Feet Don't Fail Me Now

Written with a light jokey tone, Kaplan asked all sorts of musicians for running songs which he peppers through this handwavey guide to get from couch to marathon in one year. He includes a year of his own running to qualify for and run the Boston Marathon in the first year of his first child's life (a little side-eye there because that seems like a lot of time to take away from your first kid in a very gendered way - you know a woman would get so much judgement for that choice) Otherwise this book is refreshingly moderate in its guidence.

I'm doing a couch to 5 km, so a marathon seems like an unholy sufferfest but! I think this book very nicely plots out the progression involved with a lot of give to it. Kaplan writes with an expectation that you aren't just a robot following the program he gives - which wouldn't work anyway because Kaplan insists you pay attention to how your body feels and adjust. Walking for a bit is fine and maybe the best strategy! (I didn't know this!) He expects sometimes you just fall off track and need help getting back into it safely. I loved that.

I like the bit on shoes where he adresses the zero-drop barefoot style vs padded and corrective shoes and points out you should probably wear what is most comfortable to run unholy distances with.

Things I wanted which weren't in the book:

A chart, multiple charts, the ebook version made it tricky to keep track where we were in the progression and impossible to refer back later.

A list of all the songs mentioned at the end, and maybe a Spotify list or something so you could listen while you read about them? A linked running list. I am lazy clearly, but I think it would have been nice!

My Libby app kept freezing during the last three chapters which was hecka annoying but it looks like they fixed it whew