Book Review: Run Less, Run Faster

Run Less, Run Faster by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss

The Run Less, Run Faster concept burst onto the running scene (well, "burst" might be a bit of an overstatement, but whaevs) through an article in Runner's World describing Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss's FIRST (Furman (University) Institute of Running and Science Technology... acronyms are fun!) training program, which promised to improve your race times dramatically with only 3 days of running per week. The Run Faster book expanded on the article, and argued that you could get faster with a smaller time commitment. I have been using this program as I train for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon this January, and as I'll explain below, the authors are half right: you certain can (and will) get faster following this program, but there really isn't less of a time commitment to do it.

Book Review: Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide

Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon

Marathon (as you have probably guessed) is another book on training for a marathon. As with Marathoning for Mortals, much of the focus of this book is on helping beginners or runner who are inexperienced at long distances tackle the task of training for the 26.2 miles of a marathon. Marathon is a very comprehensive book that not only gives you a great foundation to start your training, but also gives you a ton of other information that you may not have considered or even thought about.

The author, Hal Higdon, was a competitive runner in the 1960s and 1970s (he is still an active runner, but since he is in his 70s he isn't necessarily competitive anymore), when he achieved marathon times in the 2 hour, 20 minute range (phenomenally fast), including finishing as high as fifth (first American) at the Boston Marathon in 1964. He has been a longstanding contributing writer for Runner's World magazine, and has written over 30 books, mostly on running.

The biggest strength of Marathon is the breadth of topics that are covered. For example, there are chapters on beginning runners, "Your First Marathon," how to build up mileage, endurance training, speed training geared toward marathon running (although Higdon recommends you not worry about speed training for your first marathon), injuries, and even a whole chapter on "mind games" to help you get through the mental challenge associated with running for 3 plus hours (if you're really good) or 4 plus hours (if you are a normal, average jogger). I thought that two chapters in particular were very helpful, mostly because I had never really thought about them before. The first was "The Distance Runner's Diet," which helps you try to get your nutrition in good form to help you run 26.2 miles (I'll admit that I haven't really put this into practice myself, but I hope to). The "Diet" chapter also referred me to Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, which I hope to read soon and which looks like a fabulous book to help learn how to eat properly, not just for sports, but for life. The second chapter that I found really helpful was "Predicting Pace and Performance." This chapter talked about the ways you can predict what your race pace should/might be, and how to use that information to determine what your pace should be during some of your workouts. Higdon listed several methods, the most useful being McMillan Running Calculator, a truly fabulous tool for calculating paces and planning workouts. (By the way, Greg McMillan's website also has a great article on some of the physiological reasoning behind different training methods that really helped me understand the importance of long easy runs, shorter and faster tempo/threshold runs, and speedwork, even for long distance training).

Finally, Marathon also points you to Hal Higdon's personal website, halhigdon.com where he has includes tons more information on more specific training details and a link to a very good forum that he checks and posts on quite frequently where you can get more specific questions answered. Higdon's website alone is worth the price of admission for the Marathon book.

Like Marathoning for Mortals, Marathon doesn't go into incredible detail on how to do the actual training, day to day (although it is more detailed than Mortals), but there are other great books and websites for that. What Marathon does do very well is cover just about every topic that is related to running a marathon, and Higdon does a great job of pointing to other sources of information where you can learn more (the McMillan Calculator and Sports Nutrition Guidebook being two examples that I have already mentioned). Overall, Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide pretty much lives up to its name. It can, and should, be one of the first places you turn to get a question about this difficult race answered

Book Review: Marathoning for Mortals

Marathoning for Mortals: A Regular Person's Guide to the Joy of Running or Walking a Half-Marathon or Marathon by John "The Penguin" Binghan & Jenny Hadfield


Marathoning for Mortals is the first book on running that I ever read, and although most of the text on running is fairly cursory (I found the chapters on the "Anatomy of a Long-Distance Training Program" to actually be quite sparse on details), the book does a great job of describing the emotional aspects of running these long distance races. And, as the title implies, the book is written for normal, average people out there who are wondering "Can I do it?" The book is emphatic in its answer... "Yes, you can!"

The primary author, John "The Penguin" Bingham (so named, apparently, because of his awkward running style), came to running later in life (I believe he said he didn't start running until his mid-40s), but has since run over 30 marathons. The other author, Jenny Hadfield, has degrees in exercise physiology and is a certified personal trainer. Along with writing about running online at a lot of places, Ms. Hadfield also is active in Team in Training (TNT) (or was at the time Marathoning was written), a group that helps people train for marathons and other long distance races while also raising a ton of money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She handles a lot of the discussion on the science of running (although there isn't much discussion in this area).

What really makes Marathoning for Mortals a great book for the normal, average person is that it is written understanding that you may be coming to your marathon training at many different fitness levels. The book cautions against doing too much too fast, and it devotes quite a bit of discussion to walking all or part of these long distance races. The training plans listed at the back of the book include a separate plan for those wishing to Walk, Walk/Run (walking with some running), Run/Walk (running with some walking) or Run a half marathon and a full marathon. That's 8 plans that can fit just about any fitness level from couch potato to moderately serious runner (more serious runners should look to other books and plans for their training schedules... but that is not surprising since this book is called Marathoning for Mortals).

Scattered throughout the book are short quotes from other "mortals" who were able to finish the training and finish the marathon. It is these quotes that really make the book, because it is these real stories that help you understand that you can do it. Another inspiring portion of the book is the chapter entitled "It's All About the Medal," which describes the feeling of crossing the finish line for your first marathon. One story of The Penguin's was particularly inspirational to me as I was reading Marathoning in the middle of my unemployment-induced funk. The story described his witnessing of one young man's crossing of the finish line:

He was in his mid-twenties. There wasn't anything all that unusual about him. He was, or so it seemed, just one of hundreds of young men out there in Austin, Texas, on that February morning. he wasn't fast, he wasn't gifted, and he wasn't special in any other way. Yet that young man has become a memory seared into my brain.

As he crossed the finish line, he began to cry--not just the "filled with emotions from finishing" kind of crying, but a gut wrenching, blood-curdling wail that was coming from some part of him that had been liberated by the distance and the effort and the step across the finish line.

It was the "liberated by the distance" part that really hit home with me, and it is one of the reasons I want to run a marathon.

All in all, Marathoning for Mortals may not be the best book on marathon training out there, but it is a great start for the average Joe or Jane who wants to tackle the challenge of a marathon. If this describes you, I would recommend it.