Yesterday in the mail I received for review a Runner’s World book I’ve been looking forward to reading: How to Make Yourself Poop: And 999 Other Tips All Runners Should Know.
It’s a book of lists. It reads like a series of short, digestible blog posts, which has already made it easier for me to pick up and dive into.
34 chapters are divided into 6 sections:
- Section 1: 205 Training Tips
- Section 2: 193 Nutrition Tips
- Section 3: 126 Gear Tips
- Section 4: 158 Motivation Tips
- Section 5: 169 Tips for Staying Healthy
- Section 6: 157 Racing Tips
(That adds up to 1,008 tips, if you’re curious.)
The book is helpful from the beginning, with “The 5 Golden Rules of Training”:
- The vast majority of your miles should feel easy.
- Your “easy effort” should be really, really easy.
- Increase milage gradually.
- Aim for three… quality workouts each week: a speed workout, a long run, and an in-between workout at a comfortably hard pace (a “tempo run”).
- Follow every hard or long run with at least one easy or rest day.
As you might guess from the title, the book is playfully irreverent at times (though not in the tiresome way that The Brave Athlete is). Given its nature as a book of lists, I’m not expecting to find in-depth running science or extended philosophical reflections on running. However, I think this might be the first running book I’ve seen that has a whole section on how to lace up your shoes! Something I do before every run, but have barely considered how to do (except to crank them down as tight as possible).
I look forward to digging in more. You can check out the book at Amazon here, and at its publisher’s site (where you can read an excerpt) here.
Thanks to the publisher, who sent me a review copy, but with no expectation as to the content of my review.
Words on the Word 