Running Breakthroughs: Transform Your Running and Life: Proven Lessons from World-Class Athletes, Experts, and Recreational Runners

by Floris Gierman

Do you feel stuck in your running? Struggling with plateaus, injuries, or a lack of joy?

Running Breakthroughs by Floris Gierman reveals how small, practical shifts can transform your running and your life. Drawing from over a decade of personal experience and hundreds of in-depth conversations with elite athletes, health experts, and recreational runners, Floris shows you how to unlock sustainable progress, greater enjoyment, and deeper resilience.

This is not just a book about running faster. It serves as a blueprint for achieving joy, consistency, and long-term breakthroughs in both running and life.

Inside You’ll

How to run longer without gasping for airThe surprising power of slowing down to speed upHeart rate training methods that actually work in the real worldStrategies for injury prevention and sustainable recoveryInsights from legends like Eliud Kipchoge, Kilian Jornet, Courtney Dauwalter, and many moreHow mindset, breathwork, journaling, and meditation can optimize both performance and well-beingReal-life stories of recreational runners who broke barriers and found joy againWho This Book Is

Beginners who want to start running without frustration or burnoutExperienced runners ready to break through stubborn plateausMasters athletes seeking smart, age-proof strategies for long-term health and performanceCoaches and trainers looking for proven, practical tools to help others thriveAnyone who wants to bring more joy, clarity, and purpose into their running journeyYour Breakthrough Awaits

Whether you are chasing a marathon personal best, rediscovering your love of running after injury, or simply seeking a healthier, happier lifestyle, Running Breakthroughs will guide you every step of the way.

Stop forcing progress and start embracing the strategies that actually work.

Pick up your copy today and unlock the runner you were always meant to be.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Sports

422 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2025

Reviews

[Jordan]

If you're an experienced runner, skip this one. It has some good, yet vague, advice for beginner runners but lacks any detail one might need to really further their running. Most of the book could be distilled down to: run slower, run more, and use the heart rate training method. What really irked me was the barrage of snippets from the author's podcast which would cover a topic at the highest level possible. These snippets would be followed by "case studies" of people the author trained or knows...okay cool. Then came the truly bizarre inclusion of random comments from YouTube...huh...why?? It seemed like very little of this book was "written". Instead, it is a compilation of podcast interviews interspersed with general running advice anyone could get from asking ChatGPT. I respect the author immensely for his accomplishments and contributions to running/endurance sports. I did not enjoy this book at all and ended up skipping through most of it.

[Tony Senanayake]

Running breakthrough provides a holistic set of advice for amateur runners. The book is not scientific or evidence based to nature, but instead lanes heavily on lift experience and expert guidance from a wide range of the top experts as well as recreational runners from around the world. For me, the book was two surface level, I have not engaged with the authors other work before, but I found a lot of of the advice to be repeats of existing information without any additional science evidence or depth to improve or change my mindset when it comes to endurance training. As someone who may be looking to start with Running or start with reading about Running, I could see this is a helpful book, but for someone who may already have engaged with more of the literature around endurance sport, I would not recommend this text.

[Shaun Smith]

The book contains some useful information as provided by the guests but the book would have benefitted from focusing more in depth on fewer guest talks. Many points were repeated some directly contradictory.
I appreciated the content around low heart rate training - which I hadn’t delved too deeply into before.

The content of the book is likely evidence based but not enough of the evidence is shared with the reader meaning that I had to pause several to verify certain claims.
Also can we please stop with the “It’s not X, it’s Y”. There were certain chapters where they would be chained back-to-back repeatedly which became incredibly grating as it reads like AI-generated slop.

[Derek Barber]

This is a companion book to Floris' excellent Extramilest Podcast. There are some very good sections in the book with very useful information (specifically Part 1: Foundations) but then there are large parts of the book that are just a page with a single quote from a guest on his podcast. The interviews are mostly useless and overall the book feels thrown together. But if you are willing to wade through a bunch of filler, there is some excellent information in here for the beginner runner. Floris' instruction on low heart training has been especially helpful for me.

If you are a fan of the podcast, this book might be worth a purchase, otherwise I think there much better running books out there.

[Johnnysbookreviews]

Fun running book

His information from his podcast guests is just one quote. Not what I expected, but still not bad. His other information is good. I’ll come back to this book and pick out what other things I need to learn. Let’s get to it.

[Scott Kummer]

This is really a great running book. There are so many lessons in it that I wish I knew when I was new to the sport. If you are looking for a good “how to” type running book look no further. This is good, god stuff.

[Kim Sundling]

I am an avid and experienced runner, and I went into this hoping for an in depth look at ways to improve and the science behind it. Instead, I got a surface level of information that was repeated again and again. This might be good for a beginner but even that might be a stretch.

[Mugren Ohaly]

Full of useful information for runners of all levels.

The “interviews” with world-class athletes were pointless though.

[Caroline Croezen]

Unfortunately I found it repetitive and I didn't learn a lot!

[Artur Mydlarz]

So simple and basic information that you can google it in 2s... if you run more than month you know already everything...

[Nate Kowal]

There is something in here for every kind of runner, anywhere in their journey. After reading this book I was finally able to commit to low heart rate training. And though I'm nearly eight weeks into that process, I still feel that I have yet to even tap the surface of where it could get me. I'd say that the first third of this book are filled with tips and tricks for every runner. The second third is filled with anecdotes from his many years of interviewing the world's best athletes and fitness enthusiasts. The last section brings the whole thing together. Reading this book has only wanted to dive deeper into Floris's world with his personal best program but I'm going to take it one step at a time.

[Lauren Breen]

worth the read

I absolutely loved this book. It’s packed with practical tips and inspiring stories that make you want to get out and run, but also think differently about training and mindset. Floris has a great way of making running feel more enjoyable and sustainable.