Top reads for runners

What better to do in the middle of summer than chill out and read about your favourite sport? This summer, we’ve been rounding up some of our favourite running-themed books to give readers suggestions on the best titles to take to the beach. Heading to the beach or patio to relax this weekend? Here are our suggestions of the week:

Unbreakable Runner

By Brian MacKenzie and T.J. Murphy 

In this book, Crossfit founder and journalist T.J. Murphy examine conventional training tips and break them down. Ideas like high-mileage and high-carb diets are explored and criticized with alternative methods being presented. This is great for the runner who is burnt out or wants to shake up the training and try a different approach. This book is a New York Times bestseller and runners will appreciate learning about workouts, injury, strengthening and alternatives to running norms. This may not be the book for those who are adamant to sticking to the old fashioned approaches.

My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, A Daughter and Ridiculous Plan

By Tom Foreman

Tom Foreman is a CNN correspondent who has written this memoir on beginning to run. This journalist’s career has spanned three decades where he has been sent to cover news from war zones and natural disasters. At 51, his 18-year-old daughter asks him to run a marathon. At the time, he isn’t exercising and is living a fairly sedentary life. This book explores his introduction to the sport as he applies his experiences staying determined in journalism to approaching the marathon for the first time.

Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running From Madness

By Suzy Hamilton

Suzy Hamilton’s story is one of the most individual stories that has come out of the running world and at last she has written a riveting (but dark) memoir about her life as a runner and the life that she led when struggling with a serious mental health condition. In this heart-wrenching story, Hamilton writes about being a mid-distance Olympic athlete and struggling with manic depression and bipolar disorder and how mania played a significant role in her competitive side. Hamilton’s life went from performing well on the track to becoming a high-end escort in Las Vegas under the name of “Kelly.” She writes about being conflicted about her role as a wife and mother and ashamed of her athletic career. When her double life becomes exposed, she falls into one of the wort depressions of her life.