How to Make Yourself Poop: And 999 Other Tips All Runners Should Know (Book Review)

Yes, it’s a funny title, but it also is a needed skill for runners who are going to be on the road for a while.

This has been a fun book to read. The full title is Runner’s World How to Make Yourself Poop: And 999 Other Tips All Runners Should Know.

Think of this book as a few years of the Runner’s World website printed out, all in list form. There’s barely a running detail that’s not mentioned here. There are 34 chapters, split 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

I’ll save you the time–that’s 1,008 tips, assuming the section titles are right. But this is at it should be, since 9 tips (a list of 3 and a later list of 6) are on how to poop; then 999 other tips give you 1,008 pieces of digestible advice you can put into practice.

I mentioned this in the book note I wrote a few months ago, but from the very start, the book is practical and offers good guidance. Here are “The 5 Golden Rules of Training”:

1. The vast majority of your miles should feel easy.
2. Your “easy effort” should be really, really easy.
3. Increase milage gradually.
4. 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”).
5. Follow every hard or long run with at least one easy or rest day.

You won’t find philosophical reflection on running here, nor detailed exercise science. But there’s not much else missing. You get, for example, tips on how long to warm up for different races, whether a 1-miler, a 5K or 10K, a half marathon, or a full marathon. There’s lots of good advice about injury prevention, race etiquette, hydration, and even some sample interval workouts–one of which (a “pyramid fartlek”) I tried and loved.

You can check out the book at Amazon here, and at its publisher’s site (where you can read an excerpt) here. Definitely a book most runners will want to have on their shelf and keep referring back to, as I will in the months and years ahead.

Thanks to the publisher, who sent me a review copy, but with no expectation as to the content of my review.