Recommended Books

The following are some of the books that I have most enjoyed reading, or have found most useful:

  • A Scientific Approach to Distance Running (David L. Costill)  One of the definitive science-based books on running training.
  • Dick Callan: A Runners Tale (Dick Callan) – A very personal and illuminating auto-biography from one of Leicestershire’s greatest athletes.
  • Healthy Intelligent Training (Keith Livingstone) – The Lydiard training approach, up-dated for the 21st century.
  • More Fire: How to Run the Kenyan Way (Toby Tanser) – Read this for an in-depth understanding of how and why Kenyan runners dominate the world of distance running.
  • Pre! (Tom Jordan) – The definite biography of the legend that was (and still is) Steve Prefontaine.
  • Run Faster: From the 5K to the Marathon” (Brad Hudson) – An excellent guide to the modern training theory of ‘adaptive’ training.
  • Running A to Z: An Encyclopedia for the Thoughtful Runner (Joe Henderson) – An absolute gem packed with wisdom an insight.
  • Running with the Buffaloes (Chris Lear) – An insight into the world of US Collegiate XC running, and the famed University of Colorado team led by their charismatic coach, Mark Wetmore.
  • Running with the Legends: Training and Racing Insights from 21 Great Runners (Michael Sandrock) – An in-depth and comprehensive collection of short biographies.
  • The Golden Milers (Norman Giller) – Profiles of world mile record holders from Roger Bannister (1954) to Sebastian Coe & Steve Ovett (1981).
  • The IAAF Symposium on Middle and Long Distance Events (IAAF, 1983) – Covers the training programmes of Coe, Ovett, & David Moorcroft, plus the Italian and Russian training systems of the early 1980s.
  • Training Distance Runners (Martin & Coe) – A highly detailed and authoritative guide to developing world-class middle and long distance runners.

Further recommended books will be added in due course.

At present I am reading Run or Die (Kilian Jornet): an autobiography by the extraordinary adventure runner (Jornet) described by the New York Times as ‘The most dominating endurance athlete of his generation’.