There are some 500,000 marathon runners across the U.S., and when they stop and cool their heels for a bit, they’ll find plenty of new titles that showcase different sides of the sport. Books that offer training advice jockey for position with meditations on running by athletes at various levels, among them an NPR host who never expected to pound the pavement and now sees running, as many do, as an integral part of life.
Train
80/20 Triathlon
Matt Fitzgerald and David Warden. Da Capo Lifelong, Sept.
Most recreational triathletes train too hard, according to endurance coaches Fitzgerald and Warden. Their solution: 80% of training should be low intensity, and 20% should be moderate-to-high intensity, a balance that they say yields reduced fatigue, improved fitness, increased motivation, and better race results. The authors offer training plans for various race formats: sprint, Olympic, half-Ironman, and Ironman.
Running Past Fifty
Gail Waesche Kislevitz. Skyhorse, Oct.
Kislevitz, who was a longtime Runner’s World columnist, spoke with more than two dozen runners aged 50 and older for advice on keeping the momentum going. The book includes interviews with amateur runners as well as champions such as Ed Whitlock, who at age 85 became the oldest person to run a marathon in under four hours.
Sky Runner
Emelie Forsberg. Blue Star, Aug.
Four-time Skyrunner World Series champ Forsberg writes of her passion for the extreme sport, which involves running at high altitudes over difficult terrain. She shares training drills, and advice on recovering from injury and staying motivated, alongside photos
by her partner, Kilian Jornet, who also participates in the sport,
Strong
Kara Goucher. Blue Star, Aug.
Veteran distance runner Goucher competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics; in between, she wrote Running for Women (Touchstone, 2011). In her new book, she shares daily training techniques and also offers a look at her confidence journal, a tool recommended by her sports psychologist to tame self-doubt and boost performance.
Eat
Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow.
Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky. Rodale, Aug.
In 2017, four-time Olympian Flanagan became the first U.S. woman to win the New York City Marathon in 40 years. She’s since slowed down long enough to work with Kopecky, a chef, on their follow up to Run Fast. Eat Slow., which has sold 96,000 copies in hardcover since its 2016 publication. Recipes in their new book are organized by time of day, from pre-run morning snacks to 30-minutes-or-less dinners.
The Runner’s World Vegetarian Cookbook
Heather Mayer Irvine. Rodale, Oct.
Irvine, the food and nutrition editor at Runner’s World, is not a vegetarian, but her book aims to show runners that, no matter their food preferences, they can incorporate more plants into their diets. The 150 meatless recipes include heirloom tomato gazpacho and a butternut squash quinoa bowl.
Reflect
The Incomplete Book of Running
Peter Sagal. Simon & Schuster, Nov.
On the cusp of turning 40, Sagal, the host of NPR’s Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!, took up running seriously, and in the decade-plus since, he’s run 14 marathons. His book charts his physical and emotional experiences, including those of running the 2013 Boston Marathon—and crossing the finish line just before the bombings—and running the same race the following year.
Reborn on the Run
Catra Corbett, with Dan England. Skyhorse, May
In the early 1990s, Corbett, a meth addict, got busted for selling drugs, spent a night in jail, and decided to turn her life around. Her book maps her literal road to recovery: a friend pushed her to train for a 10K with him, and she’s since become the first American woman to run at least 100 miles on more than 100 occasions, and the first to run 212 miles in the Ozone Wilderness.
