Running Book Reviews with Alan and Liz

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Ultrarunner Jen Scotney has achieved podium finishes in some of the UK’s toughest races and now has her sights firmly set on the Pennine Way. In Running Through the Dark, Jen talks about her ambitions, not just to run the 268-mile Pennine Way but to take the record as the fastest woman to do so. But that didn’t happen. Nothing went according to plan. The Jen the world knew was a successful lawyer and running coach – all photoshoots and finish-line smiles – but the truth was much darker. The real Jen Scotney, the one she hid from everybody, suffered with chronic fatigue, debilitating injuries, tragedy, grief and at times had a will so beaten down by setbacks that there just didn’t seem any point in going on.

Here is a little bit about Jen. Jen Scotney boasts an impressive record as an ultrarunner with podium finishes in the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South and the 190-mile Northern Traverse. She is host of the Resilience Rising Podcast, a running coach, writer, Mountain Leader and yoga teacher, which have followed her career as a human rights lawyer. She has appeared in magazine features for Runner’s World, Trail Running and Women’s Running. She has been a guest host on the Wild Ginger Running YouTube channel, and a guest on the Tough Girl Podcast. She crewed for John Kelly’s successful Pennine Way fastest known time as well as for his Wainwrights Round in the Lake District. She grew up in the Peak District and now lives in the Scottish mountains with her husband Marcus and Sherlock the beagle. Running Through The Dark is her first book.

If you would like to get a copy of the book, you can find it on the publisher's website here: https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/running-through-the-dark-jen-scotney

If you would like to know more about Jen, you can find her at: www.jenscotney.com or on Instagram as @jenscotney

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Running From Tragedy is Michael Salsbury’s family story and how running, in the end, helped lessen the burden of three life changing events. Michael met the love of his life when he decided to take a break from his career in the financial industry to work at Club Med for a few months. Little did they know that they were both carriers of an ultra-rare genetic mutation that ended up taking the lives of three children before they were old enough to eat solid food.

Michael was born and raised in Colorado and has been a runner since the late 70’s. Having never left the state of Colorado until adulthood, he has since had a wedding in Austria, lived and worked in the US, Austria and Switzerland, and finally settled (at least for now) in Santa Barbara California. He has had a successful career including an executive position at Merrill Lynch International, a wealth management company, and opened a new bank named American Riviera Bank in Santa Barbara.

You can find a copy of the book here: https://a.co/d/gpiV53f

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Good For A Girl by Lauren Fleshman is the story of Lauren's life and experience in professional running. Running seemed straight forward when she was growing up, you work hard and you get the reward, but women don't have the same performance trajectory as men when going through puberty. Women often plateau as they get used to their "new body" after puberty, but this comes at an inconvenient time in college when coaches are picking top performers for scholarships and want their team to win in the NCAA system. Lauren's story is about navigating her time in the NCAA, what she saw during her time competing at the college level and beyond (including competitors who would disappear from the running scene following struggles with eating disorders) and why it's important to change things for future girls and women.

Who is Lauren Fleshman? In case you haven't heard of her, Lauren is an award winning author and one of the most decorated American distance runners of all time, having won five NCAA championships at Stanford and two national championships as a professional. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Time and Runner’s World. Her debut book was an instant New York Times Bestseller, and won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. She is the brand strategy advisor for Oiselle, a fitness apparel company for women, and the co-founder of Picky Bars, a natural food company. She lives in Bend, OR.

If you're looking for a copy, you can find it on Lauren't website (where she also offers signed copies!): https://www.laurenfleshman.com/

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Running Challenges, by Keri Wallace, is like a tour guide for Trail running in the UK. It features 100 of the best trail, fell and mountain runs in England, Scotland and Wales, and those three countries make up the three sections of the book. There is something for everyone with the shortest challenges being 5k parkruns and the longest ones going over 100k. 

Keri Wallace is a mountain runner, running guide for Girls on Hills (which she also founded), rock climber and freelance writer. She is Summer Mountain Leader (SML), Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI) qualified, and mother. In 2018 Keri represented the UK Skyrunning Team and came 12th in the GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run. Other top finishes include 1st V40 in the Skyline Scotland Glen Coe Skyline, 5th female in the Ben Nevis Ultra, 3rd female in the 2019 Pinnacle Extreme, 7th female in the Cheviot Goat Ultra 2022, 3rd female in the Pilgrim's Ultra in 2023 and 5th female at the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa (UTMR) 2023. She also finished 3rd female in the UK & Ireland Skyrunning Series that same year. Keri holds the female FKT for the Winter Tranter's Round, Glencoe Round, the OKT (if you don't know what this is then you'll just need to listen to the episode!) for the Glencoe Corbetts Round and completed the first Glencoe Classic Rock Round in under 24h with her partner Ben.

If you'd like to get a copy of the book for yourself, you can find it here: https://www.adventurebooks.com/products/running-challenges?srsltid=AfmBOooVcmE4oyoZuYxUdB38Qnre-TZni6tgCQwTp1DuFzWoKTl15V4I

If you'd like to follow Keri, you can find her at the Girls On Hills website:
https://www.girlsonhills.com/meet-the-team

And also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlsonhillsuk/

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Trails and Tribulations is Susie Chan's memoire. She tells us a little about her life before running, including some pretty big life events, how she started running, and some of her very very long runs. A few of the races that Susie did and talks about include: 

• Marathon de Sables (which she ran more than once!): A self-supported, multi-day, stage race through the dessert. 
• The Jungle Ultra: Another self-supported, multi-day, stage race… this time through the jungle. 
• A 24-hour track race. 
• The Badwater 135: 135 miles through the hottest place on earth.
• and a few others.

Susie Chan is an acclaimed endurance runner known for her incredible achievements in some of the world's most challenging ultra marathons. Susie has completed the Marathon des Sables more times than any other UK woman and was the first European woman to conquer the Badwater Ultra Cup, which includes the infamous Badwater 135. In 2016, she broke the world record for the furthest distance run on a treadmill in 12 hours. Susie inspires audiences worldwide with her motivational speeches. She also motivates athletes as a Peloton tread instructor. 

If you're interested in getting a copy of this book, you can find it online here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/trails-and-tribulations-9781399408776/

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How To Run The Perfect Race is a book all about pacing. The book is divided into two sections:

Section 1: All about how to master pacing

Section 2: RPE based training plans for your next 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon.

Pacing isn’t about having an even pace on your Garmin. It’s about having an even effort which takes into account things like terrain and weather conditions on race day. Pacing may sound easy but most of us aren’t very good at it (and definitely not as good as the pro’s); in fact, Matt gives some examples in the book of professional athletes who can run a pace perfectly without their GPS watch… they just know how it feels. 

Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports coach, nutritionist, author, and co-founder of 80/20 Endurance. His many books include The Endurance Diet, 80/20 Running, and How Bad Do You Want It? Matt’s writing also appears regularly in magazines and on websites such as Women’s Running and outsideonline.com. His online training plans have helped thousands of athletes of all experience and ability levels achieve their goals. Certified by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Matt has consulted for numerous sports nutrition companies and he is the creator of the Diet Quality Score (DQS) smartphone app. A lifelong athlete, he speaks frequently at events throughout the United States and internationally… and has been on many podcasts to share his knowledge as well. 

If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book, you can find it here (with links to popular outlets like Amazon):  https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/How-to-Run-the-Perfect-Race/Matt-Fitzgerald/9798989256945

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In this episode of Running Book Reviews, we had the pleasure of chatting with Tim Rossi, founder of The Lost Boys running club in New York, about a book he helped bring to life in collaboration with Ciele and Maurten. We talk about the book, the Lost Boys Club, and how long it took to finish the book. Despite there not being a lot of writing in the book, the time it took to put together was just as long (if not longer) than most traditional books and Tim explains why.

LOST: The Work That Goes Unseen is not your typical running book. This is a photobook style book meant for your coffee table as a conversation starter. The paper is thick and glossy and photos are most of the contents of the book with short stories about 10 athletes who are part of the Lost Boys Club. The common theme that seems to bring all the featured athletes together is that they don’t feel they fit into the culture of more competitive teams… even though many of them are fast runners.

Tim was born and raised in New York. He played all kinds of sports but wasn’t good enough to be in division I so ended up joining the running team to stay in shape. He ended up loving how you get out of the sport what you put in. He started The Lost Boys running club as a way to keep people running after they developed a negative relationship with the competitive side of the sport. Currently chasing a sub-2:30 marathon. Tim hopes to keep people believing that their goal is “worth it”.

If you’re interested in a copy of this book then you can find it here: https://ca.cieleathletics.com/fr/products/lost-the-work-that-goes-unseen

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If you're thinking that you've heard us talk about Running Rewired, it's because we read the original version which came out in 2017 and it was featured in one of the first episodes we did in 2020. Well the second edition is out now and we had the pleasure of speaking with authir Jay Dicharry in this episode!

Running Rewired is about strength training specifically for runners. The first 4 chapters are dedicated to the rationale. They talk about “broken wiring”, “mobility and stability for runability”, and about how each of us has a slightly different structure so although there is an advantage to correcting your form, the goal isn’t to look a certain way but rather to allow your body to move the way it was designed. Chapter 5 through 10 is about precision and performance. It is filled with tests that you can do on yourself, followed by exercises to correct your limitations. In chapter 11, we get a strength program with Drill work, prehab workouts, precision workouts, performance strength workouts, and performance power workouts. This 2024 version has a few additions that the 2017 version didn’t have, and also modified some of the programs.

Jay Dicharry is a physical therapist and board-certified Sports Clinical Specialist known for his expertise in diagnosing and rebuilding injured endurance athletes across the globe. His unique approach works outside of the traditional model of therapy to correct imbalances before they affect performance and crack the code on athlete performance. Jay is a regular contributor to numerous magazines and professional journals. He was featured in The New York Times, WIRED, ESPN, Outside, The Atlantic, Runner’s World, Competitor, Running Times, Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Shape, Military Times, Reader’s Digest. He has also been on over 100 podcasts. Jay has founded MOBO (and maybe we’ll learn more about that), and is a USATF and USA Cycling certified coach. He has coached many professional and amateur athletes, including over 50 Olympians. He was himself an outstanding athlete, competing nationally in swimming, triathlon, cycling and running.

If you'd like to get a copy of the book, it can be found on Amazon or the publisher's website here: https://ulyssespress.com/books/running-rewired/

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So we know it's a bonus episode and not our usual book dedicated episode, but we need more time to line up our guests and didn't want to leave our listeners without anything to listen to. We hope that we can earn your forgiveness with some of the episodes that are coming in the future.

In this bonus episode we talk about our plan for marathon training which we'll be starting on the day this episode drops, July 15th, 2024… but before we get to that, there is some chat that got a little off topic… To get started, we reflect on what has worked and not worked in the past; of course a lot of this talk is about the Advanced Marathon 2nd edition training plans since those are the ones we've been using. Then we get into what plan we're following this time, why we chose it, why we still don't have a coach, and what tune up races we'll do.

We also get into out fuelling strategy for the marathon (spoiler alert, the same one as previous marathon attempts), if we'll continue strength training, and how Liz plans to also follow a plan to get enough calories for all that training! We don't think we missed anything, but if we did then please reach out to let us know.

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Join us for this wonderful conversation with Jen and Sim about all things running! Their fantastic book, Smart Running,  is packed with useful information about a diverse range of topics and we only covered a few of them in our chat. The 19 chapters of this book are divided into 6 parts:

1. Our bodies and Systems
2. Becoming a resilient running
3. Mental skills for runners
4. Races, challenges and adventures
5. Practicalities
6. Training plans and workouts

Here is a little bit about Jen and Sim:

Jen is a runner, writer, mum and UESCA-certified running coach. She has a master’s degree in sport and exercise medicine, specialising in distance running. Her PhD research explores the psychology and philosophy that underpins running performance. She’s also a trained Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) teacher. She’s completed over 50 marathons and ultras, including 2 podium finishes at ultras in 2023 and a finish at the 2024 Arc of Attrition 100-miler. She’s a fan of good books and great coffee.

Sim is a runner, writer, photographer and dad. He’s a qualified England Athletics Running Coach with a background in orienteering, climbing and mountaineering. He’s explored the Alps, Iceland and the Himalayas both with the British Exploring Society and on self-guided adventures, and completed marathons, ultras, iron-distance triathlons and adventure races. Recent successes include finishing the North Coast 110-mile ultramarathon and a win and new course record at the 2023 Limitless Trails Tinsel 12.

You can find out more about them on their website (and find this book along with all the other books they've written): https://jenandsimbenson.co.uk

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