Jason Karp - Running a Marathon For Dummies

Running a Marathon For Dummies

by Jason R. Karp, PhD

Running a Marathon For Dummies

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949693

ISBN 978-1-118-34308-1 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-43207-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-43210-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-43211-2 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Jason R. Karp, PhD, is a nationally recognized running and fitness coach, freelance writer and author, and exercise physiologist. He owns RunCoachJason.com, a state-of-the-science run coaching and personal training company in San Diego, California. As one of Americas foremost running experts and the 2011 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year (the fitness industrys highest award), Dr. Karp is a trusted source of information. Through his writing, conference presentations, DVDs, and numerous print and television interviews on topics related to running and fitness, he brings the state of the science directly to the public. A sought-after speaker, he is a frequent presenter at national fitness, coaching, and academic conferences. A nationally certified running coach through USA Track & Field, he has also taught USATFs highest level coaching certification and was an instructor at the USATF/U.S. Olympic Committees Emerging Elite Coaches Camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. He also regularly holds clinics for runners, coaches, and fitness professionals.

He is a prolific writer, with more than 200 articles in numerous international coaching, running, and fitness trade and consumer magazines, including Track Coach, Techniques for Track & Field and Cross Country, New Studies in Athletics, Athletics Weekly, Running Times, Runners World, Trail Runner, Womens Running, Marathon & Beyond, IDEA Fitness Journal, Shape, and Ultra-Fit, among others. He is also the author of four other books: Running for Women (Human Kinetics), 101 Winning Racing Strategies for Runners (Coaches Choice), 101 Developmental Concepts & Workouts for Cross Country Runners (Coaches Choice), and How to Survive Your PhD (Sourcebooks).

Dr. Karp has coached cross-country and track at the high school, college, and elite club levels. In 1997, at the age of 24, he became one of the youngest collegiate head coaches in the country, leading the Georgian Court University (NJ) womens cross-country team to the regional championship and winning honors as NAIA Northeast Region Coach of the Year. His personal training experience ranges from elite athletes to cardiac rehab patients. As a private coach and founder of REVO2LT Running Team, he has helped many runners meet their potential, ranging from a first-time race participant to an Olympic marathon trials qualifier. He has been profiled in a number of publications and is sponsored by PowerBar as a member of PowerBar Team Elite. His popular downloadable training programs are used by runners around the world.

Dr. Karp received his PhD in exercise physiology, with a physiology minor, from Indiana University in 2007; his masters degree in kinesiology from the University of Calgary in 1997; and his bachelors degree in exercise and sport science, with an English minor, from Pennsylvania State University in 1995. His research includes motor unit recruitment during eccentric muscle contractions, post-exercise nutrition for optimal recovery in endurance athletes, training characteristics of Olympic marathon trials qualifiers, and the coordination of breathing and stride rate in distance runners. His research has been published in the scientific journals Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise , International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism , and International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance . Dr. Karp has taught at several universities and currently teaches dissertation writing, a course he designed for doctoral students, at the University of California, San Diego.

Dedication

For my father, Monroe, whose long walking strides through the streets of Brooklyn, New York, caused me to run to keep up. Perhaps it was those fond moments as a kid with my father that planted the seed for me to become a runner. And for my mother, Muriel, who always told me how proud she was of me and who taught me how to endure and roll with the punches. In her memory, Im donating 10 percent of my royalty on every book sold to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.