Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously
A new edition of a classic McKibben book about what it takes to be a world-class athlete and where the true meaning of endurance can be found.\ At 37, the celebrated writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben took a break from the life of the mind to put himself to the ultimate test: devoting a year to train as a competitive cross-country skier. Consulting with personal trainers, coaches, and doctors at the US Olympic Center, he followed the rigorous training regimen of a world-class...
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A new edition of a classic McKibben book about what it takes to be a world-class athlete and where the true meaning of endurance can be foundAt 37, the celebrated writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben took a break from the life of the mind to put himself to the ultimate test: devoting a year to train as a competitive cross-country skier. Consulting with personal trainers, coaches, and doctors at the US Olympic Center, he followed the rigorous training regimen of a world-class athlete.Along the way, he learned to cope with his physical limitations and, when his father was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor, discovered something about the real meaning of endurance.Told with his trademark intelligence, humor, and honesty, Long Distance is an insightful examination of the culture and mind-set of endurance athletes, and a moving and inspiring meditation on finding balance in our often harried lives. USA Today - Bob Minzesheimer Bill McKibben's Long Distance is an engaging, if uneven, blend of memoir, essay and reporting. It's not about sports or exercise, but the idea of endurance.
\ Bob MinzesheimerBill McKibben's Long Distance is an engaging, if uneven, blend of memoir, essay and reporting. It's not about sports or exercise, but the idea of endurance. \ — USA Today\ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ McKibben's description of his decision at age 37 to hire a professional exercise guru and undergo a grueling, year-long regimen of cross-country ski training on a par with that of an Olympian is as well done as his project may seem ambitious. McKibben (Hundred Dollar Holiday) admits early on, "I'm not sure where my wimpiness came from." He describes how, through all his torturous physical training, his most rewarding results have been psychological. "I came seeking sweat," he writes, "and found only enlightenment." A balance of humor and healthy cynicism keeps the sentiment from overwhelming the text. McKibben also steers clear of an obsession with chronology or a journal-entry style that often dogs such projects, instead telling his story in anecdotes and asides, which allows for shifts in scene and subject that keep the story fresh. He incorporates an account of his father's battle with brain cancer, which coincides with his training, but he avoids melodrama when ruminating on his father's decline and weakness in light of his own increasing vigor. The result is a short and satisfying read that, like the author's experience, may not completely alter one's life, but certainly supplies plenty to think about. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ Library JournalThis book documents one man's training to become a world-class long-distance cross-country skier. Throughout, essayist, journalist, and author McKibben (The End of Nature) shares the lessons he learned while skiing on three continents. As he states, "I came seeking sweat and found only enlightenment." This quote summarizes McKibben's mid-life journey of physical and spiritual renewal, in which he pushed his body and soul to the brink of collapse. A well-written, honest, and insightful look at what it takes to reach the threshold of competitive athletics, this is a story of endurance and finishing what you start. Recommended for most collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/00.]--Larry R. Little, Penticton P.L., British Columbia, Canada Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Geoffrey R. NormanMcKibben sets no records as a cross-country skier. But as a writer, he leaves the conventions and the formulas far behind, and his book succeeds -- indeed, triumphs -- as so many racers do, on heart as much as talent.\ —New York Times Book Review\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsAn inspired and inspiring memoir of one man's conquest of wimpiness. For more than a decade, McKibben (Maybe One, 1998, etc.) has been building a well-deserved reputation as a thoughtful, encyclopedic writer on the environment. His bookish life, he ruefully relates, may have won him fame, but it also left him soft and squishy; never much of an athlete, he nursed hard memories of hating Richard Nixon (not for Vietnam but for mandating"the 600-yard run, a distance that seemed to me unimaginably long") and of being humiliated for not being able to do a single pull-up in PE class. Having hit 37,"the age when age starts to seem like age," McKibben resolved to take charge of his body, and here he provides a spirited account of his transformation from underachiever to, well, a slightly better class of underachiever."Almost no one writes about sports from the point of view of the mediocre, offers insights from the middle of the pack," he cheerfully notes before launching into a fact- and anecdote-laced narrative on the salutary effects of constant striving, constant effort, and constant improvement in every aspect of life. For one, he writes, the exertion of sports (he chose cross-country skiing, perhaps the best aerobic workout around, but he has much to say about distance running, yoga, and backpacking as well) affords"a feeling of total clarity," an ability to focus on the task at hand and to still the"stopless chatter that usually fills my brainpan." He talks to an impressive array of trainers, sports physiologists, therapists, and doctors, and he quotes from the sporting literature authoritatively. But the best moments of this finebookare those in which he finds the obstacles within himself and overcomes them—a process that readers will want to try on themselves. In a league with George Leonard's Mastery and John Jerome's The Elements of Effort, this is a strong vademecum for weekend warriors seeking to change their lives.\ \
