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2b4.com. Hello

1:23

and welcome to the Marathon Training Academy podcast

1:25

where we empower and inspire you to run

1:27

a marathon and change your life. I'm Trevor.

1:30

And I'm Angie. In this episode, we talk about

1:32

books, our favorite reads from 2023,

1:34

including running books

1:37

and non-running books. And

1:39

don't forget, as an Academy member, you

1:41

can get access to all of our

1:43

training plans, courses, resources, and awesome online

1:46

community. Just visit marathontrainingacademy.com and look for

1:48

the Academy. Well, Angie,

1:50

it is cold and windy outside and I

1:52

don't know, I've just not been motivated to

1:55

run. Plus I'm really busy like fixing up

1:57

a rental property, but I'll get my mojo

1:59

back. It seems like, especially

2:01

over the holidays, it can be challenging to

2:04

fit in all the training that one wants

2:06

to do. There are some people

2:08

out there in MTA land. We're going to read

2:10

some shout outs here. They don't seem like they're

2:12

having a hard time. They are just going for

2:14

it, running races and taking action. So Angie,

2:16

what do you have for us? Well,

2:18

we'd like to say congratulations to Tony.

2:20

We actually interviewed him on episode 413.

2:24

He pulled out an age group win in

2:26

the 50 to 59 year old category at

2:28

the Berkeley half marathon with a time of

2:30

124.38. And

2:32

then he ran California international marathon two

2:35

weeks later in two hours, 49 minutes,

2:37

14 seconds for eighth in his age

2:39

group. He said he was super

2:41

psyched with a sub 250, even

2:43

with major GI issues from miles eight to

2:45

18. People who have

2:47

dealt with GI issues know how challenging that

2:49

is, still managed to come away with

2:51

a really strong finish. So congratulations, Tony.

2:54

We'd also like to give a shout out to

2:57

a member named Philip. He ran the California international

2:59

marathon as well. And

3:01

the cool thing is that he ran it for the first

3:03

time back in 1988. And he

3:05

still has the t-shirt from that original race

3:07

that he ran. He said this year

3:10

he was five minutes slower than last year with a time

3:12

of 431 41, but he

3:15

was happy that he beat a guy dressed like

3:17

a caveman. So it's all about those little wins

3:19

sometimes. So congratulations, Philip and

3:21

good luck with the Modesto marathon that

3:24

he's trained for in March. And

3:26

here's a nice email from Jesse who works

3:28

with coach Joel. She says, I

3:30

started working with coach Joel right at the start

3:33

of the pandemic with the goal of qualifying for

3:35

the Boston marathon. In previous attempts, I would get

3:37

close but then end up injured. So I wanted

3:39

to try out a coach to help me figure

3:41

out a solution. On a whim,

3:43

I reached out to MTA coaching program because my

3:46

dad was a big fan of the podcast. And

3:48

I am now too. Because of the

3:50

pandemic, my marathon goal didn't happen for another

3:52

year and a half. We focused on speed

3:55

and consistency until races started opening up when

3:57

it came time for the Philadelphia marathon of 2020.

4:00

I got a 20 minute PR and

4:02

qualified for the Boston Marathon with a 6

4:04

plus minute buffer. Fast forward 2 years and

4:07

I had the 2023 Chicago

4:09

Marathon on my schedule and a

4:11

PR on my mind. I

4:13

had the idea of running 318 after Coach

4:15

Joel said it was a time I could

4:17

do after running Philly. In one of

4:19

our check-ins leading up to the race he mentioned scary numbers like

4:22

311 and 312,

4:24

but we put together a plan that felt manageable

4:26

to me, one that would get me to my

4:28

goal. The race was a dream. Even with the

4:30

unreliable GPS of Chicago I held steady

4:32

and reached the half marathon point right

4:34

on track and began to progressively speed

4:36

up from there. I felt unstoppable. With

4:39

one mile left to go in the race I looked at

4:41

my watch and tried to do some running math. Which

4:43

is hard by the way. I

4:46

realized if I just held on to my current pace I

4:48

would finish in 315 which was

4:50

beyond my wildest dreams. But the best part is

4:52

that I had no doubt I could hold that

4:54

pace and it ended up being my fastest mile

4:56

of the whole race. One thing about working with

4:59

Coach Joel and probably other coaches is it's amazing

5:01

what he knows. Some of the times he said

5:03

I could run seemed crazy and then I would

5:05

go out and run them. His confidence in me

5:07

wasn't optimism, it was based on all the work

5:10

he had seen me do day after day, month

5:12

after month. And as a result I'm a better

5:14

runner than I ever could have imagined. Wow,

5:16

super congrats on your success and all

5:18

the hard work and thanks for that

5:20

nice note. Yeah, what an

5:22

amazing experience. And speaking

5:25

of amazing experiences, shout out to

5:27

our sponsor Revel Mount Charleston Marathon

5:29

and Half Marathon taking place in

5:31

Las Vegas, Nevada April 6th. This

5:34

is part of the fabulous Revel Race

5:36

Series. They're known for their incredibly fast

5:38

and beautiful downhill races. Angie and I

5:41

were able to do this half marathon

5:43

last year. That's right Revel

5:45

is known for their amazing medals, free

5:47

race photos and gorgeous fast courses. And

5:50

of course Revel Mount Charleston was no

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exception. You can register today with the

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code MTA and get $10 off your

5:56

registration. With Revel Mount Charleston they

5:58

bus you up to the top of

6:00

the mountain if you're doing the full marathon

6:03

course and partway up if you're doing the

6:05

half marathon you have a great view of

6:07

the Las Vegas Valley as you're running down

6:09

the Sun is rising it's really beautiful it's

6:11

hard not to stop and look behind you and see

6:14

the Sun light up the mountain behind you I know

6:16

Angie probably didn't do that because you were so focused

6:18

on getting to the finish but Tim and I we

6:21

took plenty of breaks just to stop and look

6:23

behind us because we don't see mountains like that

6:25

very often out here I think you should

6:27

have tried running backward downhill just

6:29

kidding and of course there is

6:31

a ton to do in the Las Vegas

6:34

area so this can be a perfect runcation

6:36

for the spring and we love revel

6:38

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you go to run revel comm use the

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revel comm use code MTA for 10 bucks

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off all right we're gonna

6:49

jump into our feature segment of this episode

6:51

we're gonna talk about books channel our inner

6:53

nerds I'm an outer nerd

6:55

that is an inner nerd okay

6:59

well it's kind

7:01

of a

7:04

yearly tradition

7:06

to talk

7:12

about how many books Angie read we're only

7:14

December 11th when we're recording this so I

7:16

expect you to get at least 10 more

7:18

read before the new year I actually

7:20

projected the total if I finish all the

7:22

books that I have currently started it'll be

7:24

250 which I'm very comfortable that I can

7:27

do that considering we have two weeks of

7:29

the year left that was actually a little

7:31

bit less than last year yeah I think it was

7:33

closer to 260 last year maybe how many fiction

7:37

versus non fiction 105 and nonfiction 145

7:39

so what we're gonna do here

7:42

is talk about books that we featured on

7:44

the podcast real quick I mean you can

7:46

go back and hear the interviews with all

7:48

of these so we won't spend a lot

7:50

of time but these are of course running

7:52

related books and then Angie's gonna share her

7:54

top 10 for nonfiction and I'll share some

7:56

of mine top I don't know five or

7:58

six From my reading

8:01

list. How many did you read this year Trevor? 60. That's

8:04

up from last year. Yeah So I've

8:06

got a couple books. I'll recommend first

8:08

of all Angie running related books that

8:10

we featured on the podcast this year

8:13

first one is the longest race by

8:15

Kara Goucher I'm sure pretty

8:17

much anyone who is in touch with the

8:19

running world to any degree knows who Kara

8:21

Goucher is and this is basically

8:23

a memoir kind of a behind the

8:26

scenes look at all her running life

8:28

and a lot of the challenges and

8:31

Struggles that she has faced. It's

8:33

a really engaging read and it's

8:36

kind of gut-wrenching. Yeah, it's pretty shocking, too

8:39

Some abuse that she outlines Exactly,

8:42

but it is it is a great read and

8:44

I think it's an important conversation to be having

8:46

in the running world The

8:49

second one is good for a girl a woman

8:51

running in a man's world by Lauren fleshman this

8:54

is another really good book Lauren

8:56

fleshman was a professional runner and You

8:59

know just kind of talked about how difficult it

9:01

is to be a woman runner Facing

9:04

a lot of the issues when the sport

9:06

is set up mainly for men and how

9:08

she and other people are working to change

9:10

That so it was really an excellent read

9:12

as well Yeah, I remember especially

9:14

her talking about just the demands of

9:17

training for the female body versus the

9:19

male body For high

9:21

school runners and how a lot of

9:23

high school female athletes don't make it

9:25

into a running career They kind of

9:27

get burned out because some of the

9:29

same rigorous training principles that are applied

9:31

to male athletes are applied to female

9:33

And it's just not good when it

9:35

comes to their development at that stage

9:37

of life. That's right Yeah So this

9:39

is a really excellent book especially for people

9:41

who are coaches or if you have a

9:44

daughter Or someone that you care

9:46

about who is young and is growing up and

9:48

running to really you know Think about

9:50

some of these issues before you face them Number

9:53

three is too strong the choice that

9:55

changes everything by Sally McRae of course

9:57

Sally is an ultra runner And this is part of the book

10:00

Part one of a memoir series that

10:02

she is doing, she shares a lot of

10:04

the challenges and difficulties of her growing up

10:06

years. You can see how

10:08

it forged her into the athlete that

10:10

she is and how she has the

10:12

mindset that she does. Number

10:15

four is, It's a Marathon, Not a

10:17

Sprint by Dr. Vanessa Corcoran. She

10:19

is a medieval scholar and

10:21

PhD at Georgetown University and

10:24

she wrote a memoir that

10:26

talks about her journey into

10:28

writing the PhD and intertwines

10:30

that with running marathons. And

10:32

she's a listener of the podcast and sent us

10:34

the book and we read it and we're like,

10:37

hey, this would be a fun story. We actually

10:39

got a lot of great feedback on that episode

10:41

because we asked Vanessa if she saw parallels between

10:43

making a spiritual pilgrimage and running

10:45

the marathon. So she riffed

10:48

on that for a while and a lot of

10:50

people enjoyed that. And then we told her, you

10:52

should write a book on pilgrimages for runners. Yeah,

10:54

I still think that would be awesome. There

10:57

you go, Vanessa, you're listening. We will come

10:59

up with the book ideas. We'll leave the hard work

11:01

to people who actually write them. That's right.

11:05

Another awesome book that I really enjoyed

11:07

because I do love history is

11:09

about the UTMB, the Ultra-Shoulder Mont Blanc

11:12

by Doug Mayer. It's called The Race That Changed

11:14

Running. It's the inside story of how this race

11:16

came to be and the

11:18

interesting people who run this race

11:20

and the huge series that the

11:23

UTMB now has and also the

11:25

winners from various years. Book

11:27

number six is Slow AF Run Club by

11:29

Martinez Evans. We had him on the podcast

11:32

and I actually got to meet him in

11:34

person. He's a super cool guy and super

11:36

funny. He's doing an important

11:38

work advocating for back of the

11:40

pack runners. So that's what that book's about,

11:42

Slow AF Run Club. Number seven

11:44

is Long Run to Glory, the story

11:46

of the greatest marathon in Olympic history

11:48

and the women that made it happen

11:50

by Stephen Lane. This was

11:52

like kind of one of the sleeper books where

11:55

I thought, oh, this doesn't sound too interesting. And

11:57

then I started reading it and it was super

11:59

engaging. Yeah, like I thought I

12:01

knew the history of the first

12:03

women's Olympic marathon, but he goes

12:05

way back He talks so much

12:07

about the personal history of the

12:09

women who made that happen who

12:11

participated in it Yeah,

12:14

specifically Bobby Gibb Catherine

12:16

Switzer, Joan Benoy and

12:18

the Norwegian runner Greta Veitz Names

12:21

that everyone should know that's right. Number

12:23

eight is Master of Change by Brad

12:26

Stolberg and Brad is an

12:28

excellent author I love all of his

12:30

books and this one really takes a

12:32

thought-provoking look at How we

12:34

view change and it was really kind of one

12:36

of those books that changed how there we go

12:39

changed It

12:41

influenced how I thought about the

12:43

process of change. Yeah, and

12:45

it's not a running book per se But

12:47

there's enough overlap that we like to have

12:49

Brad on the podcast Yeah, it's

12:51

something that's very applicable if you're running long

12:53

enough You're going to deal with all sorts

12:55

of change in your life. Some of it

12:57

positive some of it not so wanted So

12:59

this book gives you a great framework to

13:01

look at that Yeah And

13:03

then finally run smart evidence-based guidance

13:05

and expert opinions to help you

13:07

survive and thrive as a runner

13:09

by Brody Sharpe Yeah, and

13:12

the book is really excellent it's

13:14

such a practical guide to navigating running

13:16

injuries and Statistically most runners will deal

13:18

with injuries at some point during their

13:21

running career So this is a really

13:23

really helpful book to read if

13:25

you're injured or just kind of as

13:28

a preventative measure So, you know what to do

13:30

when you do get injured And if

13:32

you're feeling kind of like overwhelmed by us listing

13:34

all these books and the authors You don't have

13:36

to panic don't have to start scribbling things done

13:38

We're gonna have all these books listed over on

13:41

our website so you can go there and refer

13:43

to them That's right.

13:45

And if you're feeling panicked about your

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running injury, don't worry. There's joint health.

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Plus what an awesome transition to the

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ad Angie That was brilliant And

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you find out? Where we're at. Check them

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out. Where we're at. Check them

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out. At your library. All

15:05

right, we're talking about Angie's top 10

15:08

nonfiction picks from what she read in 2023.

15:11

What do you got for us? Well, I just wanna

15:13

say these are not listed in order of

15:15

my favorites. I just rounded up all my

15:17

favorites and tried to whittle the list down

15:20

as small as possible, which was a task.

15:22

Yeah, I understand. The

15:25

first one that I really enjoyed is called

15:27

In Order to Live by Yann Me Park.

15:29

One of my favorite genres is memoir and

15:31

this one was Rivening. It tells the story

15:34

of a girl trying to escape desperate

15:36

circumstances in North Korea. The

15:39

author is now a human rights activist, mother and

15:41

graduate of Columbia University. This

15:44

book, I mean, it's one of those where

15:46

you just think, wow, how can conditions

15:48

like that exist in our modern world? And

15:51

it really helped me feel a lot of gratitude

15:53

for where I was born and many of the

15:55

things that I take for granted, like having enough

15:57

food. So yeah, In Order to

15:59

Live. by Yann Mi Park. This

16:01

was actually one of my picks too. Oh that's

16:03

cool. Wow I didn't know we took the same book. I

16:06

can piggyback on it. That's perfect. One of the

16:08

quotes was I wasn't dreaming of freedom when I

16:10

escaped from North Korea. I was willing to risk

16:12

my life for the promise of a bowl of

16:15

rice. Wow. So spoiler

16:17

alert, she survives and she made

16:19

it to the US and since

16:21

then Pyongyang has called her quote

16:23

a poisonous mushroom and the human

16:26

rights propaganda puppet. Wow a poisonous

16:28

mushroom. That's quite the moniker. Obviously

16:31

they feel threatened. So it

16:33

probably means what she's doing is making a

16:35

difference. So we say don't

16:37

listen to Pyongyang. Read the book. It's

16:39

eye opening. The second book on

16:41

my list is called River Flow by David

16:44

White. This is actually the second time this

16:46

collection of poetry made my top 10 list.

16:48

It made my top 10 list last year.

16:51

I keep it by my bedside, read a

16:53

couple of poems each night. In fact I

16:55

read it through several times this year. Wow.

16:57

So check out David White. He has some

17:00

excellent audio books as well. River Flow

17:02

by David White. Number three

17:04

is Good Inside, A Guide to Becoming the

17:06

Parent You Want to Be by Dr. Becky

17:08

Kennedy. Now this book

17:11

falls under the parenting category and although

17:13

our boys are now all teenagers, I

17:15

still like to continue growing as a

17:17

parent. And beyond the parenting aspect of

17:20

it, I found it deeply helpful for

17:22

me because sometimes as adults we have

17:24

to re-parent ourselves and challenge unhealthy frameworks

17:26

that we were raised with. And this

17:28

book like helped me on a personal

17:30

level in addition to really giving me

17:32

some concrete help with parenting. Well

17:35

you said re-parent yourself. Re-parent

17:37

yourself, yes. Parents are

17:39

human beings. They make mistakes. And

17:41

yeah, there have been things that I've been

17:44

addressing in the last few years like taking

17:46

a look back at my framework, my childhood,

17:49

and having to re-parent myself. So

17:51

it's a known term in psychology.

17:53

I'm not making it up. Yeah,

17:56

yeah. Do you think that there might be

17:58

some listeners out there whose parents messed them

18:00

up just like yours did. I'm

18:03

guessing there's a pretty good chance that yeah

18:05

you were hurt by your childhood and it

18:07

you know most of the time the parents weren't

18:09

trying to mess this up they just you know

18:12

had trauma had a lot of difficulties in

18:14

their own childhood and you know we tend

18:16

to pass on those generational things unless someone

18:18

breaks the cycle. We are

18:20

probably messing up our kids and we don't even know how. Yes

18:23

well that's a whole another book but number

18:27

four is All My Notted Up Life by

18:30

Beth Moore. She writes with candor

18:32

about some of the challenges that have occurred

18:34

in her life and you know I've talked

18:36

about how I love memoirs so I tend

18:38

to really get engaged in people's life stories

18:40

especially behind the scene stuff and it's really

18:43

a good reminder that you never know exactly

18:45

what someone has been through. You can

18:47

kind of look at their life from the

18:49

outside and think oh everything looks pretty perfect

18:51

or pretty easy but many

18:53

of the people who have a big impact

18:56

in the world have gone through some really

18:58

significant challenges. Number five

19:00

is called Maybe You Should Talk to

19:02

Someone, a therapist, her therapist, and her

19:05

lives revealed by Lori Gottlieb and

19:07

this is another part memoir and it's

19:09

also kind of like takes you behind

19:11

the scenes of what it's like to

19:13

be a therapist. Obviously therapists need their

19:16

own therapists because as people

19:18

we all have problems. It's

19:20

really an entertaining book but it

19:22

also challenged you to see yourself

19:24

in a different way. Number six

19:26

is called Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance

19:28

in the Age of Indulgence by

19:31

Anna Lemke. This is written by

19:33

a psychiatrist who explores the delicate

19:35

balance between pain and pleasure. Of

19:37

course all of us recognize we're

19:39

living in an unprecedented time of

19:41

high reward, high dopamine stimuli from

19:44

things like food which are often

19:46

ultra-processed to give us a hit

19:48

of dopamine to entertainment. Of course

19:50

there's drugs, news, shopping,

19:53

smartphones, all kinds of information

19:55

surrounding us constantly but

19:57

it's coming at a high price to our mental, physical,

19:59

and and emotional health. So she talks

20:01

about this in detail and

20:04

also has some helpful suggestions

20:06

on how to find connection

20:08

and connectedness and ways to

20:10

keep this dopamine addiction in check. And spoiler

20:12

alert, long distance running is a great way

20:15

to do this. Yeah, so

20:17

take your smartphone out there with you while

20:19

you run so you can stay connected. Checking

20:21

Facebook, right? Sounds like you need to read

20:23

the book. Number

20:26

seven is ultra-processed people. The Science

20:28

Behind Food That Isn't Food by

20:30

Chris Van Tolkien. This book delves

20:33

into a look at the science,

20:35

economics, and history of ultra-processed food

20:38

and the industry's effect on our health

20:40

and, of course, the Earth. It's not

20:42

great. I'm sure people

20:45

know that by the title of the book.

20:47

Dr. Chris Van Tolkien is a really engaging

20:49

writer and researcher, and he turned himself into

20:51

a human guinea pig to test the effects

20:53

of an ultra-processed diet. And I

20:55

try to eat unprocessed food as much as

20:57

possible, but it really made me take a

20:59

look at some of the things that kind

21:02

of are really sneaky, and it can be

21:04

really hard to avoid

21:06

ultra-processed foods. Yeah, I

21:08

actually listened to about half of

21:10

this book before the link expired. I

21:12

remember him talking about how the obesity

21:15

numbers are a lot greater today than

21:17

they were years ago. But instead of

21:20

blaming individuals, we should look at the environment.

21:22

It's really hard, especially in America, to get

21:24

away from ultra-processed food. It's like in the

21:26

water that we're swimming in and the air

21:29

that we breathe, so to speak. He talks

21:31

about his brother coming over here and lived

21:33

in Boston for a while and how his

21:35

brother gained a bunch of weight, became obese.

21:37

He was surrounded with totally different food, a lot

21:40

more processed food over here than he was back

21:42

in England. And many places,

21:44

even in an environment of

21:46

great abundance, for the most

21:48

part, there's food deserts where

21:50

there isn't fresh, healthy, foods.

21:53

And so all you can find

21:55

often is convenience stores, gas stations

21:57

that pretty much specialize in ultra-processed

21:59

foods. So yeah, environment

22:01

hugely affects the

22:04

epidemic of obesity. Number

22:06

eight, life in five senses, how

22:08

exploring the senses got me out of

22:10

my head and into the world by

22:12

Gretchen Rubin. I'm a big

22:14

fan of Gretchen Rubens approach to writing

22:16

about happiness and human nature. I've

22:19

read several of her books over the years and had

22:21

her on the podcast a few years ago as well.

22:24

In this book, she explores the mysteries

22:26

of the five senses, particularly as a

22:28

way to live a happier and more

22:31

mindful life. She's a very

22:33

cerebral person who tends to do a lot

22:35

of research and it's really entertaining

22:37

read that will definitely have you

22:39

thinking more deeply about how you experience the

22:41

world. Doesn't she go to the

22:43

Metropolitan Museum like every day? That

22:46

was one of her goals for 2023, I believe.

22:50

Go to the museum every day. Yeah, go to the Met

22:52

every day. That's pretty

22:54

cool. Yeah, you really got so familiar with it,

22:57

but also at the same time, there's no way

22:59

that you can plumb the depths of a place

23:01

that is so vast. Especially if you're

23:03

taking time to stop and read all the signs. Sure.

23:05

I mean, my kids, they could walk through that museum in about 15 minutes.

23:09

I doubt it. They'd be ready

23:11

to go. You know how it is. I know.

23:14

Okay, number nine. It's called Sure

23:16

I'll Join Your Cult, a memoir of mental

23:18

illness and a quest to belong anywhere by

23:21

Maria Bamford. Maria

23:23

Bamford is a comedian. This

23:26

book is both thought provoking and hilarious.

23:29

She talks about joining multiple self help groups

23:31

in a quest to belong. And

23:33

she writes really honestly about show business

23:36

and her mental illness. Autumn

23:38

and I listened to this when we were making

23:40

our big drive to Montana. And I

23:42

don't know what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting to be

23:44

as funny as it was. I mean, it's very

23:46

raw, but also hilarious. And I highly recommend

23:48

the audio version because she reads it herself.

23:50

It's kind of like a performance. It feels

23:52

like sort of like being at a comedy

23:54

show. If you're talking about

23:57

cults, that seems like a target rich

23:59

environment for comedy. Yes,

24:01

and although the cults that she was in

24:03

was more like self-help groups or like multi-level

24:05

marketing so she has a broad definition for

24:07

cult. Okay. Not everyone would agree with her

24:09

definition of cult, but... sells more

24:11

books if she says cult. Exactly. It's very

24:13

sticky. And

24:15

number 10. It's called adult

24:18

children of emotionally immature parents how

24:20

to heal from distant rejecting or

24:22

self-involved parents by Lindsay C. Gibson.

24:24

She is a clinical psychologist

24:27

and talks about the destructive nature

24:29

of parents who are emotionally immature or

24:31

unavailable. And I'm currently reading this book,

24:33

but I can already tell that it

24:36

has made my top ten. Just

24:38

because of how helpful it is. If

24:41

you've had a difficult relationship with your parents

24:43

this book may be eye-opening for you. It

24:46

was interesting a month ago. I

24:48

first heard the term emotionally immature person and

24:50

then when I saw on a podcast this

24:52

topic I was like, oh I have to

24:55

listen to that because I've been thinking about

24:57

it and listened

24:59

to the episode immediately started reading the

25:02

book. It

25:04

really has helped me gain language to

25:07

explain the disconnection felt around

25:09

emotionally immature people and she also provides ways

25:11

to heal from the pain and confusion that

25:14

can be caused by growing up in this kind of

25:16

environment. It's eerie to hear

25:18

a podcast or read a book that

25:21

like fits your situation so perfectly. It

25:23

is. It's like how did you peer into

25:25

my life? You've

25:28

been reading my diary. Exactly. My sister

25:30

and I have been having lots of conversations about

25:32

it and you and I Trevor because I immediately

25:35

shared it with you and I

25:37

can say it's definitely life-changing not in

25:40

the fact that the other people are

25:42

gonna change but the fact that you

25:44

can change the way that you look

25:47

at the relationship and your expectations of

25:49

that person. Let's talk

25:51

about your fiction favorites Angie and then we'll get

25:53

to my list. You

25:55

can't wait. Do you just want me to read them out? I don't really have much

25:58

to say about them. Yeah, just you even have to read them out. read

26:00

them all, just maybe like top five. Okay,

26:02

yes, fiction favorites. Number

26:05

one is The Midnight Library by Matt

26:07

Haig. Number two, The

26:09

Covenant of Water by Abraham Vergossi.

26:12

Number three is Chantarram by Gregory

26:14

David Roberts. This is a reread

26:16

for me. And there's also a

26:18

Apple TV series based on this

26:20

book, which is also really good. Number

26:22

four is The Running Grave by Robert

26:25

Gelbreath. It's book seven in the Cormoran

26:27

Strike series. And I did listen

26:29

to this one on audio as well. They do a great

26:31

job with it. It's a very long

26:33

book, but I finished it in a

26:35

very short amount of time. Little bit

26:37

embarrassed to say that I may have

26:39

neglected responsibilities to finish this one. Ha.

26:43

And one I just read recently is called

26:45

The Book Eaters by Sun Yi Dean. Sometimes

26:48

when you read a book and you're like,

26:50

wow, this is something new. Do

26:53

they literally eat books? They literally eat books.

26:55

And that's a bad thing? Well,

26:58

you have to read the book to find out. They put

27:00

Barnes and Noble out of business. Because

27:03

I love that place. So

27:05

those are probably my top five to see the rest

27:07

of them. You can go over to the website if

27:10

you're interested. So Trevor, now

27:12

that I have blabbed on incessantly about my books,

27:14

what did you read this year

27:17

that really grabbed your attention? Yeah,

27:19

I'll share happily some top picks. But

27:21

first, shout out to our sponsor, Lagoon

27:23

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27:27

You can take a quiz over on

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important to have a good pillow since

27:35

you lay your head on that thing

27:38

for like eight hours a night. If

27:40

you're lucky. Yeah. And

27:43

listeners of a certain age will know that a

27:46

poor mismatch in pillow can result

27:48

in severe neck pain and stiffness.

27:50

Which is no fun because then

27:52

it's really hard to run and

27:55

strength train and just live your

27:57

life. So optimizing your pillow is

27:59

very interesting. book.

30:01

You learn everything you want to know about

30:03

whaling. Yeah, it's a slog. Alright, so

30:05

in terms of nonfiction books that I

30:08

read, this is in the self-help category.

30:10

It's called The Untethered Soul, The Journey

30:12

Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer. One main

30:14

lesson that I remember from this book

30:16

is he says, you were not your

30:19

thoughts, you were the one observing your

30:21

thoughts. Here's a quote

30:23

from the book, there's nothing more important to true growth

30:25

than realizing that you are not the voice of the

30:27

mind, you are the one who hears it. That

30:30

is an excellent book and I'm patting myself on the

30:32

back because I recommend it to you. I read it

30:34

like three times. Okay, well

30:36

thank you for that. So I think this

30:38

helps you when you're out running and you

30:41

have negative thoughts. You can observe yourself having

30:43

those thoughts. You can think, man, I'm really

30:45

hard on myself today, I am really having

30:47

some negative thoughts. So you observe it, you

30:49

can note it, and then just let it

30:51

pass, let it flow by. Because that's not

30:53

the real you, that's the noisy ego part

30:55

of you. The real you is the one

30:57

that's observing that part. So that helps

31:00

you kind of separate yourself from the

31:02

noise in your mind. It's powerful stuff.

31:04

Yeah, it is. Once again, it's called

31:06

The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. In

31:08

the business category, I listened to a book

31:11

called Skip the Line by James Altucher. He's

31:13

got a podcast called The James Altucher Show.

31:15

The subtitle of the book is

31:17

The 10,000 Experiments Rule and Other

31:19

Surprising Advice for Reaching Your Goals.

31:22

We've all heard of the 10,000 Hour Rule, which was

31:24

popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. To become a

31:26

true pro or expert, you gotta do

31:28

something 10,000 hours. Well, James Altucher is

31:30

always looking for shortcuts. A man

31:32

after my own heart. And he says,

31:34

what if you can skip The Line? What if

31:37

you don't have time to invest 10,000 hours? Instead,

31:39

what about taking 10,000 experiments

31:41

to see what works and what doesn't?

31:43

He's had multiple businesses and... Failures. I

31:45

read the book as well. Yeah. A

31:47

lot of failures, but he's also made

31:49

millions. And he uses an example

31:51

in the book that I really love.

31:53

It's from The World of Highjumping. There

31:55

is an Olympic high jumper, a gold

31:57

medalist, who actually passed away this year.

32:00

His name was Dick Fosbury and he was

32:02

a college high jumper and he came up

32:04

with a new way to hurl himself over

32:07

the bar instead of perfecting the

32:09

straddle method because he had really long legs

32:11

and it was hard for him to Straddle

32:13

his legs over the bar like everyone else

32:16

was doing so we started experimenting

32:18

with his own style of jumping backwards and

32:20

flopping over the bar He went to the

32:22

1968 Olympics in Mexico

32:24

City and started doing that and everyone's like who

32:26

is this guy? But he

32:29

won gold and now everyone does the

32:31

Fosbury flop So he skipped the

32:33

line by coming up with a better way of

32:35

doing something I don't know of a better

32:37

way of running a marathon. He's still got to go 26.2

32:39

miles. No, there's no easy steps Okay

32:43

in the history category. I read a book called

32:45

why the Dutch are different by Ben Coates He's

32:48

a Brit who as an ex-pat lives

32:50

now in the Netherlands. I think he

32:52

married a Dutch lady He

32:54

writes this fantastic little book about Dutch

32:57

culture and Dutch history Did you

32:59

read that book in preparation for going to the Netherlands

33:01

this year? I did. Yep. So

33:03

why are the Dutch different? They're

33:06

tall. That's basically the gist of it That's

33:08

pretty reduct Reductionistic

33:11

they are pretty tall though. You should go

33:13

over there Angie There's I got to visit

33:15

the Netherlands in May had a friend from

33:17

Montana who flew over there and met me

33:19

the Dutch are genius Engineers they've doubled the

33:21

size of their country through the centuries by

33:23

reclaiming land from the sea They

33:26

actually figured out how to harness the wind and

33:28

pump water as early as the 13th century So

33:31

they're known for their windmills obviously But another

33:33

thing that's cool is how they're a nation

33:35

of cyclists when my friend and I were over there

33:37

We rented bikes and rode all over Amsterdam According

33:39

to the Dutch government the Netherlands is

33:41

the only European nation with more bicycles

33:43

than people. No, that's pretty cool And

33:47

there's a book I picked up when I was

33:49

in Amsterdam called medieval horizons Why

33:51

the Middle Ages matter by Ian Mortimer?

33:54

I've always been fascinated by the Middle Ages This

33:56

is of course the period between 500 AD and 1800.

34:01

The Middle Ages actually gave us

34:03

some world-changing things like universities, parliamentary

34:06

systems, and some of the finest architecture

34:08

to be found in Europe. There's

34:10

one part of the book that really struck me. Obviously,

34:12

we're more educated, literate,

34:14

enlightened, technologically advanced today

34:16

than people back then. But one

34:19

thing that we don't have is

34:21

as much earthly common knowledge. He

34:23

says, quote, there are plenty of things

34:26

that 16th century people knew that we are ignorant

34:28

of today from being able to recognize all the

34:30

flora and fauna in our locale to knowing how

34:32

to use a bread oven, how

34:34

to fire a musket, how to tell time

34:36

from a shadow, how to ride a horse,

34:39

when the sown reap winter wheat, how to

34:41

store fruit that lasts 12 months, and so

34:43

on. I was like, yeah, he's probably right.

34:45

Like I can't go out and collect mushrooms. I'd probably

34:47

die. Yeah, our ability to survive

34:49

in our natural environment is very low, I

34:51

guess. And then there's

34:54

a book called Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben

34:56

Montgomery. Angie, did you read this one? I

34:58

did, yeah, it made my honorable mentions. It's

35:01

very good. Grandma Gatewood was the

35:03

first woman to through hike the Appalachian Trail,

35:05

which is 2,050

35:07

miles. It goes from Georgia to Maine, and this was in

35:09

1955. She

35:12

was 67, kind of had an abusive relationship

35:14

from her husband. She had a lot of

35:16

kids and not a lot of money. At

35:18

67, she decides to strike out

35:20

on an adventure, and when she would hike

35:22

the AT, she would just sleep

35:24

on the ground or in strangers' homes, and

35:26

she only carried about 20 pounds. It wasn't

35:29

like she had all kinds of fancy gear

35:31

like we do today. She was just

35:33

drinking out of streams, and she had like

35:35

a knapsack that she sewed together herself, and

35:37

she walked about 14 miles a day. She

35:39

became quite famous for doing so, and she

35:41

actually hiked it two more times, and the

35:43

final time was at the age of 76.

35:46

Pretty amazing. Yeah, it is very

35:48

impressive. I mean having hiked little bits

35:50

of the Appalachian Trail. Yeah,

35:52

it's very impressive for sure. Here's

35:55

a short excerpt from the book that extols the

35:57

virtues of going places on foot, and I thought

35:59

this would be great for our listeners. Anthropologists

36:02

estimate that early man walked 20 miles

36:04

a day. Mental and physical benefits have

36:06

been attributed to walking as far back

36:08

as in ancient times. The

36:10

Roman writer Pliny the Elder described walking as

36:13

one of the quote medicines of the will.

36:16

Hippocrates, the Greek physician called

36:18

walking man's best medicine. Aristotle

36:20

lectured while strolling. Through

36:22

the centuries the best thinkers writers and

36:25

poets have preached the virtues of walking.

36:27

Leonardo da Vinci designed elevated

36:29

streets to protect walkers from

36:31

cart traffic. Johann Sebastian Bach

36:34

walked 200 miles to hear

36:36

a master play the organ. William

36:38

Wordsworth was said to have walked 180,000

36:41

miles in his lifetime. Charles Dickens

36:43

captured the ecstasy of near madness and

36:45

insomnia in the essay Night Walks

36:47

and he once said, the sum

36:49

of the whole is this, walk and

36:52

be happy, walk and be healthy.

36:54

And Frederick Nietzsche said, only those

36:56

thoughts that come by walking have

36:59

any value. And

37:02

then finally I enjoyed the book Rescuing

37:04

Socrates, How the Great Books Changed My

37:07

Life and Why They Matter for a

37:09

New Generation by Roosevelt Montas. Roosevelt Montas

37:11

is an author and a lecturer at

37:14

Columbia University Center for American Studies. He

37:16

was born in the Dominican Republic and

37:18

then he immigrated to the US when

37:21

he was 12 and he says encountering

37:23

the Western classics in his undergrad changed

37:25

his life and shaped his career. Columbia

37:28

University is one of the last major

37:30

universities to offer the Great Books Program

37:32

which they call the Core Curriculum. It's

37:35

a set of courses in literary and

37:37

philosophical classics as well as art, music

37:39

and science in which all the students

37:42

study and discuss a prescribed list of

37:44

books. It goes from antiquity

37:46

and then through chronological order to the

37:48

present. For example you start

37:50

with a book as old as The

37:52

Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer, the Bible, other

37:54

ancient texts and you read through the

37:57

centuries all the way to Shakespeare, Jane

37:59

Austen, Dostoyevsky and Virginia Woolf. The great

38:01

books are the ones that you've read, probably,

38:03

Angie. I've read a

38:05

few of them, yeah. Yeah, this

38:07

is a cool book and he reminds

38:10

readers about Socrates' famous dictum, The Unexamined

38:12

Life is Not Worth Living. And he

38:14

says that the best way to read

38:16

literature is to examine yourself while you're

38:18

reading it. So read it with an

38:21

n-word self-examining orientation. He says on page

38:23

85, if you want to understand Shakespeare's

38:25

Macbeth, scholarly articles and summaries can only

38:27

take you so far. To understand Macbeth

38:29

deeply, you have to look into yourself

38:32

deeply. What is it like to be

38:34

gripped by the lust for power? What

38:37

is the taste of glory? What

38:39

is the shock of betrayal? What is

38:41

the psychic havoc of unaswagable guilt? Literature

38:43

can be humanizing precisely for this capacity

38:46

to shine a light on aspects of

38:48

one's inner life that might otherwise go

38:50

unexplored or be seen only superficially.

38:53

So yeah, if you read on this level,

38:56

books do have the power to change your

38:58

life. The classics are classics because they can

39:00

be life-changing. They teach us to ask, what

39:02

is the good life and how do I

39:04

live it? So I thought maybe in

39:07

this episode, we would take some insight

39:09

from Socrates and try to apply it to marathon

39:11

training. Don't know if this has ever been done

39:13

in the history of humanity. What do you think,

39:15

Angie? Don't flatter yourself. One

39:18

thing I know is, worth a try though, is

39:21

that I know nothing, Socrates quote.

39:23

All right. Okay,

39:25

the first principle is

39:27

self-examination. Socrates was always

39:29

asking questions. Self-examination is also important

39:31

for not only what you believe,

39:33

but also you got to stop

39:35

and assess how are things going

39:37

in your training. Are

39:39

your goals realistic or maybe you should have a

39:41

plan B or plan C on race day? Is

39:44

there anything you can do better? Maybe you're not

39:46

running the right number of days for your body.

39:48

Just because it says five days on the training

39:51

plan doesn't mean that's the best for where you're

39:53

at right now in your fitness. You

39:55

can go back and listen to episode 429 where

39:57

we have seven questions to help you assess your

39:59

goals. training. That's right. Self-examination

40:01

is so important and I think that's one

40:04

of the beautiful things about reading is you

40:06

can read things that cause you to challenge

40:08

your biases and to think outside the box

40:11

sometimes what worked for you in one

40:13

stage of life will not work for you

40:15

in another you know especially in your marathon

40:17

training so you always have to be open

40:19

to examining if what you're doing is working

40:21

and being willing to try new things. And

40:24

as you go through self-examination you

40:26

can question assumptions. Number two, questioning

40:29

assumptions is a Socratic thing to

40:31

do. Socrates urged people to question

40:33

their assumptions and beliefs and

40:35

in marathon training it's essential to challenge assumptions

40:37

about what your limits are. You will discover

40:40

that you're capable of achieving way more than

40:42

you think you are through proper training and

40:44

you can push through your mental barriers. There

40:46

is a time you thought you probably couldn't

40:48

even run a marathon and look at you

40:50

now. There was a time when running 10

40:52

miles seemed impossible and people that we have

40:55

on the podcast you know they run ultra marathons

40:57

I mean they're just resetting the limits they're trying

40:59

to push to see what the limits are and

41:01

finding that they really haven't hit it yet. It's

41:04

interesting because a lot of times as a runner

41:06

you find yourself challenging other people's assumptions

41:08

like non runners who have all sorts

41:11

of dire warnings about the health of your

41:13

knees but yeah

41:15

it's important to question our own assumptions about

41:17

where our limits are. And number

41:19

three is continuous learning. Socrates emphasized

41:22

the importance of lifelong learning and

41:24

marathon training is also a continual

41:26

learning process. Each training cycle provides

41:28

you an opportunity to gain new

41:30

insights and the marathon has something

41:32

to teach you each and every

41:35

time. That's why it's so important

41:37

to respect the distance because things

41:39

can go wrong. It's a long time to be on your

41:41

feet for things to go wrong and even if you've

41:43

run 70 plus marathons like Angie

41:45

has the marathon can still humble you and

41:47

teach you new things right Angie? Well

41:50

the great thing about failure or challenges

41:53

is that you often learn more through

41:55

those experiences than you do if everything

41:57

went perfectly 100% of the time. Of

42:00

course, none of us want to

42:02

bring failure upon ourselves, but

42:04

knowing that you have the

42:06

resilience to pick yourself up,

42:09

re-evaluate, and continually learn and

42:11

improve physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually,

42:13

all the areas, I think

42:15

that gives us so much

42:17

hope. Definitely. And number

42:19

four is community and dialogue. The

42:21

Socratic method of asking students questions

42:23

in order to draw out their

42:25

thinking, that assumes that there

42:27

is a community of learners. And similarly,

42:30

the running community is a great place

42:32

to share experiences, tips, to question and

42:34

get answers to questions, and to share

42:36

victories with fellow runners. This community and

42:39

dialogue with fellow runners can definitely enhance

42:41

your overall experience in marathon training. You

42:43

don't have to go alone. I mean,

42:45

in a lot of ways, it's a

42:48

solitary sport, but the running community is such

42:50

an awesome place, and runners are really cool

42:52

people. So to be able to grow in

42:54

a community of learners and people

42:56

who just want to live life to its fullest is

42:58

a lot of fun. Yeah, that's true. And

43:01

that brings us to the end of our episode.

43:04

If you want to see my full list of

43:06

books I enjoyed this year, of course, you can

43:08

catch that over on the website. As always, thank

43:10

you so much for being a listener, and hey,

43:13

if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, let's make

43:15

it official. Hit subscribe, and we really appreciate if

43:17

you had time to leave us a review on

43:19

iTunes or Spotify. You can leave us a five-star

43:21

review. Definitely helps us get ranked and helps new

43:24

people find the show. And if you found value

43:26

in the show and you know of another runner

43:28

who could benefit from it, or even a non-runner,

43:32

send them a link. Tell them, hey, check

43:34

out MTA. And if we can help you

43:36

in any way in your training or answer

43:38

any questions, shoot us an email through our

43:41

contact form marathontrainingacademy.com. Keep on rocking in the

43:43

free world. Remember, you have what it takes

43:45

to run a marathon and change your life.

44:00

you