Competitive running is more popular than ever, with local charity races and major marathons attracting record numbers of participants. And all these runners have one goal in common: from twelve-minute milers to sub-five-minute milers, they all want to run faster. A former All-American at the 10,000 meters and two-time U.S. Olympic Trials marathoner, Brad Hudson has developed adaptive running, an innovative and highly successful approach to training. Instead of relying on cookie-cutter regimens, Hudson closely monitors how his athletes respond to training before prescribing their next day’s session.

In Run Faster: From the 5K to the Marathon, Hudson enables self-coached runners to do for themselves what top coaches do for their athletes: custom tailor their training plans. Once they’ve identified a goal race, Hudson guides runners to become their own best coach, helping them:

•assess their fitness, their strengths, and weaknesses

•find a starting point and evaluate their responses to workouts

• learn how to alter workout cycles in response to how they're feeling and what else might be affecting their training.

With Hudson’s guidance, runners will avoid injury, train smarter and more effectively—and will soon run faster than they’d probably ever thought possible.

Working with Brad for the past three years has helped me get much stronger, allowing me to make it to the next level. Thanks to Brad’s training I can now compete with the best in the world every time I race.” —Dathan Ritzenhein, two-time Olympian

“Brad’s training has elevated my running to heights I daydreamed about as a high school kid. Not only is his training innovative, he’s a phenomenal motivator.” —James Carney, 2008 U.S.A. Half-Marathon Champion

“Brad understands the entire training package and all its components better than any coach I’ve worked with, athletically or professionally. Reading this book can help take you to the next level and keep pushing you up as far and fast as you want to go.” —Sarah Toland, former NCAA All-American, U.S.A. National Cross-Country Team member, and Olympic Trials qualifier for the 5,000 and 10,000

“Brad Hudson’s years of personal elite training experience, combined with his wide spectrum of training influences, has catapulted him into a class of American coaching that has typically consisted of archaic, iron-fisted coaching systems. He has the ability and openmindedness to return U.S. distance running to prominence.” —Casey Burchill, 28-minute 10K runner

Hudson enables self-coached runners to do for themselves what top coaches do for their athletes: custom tailor their training plans. With Hudson's guidance, runners can avoid injury, train smarter, and more effectively--and will soon run faster than they'd probably ever thought possible.

Do you want to run faster? Are you trying to peak for a particular race? Would you like to find your true running potential? Brad Hudson, former Olympic Trials marathoner and current coach to Olympians like Dathan Ritzenhein, will show you the way in this practical, reader-friendly guide. Hudson is the most innovative running coach to come along in a generation. Until now, only a handful of elite athletes have been able to benefit from his methods. Now Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon shows all runners how to coach themselves as confidently and effectively as Brad coaches his world-class athletes. Becoming your own best coach is the ticket to running faster at any distance.

First you will learn to assess your abilities. Then you’ll learn how to devise a training program specifically geared to you. Filled with easy-to-follow sample training programs for distances ranging from the 5K to the marathon and abilities ranging from novice to advanced, Run Faster is the cutting-edge guide for optimal performance.

With Hudson’s guidance, you can train smarter and more effectively—and avoid injury. And you’ll soon be running faster than you ever thought possible!

is the founder and coach of the Performance Training Group, a team of elite runners. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. MATT FITZGERALD has written many training guides for triathletes. He is a senior editor for Triathlete magazine and lives in San Diego, California.