Thursday, April 17, 2008

Favorite running books

One of the books I turned to in resuming running was my tattered copy of Jeff Galloway's Book on Running. Galloway has been a significant influence on my running - I've always liked his emphasis on proper rest, as opposed to pounding the roads every day of the week. As I was starting over from scratch, I felt this formula would work for me. There are many running books out there, but a lot of them either do not cover, or gloss over, an important part - the beginning.

I also acquired a copy of Galloway's Half-Marathon: You Can Do It. I was going to need to rely on walk breaks as I built up my endurance, and this book is a good source for planning. One of my goals I set for myself was to run a half-marathon in 2008. As I increased my running in the fall of '07 (slowly, gradually), I came across Dean Karnazes' Ultra-Marathon Man. That was very inspiring reading for me, but more on that another time.

If you have any suggestions for practical or inspirational running reading, let me know.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I found your blog through the Complete Running Network. Hope you don't mind! I just started running again and have been wanting to read a book on the subject. I think I remember skimming through the Galloway a while back, but I'll have to take another look at it. Happy running!

Jeff said...

Welcome, Beth! Starting is hard, no doubt about it. You know what they say, "the hardest step is the first one out the door." For me just getting back in the habit was critical. My fitness level was such that I had to walk, and then run/walk, before I could run any length of time. I find trail running - I do biweekly long runs on trails - gives me some welcome variety from my neighborhood roads, and saves my legs. Keeping a running journal has helped track my progress and kept me motivated too.