In 2023, are you prepared to step up your running performance? Regardless of your level of experience or where you are in your career, a good book can help you perform better and accomplish your objectives. In order to compile this list of the top 4 must-read books for runners in 2023, we combed through the most recent releases and surveyed coaches and athletes. These publications have all the information you need to win your next race and beat your personal best, from training tips to injury avoidance.
FOR Motivation
The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life by Amby Burfoot
The Runners Guide to the Meaning of Life – The lesson about sports and realizing your potential is revealed. Amby Burfoot, the winner of the Boston Marathon and one of the sport’s wisest voices, offers 15 life lessons about passion, courage, materialism, failure, and regeneration that he has learned throughout his more than 35-year career as a runner. He talks about the attributes that every person who wants to accomplish a long-term objective must possess, as well as the writing of music and quotes that have continuously motivated him. Most importantly, Burfoot emphasizes that victors learn more about themselves with each step rather than those who reach the finish line first.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Shop Here: https://amzn.to/36GWYYF
FOR Inspiration
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
When Jessica is told she’ll never run again, she puts herself back together—and learns to dream bigger than ever. The acclaimed author of Flipped delivers a powerful and healing story.
Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She’s not comforted by the news that she’ll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?
As she struggles to cope, Jessica feels both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don’t know what to say act like she’s not there. Jessica’s embarrassed to realize she’s done the same to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she’s missed. A girl who sees right into her heart of her.
With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may be able to run again. But that’s not enough for her now. She doesn’t just want to cross the finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her.
When Jessica loses a leg in a car accident, she believes her life is finished. The knowledge that she can walk with a prosthetic leg does not give her any comfort. When you live to run, why bother walking?
Jessica feels both in the spotlight and invisible as she struggles to cope. People who are speechless behave as though she is not present. Jessica is ashamed to learn that she also treated Rosa, a girl with CP, similarly. A woman who will tutor her in all the arithmetic she has missed. A girl who has an uncanny insight into her heart.
Jessica might be able to run once more with the help of her friends, family, coach, and team from the track. But for her, that is no longer sufficient. She wants to bring Rosa with her as well as herself when she crosses the finish lines.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Shop Here: https://amzn.to/2tN8QtJ
FOR Training
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson
The capacity to endure is the key trait that underlies great performance in virtually every field—from a 100-meter sprint to a 100-mile ultramarathon, from summiting Everest to acing final exams or completing any difficult project. But what if we all can go farther, push harder, and achieve more than we think we’re capable of?
Award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson reveals that a wave of paradigm-altering research over the past decade suggests the seemingly physical barriers you encounter are set as much by your brain as by your body. Malcolm Gladwell contributes to the book’s foreword and blends cutting-edge science and compelling storytelling in his style. This implies that mental endurance is the next frontier and that performance horizons are far more flexible than previously believed.
It’s not “all in your head,” of course. Hutchinson meticulously untangles the intricate interplay of mind and body for each of the physical limits he examines—pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, fuel—by presenting the captivating tales of men and women who have pushed their own physical boundaries in extraordinary ways.
Hutchinson, a long-distance runner for the United States national team and a Cambridge-trained physicist, has written the “Sweat Science” column for Outside and Runner’s World for many years. He was one of only two reporters given access to Nike’s top-secret training program to break the two-hour marathon barrier, which he chronicles in his book. But the lessons he learns from observing top athletes and visiting cutting-edge labs around the globe are surprisingly commonplace. Hutchinson defines endurance as “the effort to persevere against an increasing desire to stop”; fortunately, we can always go a bit further.
Rating: ★★★★★
Shop Here: https://amzn.to/2Ny3MAv
FOR Nutrition
Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow. by Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan
Figuring out how to optimally nourish your body for an active, happy, and healthy life is surprisingly challenging. We live in a culture that both celebrates food and fears it. We know we should eat better, but healthy food has a reputation for being bland and boring. Nutrition science and the media constantly fluctuate on what’s good and bad for us.
This book explains how to eat healthy without counting calories, why you should ignore the latest diet trends, and how to get back in tune with listening to your body’s hunger signals. We’ll debunk the big fat myth around fat (bring on the butter!). And we’ll teach you how to celebrate real food for the benefits it provides for your body and mind.
It can be surprising difficult to determine how to best nourish your body for an active, joyful, and healthy existence. Our society both glorifies and despises food. Though healthy cuisine has a reputation for being bland and uninteresting, we all know we should eat better. What is healthy for us is continuously changing, according to both nutrition science and the media.
This book shows how to eat healthily without keeping track of calories, why you should disregard the most recent diet fads, and how to get back in touch with your body’s hunger cues. Bring on the butter as we bust the big fat fat myth. We’ll also show you how to enjoy genuine food for all that it can do for your body and mind.
Shop Here: https://amzn.to/2Nhwqpi
Got a book to recommend us to read and review?
Check out our other post
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- 7 Tips to consider before taking part in a running event in 2023
- 5 Breathtaking Running Routes in Singapore 2023
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