The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, by Claire Maxted

In this episode we had the pleasure of chatting with Claire Maxted (a.k.a. Wild Ginger Runner) about her book, The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, and also found out that she is currently writing her second book which will be specifically for ultra trail runners!

The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook is not called “ultimate” for no reason. It goes through many topics in a beginner friendly way with lots of lists and pictures. Almost every trail running question is touched on during the 7 chapters and there are also training plans, strength training exercises, and stretches for post-run. The chapter titles are:

1. Quick Start
2. Skills and Techniques
3. Training and Plans
4. Beat Injury
5. Trail Gear
6. Nutrition and Hydration
7. Races and Challenges

In case you don't already know Claire Maxted, she is co-founder and former editor of Trail Running magazine. She now runs the YouTube channel Wild Ginger Running , creating films packed with trail and ultra-running advice, athlete interviews, gear reviews and race recces (see definition below if you're like Liz and thought this word might be a typo, LOL) .

Her website is www.wildgingerrunning.co.uk where you can find places to buy her book online if you don't have an independent book store nearby. You will also find links to all the places where you can find her content online.

For non-UK born listeners, Collins dictionary provides the following information for the word "recce":

Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular present tense recces, present participle recceing, past tense, past participle recced.

VERB
If you recce an area, you visit that place in order to become familiar with it. People usually recce an area when they are going to return at a later time to do something there. [British, old-fashioned]
The first duty of a director is to recce his location. [VERB noun]
Recce is also a noun.
Uncle Jim took the air rifle and went on a recce to the far end of the quarry.