Best Books on Running and Training for Marathons

Need motivation for days when you are not feeling your best? Planning to do some quality reading when out on your vacation trip? Or looking for some really good training advice for maybe your next upcoming marathon. Find below some of the bestsellers out there for running books.

The Top 10 Marathon Training Books

1. The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer
   The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer is based on the highly successful marathon class offered by the University of Northern Iowa, and follows a 16-week, four-day-a-week workout plan.
2. Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide
   Inspiring, informative, with training schedules, advice, and anecdotes throughout. Another very useful part of the book is the pre and post marathon preparations. Most valuable part is the motivation the book will give you.
3. Four Months to a Four-hour Marathon
   4 Months to a 4-Hour Marathon serves as a personal trainer for runners looking to improve their performance. Whether competitive veterans or recreational beginners, with this essential guide marathoners can learn exactly what to expect, how to train, and even what to eat and what to wear. Day-by-day training schedules for 4-hour and 5-hour marathoners.
4. The Competitive Runner’s Handbook: The Bestselling Guide to Running 5Ks through Marathons
   The Handbook covers basic training techniques, gives tips on speed training, and outlines regimens for specific races: short, 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon. There are also sections on motivation and the mental aspects of competitive running, proper running form, nutrition, dealing with illness and injury, and more.
5. The Nonrunner’s Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On with Your TrainingThe Nonrunner’s Marathon Guide for Women is a fun training manual for women who don’t believe that running is their biological destiny but who dream of crossing the finish line nonetheless. It opens with a realistic training schedule and is chock-full of how-to’s, quizzes, and funny observations, which Dais felt were lacking in the guides she had consulted.
6. Marathon: You Can Do It!
   Marathon: You Can Do It! details Olympian Jeff Galloway’s revolutionary walk/run training methods that have enabled tens of thousands of people to run marathons. This innovative method opens up marathon running to everyone — not just rock-hard athletes, but also those who may be out of shape, overweight, or past their athletic prime.
7. Advanced Marathoning – 2nd Edition
   Shave minutes off your time using the latest in science-based training for serious runners. Advanced Marathoning has all the information you need to train smarter, remain injury free, and arrive on the start line ready to run the marathon of your life. Easy-to-understand day-by-day training schedules for 18- and 12-week preparation for weekly distances of 55, 55 to 70, 70 to 85, and 85-plus miles.
8. Marathoning for Mortals Bingham has written the ultimate everyman’s guide to taking on the 13- or 26-miler, delivered with the confidence of one for whom slow and steady is a way of life. -Includes specialized programs for walking -Offers a unique half-marathon training program -Gives tips on how to gauge your level of readiness
   
9. Runner’s World Run Less, Run Faster: Become a Faster, Stronger Runner with the Revolutionary FIRST Training Program (Runners World)
   Finally, runners at all levels can improve their race times while training less, with the revolutionary Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) program. FIRST’s unique training philosophy makes running easier and more accessible, limits overtraining and burnout, and substantially cuts the risk of injury, while producing faster race times.
10. Marathon Training for Dummies
    This book presents a complete marathon training program, offering savvy advice on nutrition, hydration, stretching, injury prevention, mental preparation, and other issues that are key to success.