Running Well written by Sam Murphy and Sarah Connors is a must read. For those of you who followed my running last year as I trained for St. George, you know I had some difficulties. Specifically, my lack of hip mobility which lead to increased stress and tension on my vastus medialis which lead to an overuse injury. The Hips Don’t Lie is a great post of what I learned from Coach Al after he reviewed my running form.

Considering my running background, I was very interested to read this book. And it did not let me down. You know a book is good when you go running for a pencil, right? Each chapter covers running from both a scientific and a wellness aspect. The authors presented all the reasons to stretch or not to stretch based on the current research. And although, stretching before a run is not that imperative- stretching as an aside to a running program is highly recommend. They also brought up significant reasons on the why and how to conduct a proper warm-up. Dynamic warm-ups are exercises that will improve your running such as high knees, butt kicks, and the forward knee drive are just a few that they recommend. The book also includes 30 running related injuries with a detailed description starting with where the pain is located, followed by recovery techniques that include strengthening exercises based on the injury. In relation to my injuries, they are in agreement with Coach Al’s assessment- that is poor biomechanics in my running form is what lead to my injuries. There is also a chapter on running form. It is not something we specifically think about when we are running well- more when we are injured do we go back and analyze all the rights/wrongs with our running. They also stress “smart sessions”- you can’t get faster unless you run faster! And with the help of a heart rate monitor, you should be able to determine your ZONES. Level one would be an easy pace with Level Five being 90 percent of your maximum heart rate.

Finally, this book will teach you how to become a better, faster runner. As an athlete since high school and with the help of Coach Al, a lot of the material was not new to me, but, I continue to reread sections of it as I write this review. For me, it seems I need to hear things MORE THAN ONCE before it becomes a habit in my running life. It’s $12 on Amazon and I think it is totally worth the money!