Running the Dream: One Summer Living, Training, and Racing with a Team of World-Class Runners Half My Age (Hardcover)

Running the Dream: One Summer Living, Training, and Racing with a Team of World-Class Runners Half My Age By Matt Fitzgerald Cover Image

Running the Dream: One Summer Living, Training, and Racing with a Team of World-Class Runners Half My Age (Hardcover)

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The bestselling author of 80/20 Running and How Bad Do You Want It? reveals his inspiring and surprising journey to see just how fast he can go.

Matt Fitzgerald has been running (and writing about running) for most of his adult life. But, like many passionate amateur runners, he never felt he was quite fulfilling his potential.  If he follows the training, nutrition, and lifestyle of an elite runner, just how fast could he go?

In his mid-forties, Matt at last has the freedom to do nothing but train, if only for the span of one summer.  The time is now. He convinces the coach of Northern Arizona Elite, one of the country's premier professional running teams, to let him train with a roster of national champions and Olympic hopefuls in the running mecca of Flagstaff, Arizona, leading in to the Chicago Marathon. The results completely redefined Matt’s notion of what is possible, not only for himself but for any runner.

Filled with a vibrant cast of characters, rigorous and quad-torching training, and a large dose of self-deprecating humor, Matt’s gripping account of his “fake pro runner” experience allows us to partake in the dream of having the chance to go all the way. Yet for the gifted young runners Matt trains with, it’s not a dream but concrete reality, and their individual stories enrich this inspiring narrative. 

Running the Dream pulls us into the rarified world of professional running in a way we can all relate to, regardless of speed, and to take away pieces of one man’s amazing journey to try to achieve our own potential.

 
 

Matt Fitzgerald is an endurance sports writer, nutritionist, and author of more than twenty books. He is a coach and spokesperson for PEAR Sports and former senior editor at Triathlete and Competitor. Fitzgerald has contributed to Men's Health, Outside, Runner's WorldShape, and other publications. He lives in Northern California with his wife, Nataki.
Product Details ISBN: 9781643135144
ISBN-10: 1643135147
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Publication Date: May 5th, 2020
Pages: 304
Language: English
Fitzgerald is going to go down as one of the most competent and prolific authors of books for serious runners covering just about every legitimate aspect of the all-important runner’s lifestyle.

The mind is the next frontier for significant performance gains…Mental fitness, says Fitzgerald, means becoming your own sports psychologist and developing coping mechanisms to help you suffer better. Which, while not entierly satisfying, is a good start.

If you’re looking to get to your peak performance weight or explore the mind-body connection of running, writer Matt Fitzgerald has some advice for you.…Fitzgerald, an expert in endurance training and nutrition, explores a wide range of topics and cutting-edge developments from the world of running and endurance sports.

At the highest level of sport, it's often not physiology but psychology that separates the best from the rest. Matt goes well beyond just telling stories of great athletes (though he's really good at doing that, too) and delves deep into cutting-edge brain science to show us all how we can strengthen our own mental muscle.

Extremely well-done…a must for marathoners!

A book every that every endurance athlete should own…A page-turning read both for the narrative content and hard information…For all athletes drawn to pushing up against the red line to see what they've got.

Fitzgerald has been writing about the psychology of endurance performance for more than a decade now and is really one of the pioneers in terms of trying to take this body of research out of the laboratory and into the field for everyone to try. His latest book examines a series of notable races through the lens of Samuele Marcora’s “psychobiological” theory of endurance. The races make it a fun read, and the psychology is thought-provoking.