The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

I just got finished reading The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, it was a great book. It talked about how we as humans acquire skills, talent and ability. It broke down how experts have acquired the skills that they have to a basic neurological level and practical level. The main theme of the book is that you are born with talent but great talent is achieve through practice and dedicated effort.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone especially aspiring athletes and coaches. Evan sports like running it reinforces the concept that you need to put in the dedicated time and effort into something to be succeed at it.

Born to Run

I just got done reading a fascinating book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It is a book that describes an amazing adventure that stemmed from one question, "Why does my foot hurt?"  The author has had consistent running related injuries from only light running and is told by doctors that running is the cause of his injuries.  

He sets out to find whether or not humans were really made to run or not.  Along the why he encounters some of the top ultra runners in the sport today, including Scott Jurek, and the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico.  The Tarahumara are an tribe of people know for the peaceful but harsh existence in the Copper Canyons of Mexico and for their ability to run long distances at great speed.  

The author tells of a great race pitting some of today modern ultra runners against the top runners of the Tarahumara tribe.  A race that allow us really pit modern science against the warriors of the past.  McDougall as make a pretty strong case that humans were made to run and the "problem" is our shoes not our inability as a species.  It is somewhere in between an adventure tail, documentary, science experiment and spiritual realization.  He make a lot of strong points for ditching those over engineered and over priced running shoes.  

I strongly recommend this book for any runner, but the book also does a great job at captivating you with a great story while getting the authors point across.  

What I Think About When I Think About Running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami is a pretty good book that I just read and it definitely a memoir style of book and really give a lot of insight into the authors thoughts and feels about running, which many runners can relate to.  This was not an outstanding book, but was a good read, it is not the highly inspirational book like others that I have read, but really talks about issues and experiences that more average runners experience.

Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes 2nd Ed. by Monique Ryan

I just finished reading this book by Monique Ryan.  I thought that it was a really informative book that provides a lot of details for all sorts of endurance athletes.  It is more of a textbook than a novel, so I it is not the most entertaining book but again it provides a lot of good information examples and tables to suggestions.  

The book again is specific and gets down to the some of the science of nutrition and how it effects the body.  I recommend this book for serious athletes and recreational athletes that simply want to know more about the nutritional side of training and working out.  Nutrition is one area that most athletes do not pay enough attention to and can greatly improve your performance.  

I have been starting to educate myself a lot more and focusing on not only training hard but getting the right nutrients to fuel your body.

  

Books

This is not directly related to running per say, but I just got done reading the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.  I thought is was just a great book and I hope to try and implement the techniques that Covey discusses.  

It is not only methods to becoming an effective person but it talks about a better way to view life and others around you so that you can be a better person and well I guess more effective for the better.  

How this relates to running is that too many people do not reach their potential or goals because of a lack of time and effort to get their workouts in.  This book helps you to implement techniques in your life to better balance your priorities which hopefully will allow you to reach your goals running or otherwise.

Definitely check it out its in your local library or buy the audio book and listen to it while running; can't get anything better than that.

Ultra Marathon Man

I first heard about Dean Karnazes while reading though a Runner's World magazine, they were doing a story about his latest accomplishment of running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states.  The article was interesting, but it wasn't until a family vacation last summer when I was talking to one of my cousins about Dean's book Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, that I really got interested.

My cousin was telling me about the book and some of Dean's accomplishments and how inspiring he thought the book was.  Well about a month after that vacation I was looking through for an audio book to download, I like to listen to them during my commute to work and back, I came across Dean's book.  I listened to the first four chapters and got motivated and went out for a run.  I had only run about 3 times in the past month and a half, but I was in somewhat good shape from a previous marathon that I ran in June.  This was around the middle of Sept.  

I guess the runner's high and the inspiration from the book really hit me and I ended up going for 23.5 miles.  I had to walk most of the last 5 mile, they were quite painful actually. But it was an amazing experience to be able to get a little glimpse of being able to push your body to do something you did not think you would be able to do.  Which is the theme of Dean's book, being able to achieve what is thought to be impossible and taking advantage of every second of life.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone, runner or not.  Dean has just published another book about his experience running the 50 marathons, I'll have to post an entry about that one later, it was good but not nearly as good and this book.  

Some of Dean's next goals are to run 300 miles non-stop and run from L.A. to Hawaii in what looks to be a big inflatable hamster ball.  Go read the book and be inspired to do what you though you couldn't.   

50/50 Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 Days-and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance by Dean Karnazes

50/50 is Dean Karnazes new book.  I'll have to say that it was not nearly as good as his first book Ultramarathon Man, but it was still a good read, especially for active runners.  This book is more of a runner's guide as opposed to his first book which I thought was more of a inspirational narrative of his life.  He goes through each marathon that he runs and provides a lot of good tips and advice from his experiences.  Great tips for runners of all levels.  I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about running.      

Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

I first heard about Dean Karnazes while reading through a Runner's World magazine, they were doing a story about his latest accomplishment of running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states.  The article was interesting, but it wasn't until a family vacation this past summer when I was talking to one of my cousins about Dean's book Ultra Marathon Man, that I really got interested.  

He was telling me about the book and some of Dean's accomplishments and how motivating he thought the book was.  About a month after the vacation I was looking for an audio book to download, I like to listen to them during my commute to work, I came across Dean's book.  I listen to the first 4 chapters and got motivated and went out for a run.  I had only ran about 3 times in the past 2 months but was still in fairly good shape from running a previous marathon in June.  

I guess the runner's high and the inspiration from the book really motivated me and I ended up going for 23.5 miles.  I had to walk most of the last 5 miles, they were quite painful, but it was quite the experience and it gave me a glimpse into what it is to push your body to do something you did not think you'd be able to do, which is the theme of Dean's book.   Being able to achieve what is thought to be impossible and taking advantage of every second of life. 

I strongly recommend this book.  Dean just published another book about his experience of running 50 marathon' in 50 days in 50 states.  Some of his next goals are to run 300 miles non-stop and run from L.A. to Hawaii in what looks to be a big inflatable hamster ball.  

As for me I don't think 50 marathon in 50 days is likely anytime soon, but my goal for 2009 is a 50 mile race, I guess I'll have to start there... 

Dean's Website:www.ultramarathonman.com