Hey runners, how’s it going? I recently wrote a book for runners over 50 about my Forever Runner Method — but you can’t buy it. Sounds crazy, right? But after two heart attacks and 20 years of figuring out what actually keeps older runners healthy and moving, I decided there’s a better way to get this into your hands — one that might actually help you use it.
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The Wake-Up Call That Started Everything
About 10 years ago, I was in my CrossFit gym at 5:30 in the morning, doing my warmup on the exercise bike, when the familiar pain rose up into my chest.
2nd heart attack. At the age of 62, I was into my 12th year of running Ultra races in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. I was a successful age grouper, but was always sore, tired and injured. My heart attack was a wake-up call — I needed to change how I was training if I ever hoped to keep it up as I got older.
After scouring the internet, I found Dr. Phil Maffetone and his Maffetone Method of run training. His approach made a lot of sense — training at a low heart rate to build your aerobic engine so you can run faster without hard, stressful runs. But what I discovered was his heart rate training formula doesn’t work as well for runners over 60. So I had to come up with my own approach to make his method work for me.
After lots of trial and error, I developed my own method and started sharing it with other runners. The results surprised me. Older runners following my method in their 60s and 70s were finally running pain-free, dropping body fat, and actually enjoying their training again. One runner lost 20 pounds and ran 1 minute per mile faster after just 30 days!
That’s when I knew I had something worth documenting. This became my “Forever Runner Method.” After a few years of coaching older runners with my method, I thought I’d better write it all down and document it in a guide. That led me to writing my Forever Runner Method book.
Then Came My Problem — What to Do With the Book
The obvious choice would be to publish on Amazon. That way I’d share my method with the world, help thousands of older runners effortlessly run pain-free as they age, and get rich and famous in the process :)
But I figured that wasn’t realistic — for a few reasons.
Most people don’t finish self-help books. Data shows that the majority of people who buy books like this on Amazon never read past the first chapter, let alone take action based on the content.
I don’t have a big marketing budget. Without the ability to promote it to enough people, most of it just sits unread in someone’s Kindle library.
And even if someone reads it — who answers their questions? My book is a simple method guide, not a narrative full of inspirational stories. If something isn’t clear, or a reader wants help getting started, they’d be on their own.
So instead of blasting my book out to thousands of people, I decided to try a more personal approach. I’d give the book out free within a private community — so readers could get the book and have direct access to the author (me) for questions.
Now, I could have shared my book with my Forever Runners Over 50 Facebook group with over 10,000 members. But Facebook has serious problems. They only show group members a fraction of posts, I was having daily battles with bots and spam accounts, and frankly it’s just not a safe place for us older runners to hang out. So I shut down that group.
Walking away from 10,000 members wasn’t easy. But quality of connection matters more than size of audience.
Here’s What I Built Instead
So the decision to not publish the standard way on Amazon was driven by my desire to actually help older runners fix their running so they can continue to enjoy their running lifestyle as they age. Committing to a new method of training takes more than just instructions — it takes the accountability and support a community of runners on the same journey can provide.
So I went with hosting a Free, private community on the Skool app with a copy of my book provided.
Because at the end of the day, I’d rather change 1,000 running lives than sell 10,000 books.
Join the Forever Running Club — Free
If this makes sense to you, and you are over 50, I’d like to invite you to our free “Forever Running Club” on the Skool app. Inside you get my book and our community to help you go from sore, tired and injured to effortless, injury-free running. Click this link to join today.
Have you ever bought a running book that actually changed how you train? Drop a comment below — I’d love to hear your experience.
Have a great week!
-Herb
“Run Smarter, Live Longer”