walkers walk… but runners fly

Book Review- Running the Dream

For some reason I only seem to read the more obscure Matt Fitzgerald books.  I haven’t read 80/20 Running or How Bad Do You Want It, which people constantly refer to and rave about.  I did read Iron War, which is the story of the rivalry between Dave Scott and Mark Allen, and the “greatest race ever run,” their epic Ironman race in Kona.  I really enjoyed that one (I read it during my brief triathlon phase) and I just finished one of Matt’s newer books, Running the Dream.

Running the Dream is the story of Matt’s opportunity to live in Flagstaff for thirteen weeks and train with NAZ Elite, coached by Ben Rosario.  Matt was 46 years years old and had a marathon PR of 2:41:29, which he had run seven years prior.  Fueled by a sense of unfulfilled potential, Matt reached out to Ben, who invited him to train as a “fake pro-runner” (as Matt put it) for a training cycle leading up to the Chicago marathon.

The book describes in detail the lifestyle of a professional runner.  Among Matt’s teammates were Steph and Ben Bruce, Matt Llano, Scott Fauble, and Kellyn Taylor.  Although Matt was slower than the real elites, he completed the same workouts, had access to the same strength training, PT, sports psychologist, and nutrition advice as his teammates.  One of the great things about this book was the closeup look at the NAZ Elite training.  NAZ is famous for their transparency (posting workouts online) and community involvement, so nothing Matt reveals is exactly a secret- but it was still interesting.

Intertwined in the story is Matt’s own quest for a PR in the marathon.  I think many older runners can relate to wondering if they really reached their potential- I feel like I haven’t.  For that reason, it’s fun to root for Matt as the book goes along. The last part of the book is his experience in the Chicago marathon and I won’t ruin it by saying what happens, although I knew the outcome before I read the book and still enjoyed it.

Along the way Matt sustains a groin injury, and it’s fascinating to read about the approach to injuries at that level (hint: unlike my foot injury which is going on three months now, his was resolved within a week).  It also added another layer of anticipation to the outcome of his training (will he or won’t he get his PR?) and as we are all too well aware, training cycles rarely go off without a glitch somewhere.

If I had to find something to criticize, I would say that I would have liked a deeper dive into some of the topics.  The book is 214 pages so there was definitely room for him to flesh it out a bit more- maybe more details of his training.  He probably wrote it to appeal to as many runners as possible- nothing wrong with that- but I’m a running geek and I would have liked to see total miles for each week, along with every workout (he talks about some but not all) and also more exact descriptions of his strength training.  But overall I really enjoyed it, and now I have a library hold on his 2007 book, Brain Training for Runners.

On my run this morning I listened to the Final Surge podcast where Matt and Ben Rosario talk about the whole experience- it was recorded right after the Chicago marathon and before he wrote the book.  It was fun to hear them talk about it right after reading the book.  Here I am in a very rare outfit for Florida… hat and gloves!

It was 45 degrees… brr!

Anyone else like Matt Fitzgerald’s books?  He’s written a lot of them!

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10 Responses

  1. Sounds like another good read from Matt. I reviewed How Bad Do You Want It years ago on my blog. It’s a great book. I think the only book Matt wrote that I didn’t love was Racing Weight. What he felt was ideal for me was completely unrealistic and his steps to get there weren’t great, if I recall.

    1. Yeah, I think I’m about the only runner who hasn’t read How Bad Do You Want It at this point. Must put it on my TBR list!

  2. I have read “how bad do you want it” a long time ago but had not heard of this one. I agree with what Marcia said above about Racing weight it was not for me at the time. This story does sound interesting thanks for the review

  3. This book does sound interesting! For an established runner (going on 16 years) with some marathons (and a couple ultras) done, I really don’t read many running books. Not sure why. I don’t like bananas or beer, either, so there’s that LOL I’m in Iowa, so today’s 39F weather feels rather balmy 😉 We’re hoping to head to Florida in March for another attempt at the Spring Break that didn’t happen last year.

    1. Okay, no beer, bananas or running books- you’re definitely quirky! I hope you make it down to Florida this time- you’ll be needing a break from the Iowa winter!

  4. Fascinating. I had the 80/20 book but loaned it to someone and it vanished! I do like this kind of book though (like Running With the Kenyans etc) and will look out for it.

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