Until you’ve consumed all of the best Marathon Training books, can you even claim to be a true fan?
- Running Your First Marathon: The Complete 20-Week Marathon Training Plan (2018)
- Marathon, All-New 4th Edition: The Ultimate Training Guide: Advice, Plans, and Programs for Half and Full Marathons (2011)
- 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower (2014)
- Me, You & 26.2: Coach Denise’s Guide to get YOU TO YOUR First Marathon (Black & White Edition) (2019)
- Runner’s World Big Book of Marathon and Half-Marathon Training: Winning Strategies, Inpiring Stories, and the Ultimate Training Tools (2012)
- Hansons Marathon Method: Run Your Fastest Marathon the Hansons Way (2016)
- The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer (1998)
- Be Ready on Race Day: How to Create a Custom Training Plan for Your Next Marathon or Half Marathon (2018)
- Hal Higdon’s Half Marathon Training (2016)
- Simple Marathon Training: The Right Training For Busy Adults With Hectic Lives (2016)
- Daniels’ Running Formula (2013)
- Build Your Running Body: A Total-Body Fitness Plan for All Distance Runners, from Milers to Ultramarathoners―Run Farther, Faster, and Injury-Free (2014)
- Beginner’s Guide to Half Marathons: A Simple Step-By-Step Solution to Get You to the Finish Line in 12 Weeks! (Beginner To Finisher) (2017)
- Marathon: You Can Do It! (2010)
- Runner’s World Run Less, Run Faster: Become a Faster, Stronger Runner with the Revolutionary 3-Run-a-Week Training Program (2012)
Running Your First Marathon: The Complete 20-Week Marathon Training Plan (2018)
“Andrew Kastor has taken the tried-and-true principles that all us pros follow and made them available and applicable for everyone.
Marathon, All-New 4th Edition: The Ultimate Training Guide: Advice, Plans, and Programs for Half and Full Marathons (2011)
Especially in tough economic times, running offers an affordable and positive way to relieve stress and gain a sense of accomplishment.
80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower (2014)
Respected running and fitness expert Matt Fitzgerald explains how the 80/20 running program—in which you do 80 percent of runs at a lower intensity and just 20 percent at a higher intensity—is the best change runners of all abilities can make to improve their performance.
Me, You & 26.2: Coach Denise’s Guide to get YOU TO YOUR First Marathon (Black & White Edition) (2019)
Through her own experience completing over 100 marathons and from transforming hundreds of first-timers into many-time marathoners, Coach Denise Sauriol, a.k.a., the Marathon Whisperer, equates training for a marathon to taking a class. When you sign up for a class, you get a syllabus (training plan), you do your homework (training runs) and then you take your final (run the marathon), right?
Runner’s World Big Book of Marathon and Half-Marathon Training: Winning Strategies, Inpiring Stories, and the Ultimate Training Tools (2012)
The first dedicated book on marathon and half marathon training from the renowned experts at Runner’s World Runner’s World Big Book of Marathon and Half-Marathon Training gives readers the core essentials of marathon training, nutrition, injury prevention, and more. The editors of Runner’s World know marathon training better than anyone on the planet.
Hansons Marathon Method: Run Your Fastest Marathon the Hansons Way (2016)
In Hansons Marathon Method, the coaches of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project reveal their innovative marathon training program that has helped thousands of runners become true marathoners and smash their personal bests. Hansons Marathon Method tosses out mega-long runs and high-mileage weekends–two old-fashioned running traditions that often injure and discourage runners.
The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer (1998)
Athlete. Runner. Marathoner. Are these words you wouldn’t exactly use to describe yourself? Do you consider yourself too old or too out of shape to run a marathon?
Be Ready on Race Day: How to Create a Custom Training Plan for Your Next Marathon or Half Marathon (2018)
SICK AND TIRED OF ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL TRAINING PLANS? You’re not a one-size-fits-all runner, so why would you choose to use a one-size-fits-all training plan to help you prepare for your next race? Point blank, a one-size-fits-all plan is really one-size-fits-none.
Hal Higdon’s Half Marathon Training (2016)
Hal Higdon’s name is synonymous with running. As contributing editor of Runner’s World and best-selling author, he has helped countless runners achieve their distance goals. Now, he’s created the definitive guide on today’s most popular distance, the 13.1-mile half marathon.
Simple Marathon Training: The Right Training For Busy Adults With Hectic Lives (2016)
Book Description
Daniels’ Running Formula (2013)
Get in the best shape of your running career with the help of Daniels’ Running Formula, the book that Runner’s World magazine calls the best training book. Premier running coach Jack Daniels provides you with his legendary VDOT formula to guide you through training at exactly the right intensity to run stronger, longer, and faster.
Build Your Running Body: A Total-Body Fitness Plan for All Distance Runners, from Milers to Ultramarathoners―Run Farther, Faster, and Injury-Free (2014)
Whether you're a miler or an ultramarathoner, if you want a fit, fast, and injury-resistant running body, there's a better way to train than relentlessly pursuing mileage. This easy-to-use workout manual draws on the latest research in running physiology to target all the components that go into every stride—including muscles, connective tissue, cardiovascular fitness, energy production, the nervous system, hormones, and the brain.
Beginner’s Guide to Half Marathons: A Simple Step-By-Step Solution to Get You to the Finish Line in 12 Weeks! (Beginner To Finisher) (2017)
Are you struggling to step up to the starting line? Discover a 12-week program that will shape your body and mind for your first half marathon.Are your running shoes gathering dust? Do you think you’re too unfit or too old to enter a competitive race? Is a marathon on your bucket list, but you have no idea where to start? Author Scott O. Morton didn’t begin long distance running until he was 43.
Marathon: You Can Do It! (2010)
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.
Runner’s World Run Less, Run Faster: Become a Faster, Stronger Runner with the Revolutionary 3-Run-a-Week Training Program (2012)
The Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (known as FIRST) is dedicated to make running more accessible and limit overtraining and burnout while producing faster race times.
Best Marathon Training Books Reviewed & Ranked
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some marathon training books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide: Advice, Plans, and Programs for Half and Full Marathons, 5th Revised and Updated Edition
Author(s): Hal Higdon
ID: 2501391, Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale, Year: 2020, Size: 18 Mb, Format: epub
Running your first marathon: the complete 20-week marathon training plan
Author(s): Kastor, Andrew
ID: 2708289, Publisher: Rockridge Press, Year: 2018, Size: 3 Mb, Format: epub
IronFit’s Marathons after 40: Smarter Training for the Ageless Athlete
Author(s): Don Fink, Melanie Fink
ID: 1688619, Publisher: , Year: 2017, Size: 8 Mb, Format: epub
Please note that this booklist is not errorless. Some books are absolutely best-sellers according to Washington Post, others are written by unknown writers. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant links you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.