Pete's Eats

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
by Haruki Murakami. This book is part biography, focusing on the parts of Murakami’s life that affected his running or indeed were affected by his running, and part contemplation on the act of running and thinking. Truly inspirational. It’s my favourite in this list.

Born to Run: The Hidden Tribe, the Ultra-Runners, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall. I got into the concept of barefoot running having picked this book up at an airport some time ago. I’m a heavy runner and very injury-prone so the idea of changing how I run was pretty attractive. About the same time I found out about Newton Running in Boulder and I’ve not looked back since – I run faster and further than since I was 21 and injuries are a thing of the past.

Training lactate pulse rate
by Peter Janssen (Out of print – used copies available). This book is very much a science manual kind of thing, but if you’re interested in using your heart rate to inform your training then you could do worse than learn the science behind it. This book will give you a very solid and excellent grounding in cardiovascular training theory including VO2 Max testing etc.

Ultramarathon Man
by Dean Karnazes. It’s a cheesy book in places, but you can’t ignore the sheer mental strength displayed by ultra-runners and Karnazes is pretty good at getting the emotions down on paper. An easy read, but also pretty inspiring too.

Survival of the Fittest: Anatomy of Peak Physical Performance
by Mike Stroud. As Ran Fiennes expedition partner Stroud was well placed to study the physical effects of ultra distance on the physical body. The book swings from a hypothetical tribe from the earliest of times to real world events that Stroud has taken part in, and it does a great job of explaining the science behind why man is capable of such endurance and perhaps why we quickly (relatively) evolved into what we are today. Read about the Eco-Challenge in the early days, self-supported expeditions to the poles, the Marathon des Sables just to name a few.

See you on the trail