I am reading The Art of Running Faster for about the millionth time - I think it's my favourite handbook on running. What's yours?
I am reading The Art of Running Faster for about the millionth time - I think it's my favourite handbook on running. What's yours?
Trying to plod up hills every day slightly faster than the day before
Feet in the Clouds is a classic and probably my favourite book of all time. Has its critics but it’s brilliantly written.
However I also love the Running Hard book about Kenny Stuart and John Wild... find it so interesting reading about their training schedules, efforts in the cross-country etc... just appeals to me far more than books in the style of Running The Red Line and the Boff Whalley book (absolutely no disrespect intended).
The hardback Joss book is also very interesting, and a beautiful book...
As for handbooks/guides to running... the Welsh 3000ers and other Challenges (perhaps not quite got the title 100% correct) by Ronald Turnbull and someone else, is very good.
Just ordered The Art of Running Faster - thanks for the recommendation TurboTom
I don't have a favourite book on running, I am not even sure I have ever read a single book on running
Also thanks for your suggestions Travs, I will get to them in due course!!
I've read that one and found it quite useful. Fittingly I won it for finishing second in a race. I liked the bit about tempo being controlled by your arms - this really helps me when I'm doing flat sections.Originally Posted by TurboTom
However, although I spent some time trying to master how to do breathing one breath every three steps (as he advocates in the book), this never worked for me. It just made me run more slowly until I reverted back to one every two steps. Anyone else tried this?
I learned pacing and breathing like this at high altitude, at a drastically slower pace! So now I always do timed breathing, depending on level of exertion I can do 4, 3 or 2.. and sometimes puff away at 1 per step - not often though!
If you keep practicing you will eventually get used to it, same with breathing though your nose; effectively you are training yourself to function on less oxygen and your body will probably adjust. Everyone is different, there's no rules?
As a weird aside, I have done a mixed breathing style too, 2 in, 3 out; I find that it helps sometimes. Even weirder is holding the breath in for 1 second, so in 2, hold 1, out 3.
The Modern Antiquarian - Julian Cope, everything I hoped it would be when I bought it
Interesting. One breath to four or two steps works best for me - I have tried one to three but it reverts to two/four as soon as I stop thinking about it. I read somewhere that one to three spreads the load more evenly and so reduces the injury risk but I am not aware of any evidence for this. I think we should just let our breathing do what it wants to do - after all it controls us, not the other way around.
Julian Cope is a genius. I’ve only ever skimmed through the MA but I’ve seen him play and he was fantastic
The modern antiquarian is a must for those of us who like nothing more than tramping around a desolate moor trying to find some ancient monument. It used to live in the van but had started to fall apart. A common problem with the binding apparently which is sort of inkeeping with the author. It has now been replaced with the OS map of ancient Britain.
Julian Cope's autobiographies 'head on' and 'reposessed' are also a fantastic read documenting the rise and fall of the teardrop explodes and the excesses of his early solo career. Amazing stuff.
Oh yes!! Good call!!
Modern Antiquarian and Megalithic European are in pride of place on my bookshelves too
It's a long term thing and I am making no particular effort to do this, but I would like to visit all these places one day.
Another book that probably has equal status for me is Roger Phillips - Mushrooms which always gets a bit more attention from me at this time of year.
The Art of Running Faster turned up and I am enjoying it so far, much more readable than I thought it would be.
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