Running-Inspired Reading For The Summer

Looking for some new reading material? Check out the following running-inspired books.

“Fit & Healthy Pregnancy: How to Stay Strong and in Shape for You and Your Baby”

By Kristina Pinto, EdD, with Rachel Kramer, MD ($19; VeloPress)

A development psychologist, running coach, marathoner and mom, Pinto writes a compelling and uplifting guide about how to remain fit during pregnancy. With help from Dr. Rachel Kramer, a mother, triathlete, marathoner and noted OB/GYN, the book sensibly guides mothers-to-be through each trimester with cues about how pregnancy changes a woman’s body, changing nutritional needs and how exercise plays a role in each. Written in an encouraging tone, this comprehensive primer offers realistic workout suggestions and helpful wellness tips for every step of the way. Perhaps just as important, the book covers the oft-neglected “fourth trimester,” and coaches women through the post-partum challenges of continuing a healthy lifestyle.

“The Cool Impossible: The Coach from ‘Born to Run’ Shows You How to Get the Most from Your Miles — and From Yourself”

By Eric Orton ($27; New American Library)

Eric Orton is the endurance coach who helped “Born to Run” author Christopher McDougall understand the natural running biomechanics of the Tarahumara people of Mexico’s Copper Canyons. In this unconventional training guide, Orton, the former fitness director for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, offers detailed programs to help runners build the necessary strength, agility and endurance base to become better, more dynamic athletes. His specialty is tearing sports down to their integral movements and finding transferable skills. But the key element to that training — and to Orton’s book — isn’t physical; it’s awareness. His goal is to help runners of all abilities reach “the cool impossible,” which he describes as the belief that any achievement, athletic or otherwise, is within our reach. An interesting and motivating read, this is by far one of the best training books of the past decade.

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“Marathon Man: My 26.2-Mile Journey from Unknown Grad Student to the Top of the Running World”

By Bill Rodgers and Matthew Shepatin ($27; Thomas Dunne Books)

This book, which chronicles Bill Rodgers’ first Boston Marathon win in 1975, was released in April, in conjunction with this year’s race in Boston. What makes it a special read two months later, though, is the reverence “Boston Billy” pays to the Boston Marathon and how he rose to fame as the world’s top marathoner in America’s greatest race. Racing in a shirt with “BOSTON” hand-written across the chest, Rodgers captured the hearts of Bostonians that day by outrunning the field and setting an American record in what would be the first of four Boston victories. If you’re a longtime fan of Rodgers or the Boston Marathon, this is definitely worth a read.