Rating: 
Summary: For the armchair athlete; Competitors need not apply
Review: This book is disappointing. It purports to chronicle a year of high performance endurance training for a not quite elite athlete. It also, surprisingly, chronicles his father's death from cancer. Neither topic has anything much to do with the science and psychology of world class level compeition in endurance sports. There is no training data, only anecdote; there is no bibliography, but many references to other books which sound like they are better; there are almost no racing experiences in this book - believe it or not, the author only races 8 times in a year. (Why doesn't he enter a few running races in the skiing off season or during the snow drought he whines about ad nauseam?) If nothing else, this book demonstrates that training without competitive drive equates to zero racing results. (If his point is that serious training can only augment genetic capabilities in small ways, serious athletes already know that.) This is really a personal account of the loneliness of the long distance runner - why does the author train for 2-4 hours a day if he isn't really a racer? I don't know what he is looking for, but he is never going to find it on a race course of any kind.
Rating: 
Summary: A great inspiration read - a fitness manual for life!
Review: This is the perfect birthday present for any fitness enthusiast turning 37. Bill detail's how 37 is a age for adventure and growth and then specifies each step of the way. The training regimen is tough but duplicatable and the morals and annedotes heart warming. I hope and pray he takes up another sport for his 40th birthday.
Rating: 
Summary: Journel of Strenght and Sorrow
Review: This slim volume actually deals with 2 subjects: 1)endurance conditioning with its emotional, psychological and physical components 2) the demise of the author's father. The training portion with all its equipment and conditioning minutia is better suited to a magazine article. The reader gains an insight into the heroic efforts that world class endurance athletes must generate to be competitive. On one hand their fortitude and courage demand our admiration, on the other hand one may suspect a certain compusive obsessiveness that borders on the fanatical. Let the reader judge.The more compelling portion of the book describes the months in which the author's much loved father engages the process of physical degeneration leading to death. This becomes a profound meditation on mortality and the spititual imnplications of life's last opportunity for self education. Moving and thoughtful, it is the soul of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Journel of Strenght and Sorrow
Review: This slim volume actually deals with 2 subjects: 1)endurance conditioning with its emotional, psychological and physical components 2) the demise of the author's father. The training portion with all its equipment and conditioning minutia is better suited to a magazine article. The reader gains an insight into the heroic efforts that world class endurance athletes must generate to be competitive. On one hand their fortitude and courage demand our admiration, on the other hand one may suspect a certain compusive obsessiveness that borders on the fanatical. Let the reader judge. The more compelling portion of the book describes the months in which the author's much loved father engages the process of physical degeneration leading to death. This becomes a profound meditation on mortality and the spititual imnplications of life's last opportunity for self education. Moving and thoughtful, it is the soul of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: a mortal's perspective on endurance sport
Review: Using a casual tone, the author allows the non-elite athlete to vicariously live the "what-if" scenario we all think of -- what if I REALLY trained...? A good, casual read that offers no answers, but plenty to think about.
Rating:
Summary: a mortal's perspective on endurance sport
Review: Using a casual tone, the author allows the non-elite athlete to vicariously live the "what-if" scenario we all think of -- what if I REALLY trained...? A good, casual read that offers no answers, but plenty to think about.
Rating:
Summary: a mortal's perspective on endurance sport
Review: Using a casual tone, the author allows the non-elite athlete to vicariously live the "what-if" scenario we all think of -- what if I REALLY trained...? A good, casual read that offers no answers, but plenty to think about.
Rating:
Summary: A Life Lived Strenuously
Review: What a grand undertaking: take a year off to concentrate on training to Ski the Big Race. There is a lot of strenuous living here, and a poignant counterpoint story involving the failing health and death of the author's father. I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it in general, and especially for cross country skiers and endurance athletes. Here's hoping for the sequel: Longer Distance.
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