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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

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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.yourdietsucks

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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 publis

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Here we are again with another recap episode. Alan and Liz chat about their last ten reads and we've also linked the full episode for each book in case you want to hear more!

If you're behind in your listening then this episode is for you. You can get a feel for each of the last 10 books, before going back to the episodes in order of which books you're most interested in.

Unbound, by Bill Donahue 

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/16892720

Run Less Run Faster, by Bill Pierce and Scott Mur

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17210285

What If?, by Ashley Varley

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17210375

Believe Training Journal, by Lauren Fleshman and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17284114

Chasing Mastery, by Matt Fitzgerald

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17343771

Mud, Sweat and Bears, by Harriet Gaywood

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17397837

Feet In The Clouds, by Richard Askwith

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17528270

How To Run, by Scott F. Parker

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17621086

Marathon Mindset, by Erica Rasmussen

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17676440

Stroke of Luck, by Steven Kelly

Full episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/976876/episodes/17925455

You probably noticed we talked about a book Liz is reading that was not reviewed yet called The Running Shaped Hole. If you’re interested in learning more about that then you can find it on the publisher’s website here: https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459749054-the-running-shaped-hole

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Recently, a trend has captured public attention: female athletes have been beating the strongest male contenders, in the toughest races in the world, races designed for men. In Ultra Women, the authors (who are themselves endurance athletes) delve into the surprising science of sporting performance to explore the physiological and psychological differences between the sexes. They ask: could fat stores and muscle type (and capacity for not sleeping) really give women an edge over men in ultra long distances? And what roles are played by pace, preparation, and motherhood? Speaking to elite athletes, historians and scientists, the book unearths the largely unknown past of female endurance, from hunter- gathering to the early 20th Century discipline of pedestrianism and we get to meet some amazing women who have done amazing things.

These bios are not going to do justice to these two women because they do a lot more than we could cover in the number of characters allowed in this description, but here it goes! 

Lily Canter is a freelance running, fitness and  adventure travel journalist writing for Runner’s  World, Live for the Outdoors, Women’s Health,  The Guardian and Metro. She is an England  Athletics running coach and founder of  women’s only club Great Bowden Runners. She  competes in ultra marathons and canicrosses  with her dog. Instagram: @lilycanter 

Emma Wilkinson is an award-winning  freelance journalist specialising in medicine,  science and health. She has written for the  Sunday Times, BBC, Pulse, the BMJ and Lancet  among others. Emma lives in Sheffield and runs  up hills for fun. Instagram: @emmawjourno 

If you're interested in getting a copy of this book for yourself then you can find it on Amazon or directly on the publishers website here: https://www.canburypress.com/products/presale-ultra-women-by-lily-canter-and-emma-wilkinson-isbn-9781914487101?srsltid=AfmBOopm-PGhLV9ZE2vjNfl-wobGtYreNsxyJ2F_VNPUtgLWH1VGzlsy

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