Good racing doesn’t just happen. It’s a skill that must be honed with training and hard work. In Personal Best Running, Coach Mark Coogan shares his successful formula for running fast—while staying healthy and happy—without running taking over your life.

Coach Coogan has excelled in running as both an athlete and coach, producing numerous Olympic and champion runners. His success is founded in his belief that long-term running success is impossible if you’re not training and racing in the right environment and that running should never come at the expense of your overall physical or mental health. In addition to training strategies that will shave minutes off your time, Coach Coogan will also show you how to sleep and eat properly, surround yourself with supportive people, psychologically navigate setbacks and challenges, lower your injury risk, and have a life outside of running.

Get the physical and psychological strategies needed to build an aerobic base, balance hard work and recovery, achieve good running form, and turn adversity into an advantage. Learn the importance of strengthening and warm-up exercises, and master running drills that will make you a stronger runner. Plus, access the 30 online video clips that showcase the exercises and drills in action.

Coogan provides numerous training schedules for the mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon as well as schedules for running multiple races in a short period of time. For each distance, choose the length of training (from 6 weeks to 16 weeks) and weekly mileage range. The plans are supplemented with training and racing tips to help you better understand how to apply the concepts to your own running strategy.

You’ll also get a personal look at what successful runners do as Coach Coogan shares some of his own experiences as a runner and coach. And you’ll draw plenty of motivation and inspiration from the athlete profiles of eight of his accomplished runners, including Drew Piazza, Alexi Pappas, and Elle St. Pierre.