ASF-2011-01
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www.AdkSports.com JANUARY <strong>2<strong>01</strong>1</strong> 9<br />
RUNNING AND WALKING<br />
Reading on the Run<br />
by Laura Clark<br />
I write entirely to find out what I’m<br />
thinking, what I’m looking at, what I<br />
see, and what it means. -Joan Didion<br />
hile running is basically a solitary<br />
Wsport, at some point even the loneliest<br />
long distance runner feels the need<br />
for a social life. Enter the casual running<br />
group, Internet blog and cozy bookstore.<br />
Joan Didion, essayist and early proponent<br />
of creative nonfiction, was correct: writing<br />
validates experience.<br />
But if those temptingly bound blankpaged<br />
journals or the latest blog site fills<br />
you with more terror than a stint of public<br />
speaking, do not despair. While we are all,<br />
as the running philosopher George Sheehan<br />
was wont to exclaim, “an experiment of<br />
one,” there is nevertheless a certain commonality<br />
of experience. Sample some of the<br />
books reviewed below and discover not only<br />
the latest training suggestions, but your own<br />
below-the-surface emotions.<br />
Outstripping all competitors is<br />
Christopher McDougall’s epic “Born to<br />
Run,” which broke the tape on the New<br />
York Times Best Seller List, advanced to the<br />
prestigious Notable Books Council Awards,<br />
and spawned a minimalist shoe revolution<br />
that basically overhauled the inventory of<br />
major shoe distributors. Superbly layered,<br />
this offering details the author’s compelling<br />
journey through cutting edge science to the<br />
desolate Copper Canyons, the last stand of<br />
the Tarahumara – an ancient tribe of super<br />
athletes. Along the way Christopher’s quest<br />
detours back and forth across time and<br />
space to the Western States Endurance Run,<br />
a persistence running hunt with Bushmen,<br />
and Bill Bowerman’s iconic waffle iron.<br />
While “Born to Run” is undoubtedly a<br />
tough act to follow, a sampling of three of<br />
the latest training tomes shortcut past the<br />
usual advice and into a New Age myth-busting<br />
frame of mind. In “The Runner’s Body:<br />
How the Latest Exercise Science Can Help<br />
You Run Stronger, Longer and Faster,” PhDs<br />
Ross Tucker and Jonathan Dugas advance<br />
beyond Dr. Noakes compendium, “The Lore<br />
of Running,” braving the final frontier in the<br />
mind over matter debate.<br />
Coach Matt Fitzgerald in “The Runner’s<br />
Edge: High-Tech Training for Peak Performance”<br />
takes us to the next level of heart rate<br />
monitor ownership, well beyond the basic<br />
stopwatch application where most of us stagnate,<br />
onto the fascinating world of data analysis.<br />
Bring on those charts and graphs!<br />
After all of that math, the prolific Matt<br />
Fitzgerald’s “Racing Weight” is a snap with<br />
its Diet Quality Score Chart, which requires<br />
a preschooler’s ability to count from one to<br />
two and back again. Best of all, Matt forgives<br />
a holiday weight gain below eight-percent<br />
of optimal training weight. No more January<br />
diets – for some of us, at least!<br />
Information, however, can only take<br />
you so far. Knowing what we should do is a<br />
far cry from actually doing it. This is where<br />
inspirational reading can pull you out of the<br />
doldrums and back into your running shoes<br />
even if it is dark and frigid outside. Like the<br />
proverbial mailman, neither weather nor a<br />
NYC transit strike could keep firefighter Matt<br />
Long from his appointed rounds – until he<br />
got crushed by a 20-ton bus making an illegal<br />
turn. In “The Long Run: A New York City<br />
Firefighter’s Triumphant Comeback from<br />
Crash Victim to Elite Athlete,” his physical<br />
and mental road to recovery – including finishing<br />
the 2009 Ironman Lake Placid – will<br />
make your run seem the privilege it truly is.<br />
Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes, “To every life<br />
there is a season,” so it goes with athletes.<br />
Overwhelmed moms often feel that the 24/7<br />
demands of motherhood make the simple<br />
act of going for a run rival the logistics of<br />
an Ironman event. Enter freelancers Dimity<br />
McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea and their<br />
“Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving<br />
– and Not Lose Your Family, Job or Sanity”<br />
with practical, humorous insights on how to<br />
get the job done. A perfect baby shower gift to<br />
accompany that jogging stroller, a revelation<br />
to husbands everywhere, and a vision of the<br />
marathon at the end of the changing table…<br />
Midlife, Rachel Toor in “Personal<br />
Record: A Love Affair with Running” details<br />
her journey from intellectual couch potato<br />
to competitor to dater on the run to best<br />
friend and pacer. “The pay is great: a thank<br />
you and a kiss… are much more compelling<br />
than a PR or a Shiny Metal Object.”<br />
And then there are the baby boomers,<br />
now on their downhill descent toward old<br />
age. But that doesn’t have to mean falls and<br />
infirmities unless the tumbles are taken on<br />
the trail and the infirmities have to do with<br />
sports injuries. In “Second Wind: The Rise<br />
of the Ageless Athlete,” Lee Bergquist profiles<br />
70- and 80-year-old role models, demonstrating<br />
that despite the inroads of time,<br />
the human body still needs to be pushed<br />
to its true limit, whatever that particular<br />
threshold may be.<br />
While running is fun, those who do so<br />
without a break tend to get injured. Several<br />
recent offerings might just inspire you to<br />
take a more relaxed approach. Read “High<br />
Peaks: A History of Hiking the Adirondacks<br />
from Noah to Neoprene” and you will marvel<br />
at Tim Rowland’s irreverent parade of<br />
colorful guides, hermits and entrepreneurs,<br />
grand hotels and cutthroat lumbering, all<br />
coexisting as part of the public lands and<br />
private holdings patchwork that is the<br />
Adirondacks. While not a runner per se,<br />
Tim definitely possesses a runner’s mentality<br />
as he treasure maps his way to a 72-hour<br />
summit of Allen Mountain shortly after<br />
Hurricane Floyd chainsawed through.<br />
Getting down to business, Russell Dunn<br />
and Barbara Delaney’s latest offering is<br />
“Adirondack Trails with Tales: History<br />
Hikes through the Adirondack Park and<br />
the Lake George, Lake Champlain and<br />
Mohawk Valley Regions.” While you may<br />
have run Prospect Mountain’s 5.6-mile<br />
uphill road race, chances are you didn’t<br />
know that the trail crossing the memorial<br />
highway was constructed along the path of<br />
a funicular railroad that transported tourists<br />
to the now defunct Prospect Mountain<br />
House. While nature is its own reward, historical<br />
enhancement definitely adds to the<br />
experience.<br />
Who knows? After some armchair coaching<br />
and inspiration, you too, might feel compelled<br />
to jot down a few memories. Or at<br />
least open your running log once again.<br />
Laura Clark (lclark@sals.edu) of Saratoga<br />
Springs is an avid trail runner, snowshoer and<br />
cross-country skier. She is a child’s librarian at<br />
the Saratoga Springs Public Library.<br />
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