalog here: https://8020books.com/catalog/

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