Happy feet and lala legs

Feet, Don't Fail Me Now: The Rogue's Guide to Running the Marathon
by Ben K

Funny-ish and full of useful information. If I could only sustain the speed of my younger days, I'd try his training schedules. But, I fear, I'd be disappointed really quickly.

He structures the book around four races that you're going to do--a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon. In a year. Sounds silly, no? But it's been done--and he's going to tell you how.

So each chapter starts off with a few weeks of training schedules--how many days to run, how much time to run and walk, how to balance the times spent running and walking. Later in the book he has to switch from time to distance as distance becomes more critical.  Then each chapter goes off on a topic of interest.  They're widely divergent but always important.  There is talk of what to eat, of working your core, of Kenyan runners, of networking with other runners, and of motivation--always, motivation.  At the end of each chapter is a list of inspiring music for the run, and often, interviews with the artists who recommended it. Some are runners--Willie Nelson, really?--but many are not. Fun stuff.

The reason I can't try his schedules is that when he says, "Run for six minutes," all I can muster is a fast jog.  He even says "jog" from time to time, but I honestly think he's expecting people to start off doing eight-minute miles.  The only way I could effectively use his schedules is to substitute my 'jog' for his 'walk' and then run like heck when he says to. But maybe I could...and maybe I will. Since I'm not yearning to run the marathon in a year, maybe I could stretch out his schedule a bit....

Wow--that right there tells you how inspiring this book is. It's actually making me want to try it out.  I guess that means, highly recommended.