Customer Reviews

Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a skiing enthusiast, I found that Bill McKibben's Long Distance revealed the world of physical and mental training that i never fully grasped existed. Even with all his training it was amazing to see that so much rested squarely on genetics, to see that after his many hours of training he could only become so much. The mental aspect was a plus to the book, as a past ski racer it was nice to see someone put into words how it feels out on the course:

"Except that the minute a race is done, you start trying to make it all add up, turn the thousand things that happen even in a three hour ski race in to some kind of coherent storay with a morale at the end: 'I couldn't focus,' or 'I bonked,' or 'Everything came together.'" -Bill McKibben.

To sum it all up, Mr. McKibben has written up an endurance trainer's dream and how he copes with the mental and physical pressures are fascinating to read. I would recommend this book to anyone that is remotely interested in cross-country skiing or how the elite athletes train.

I guess they say real men don't cry, but this book really tests you. It's written from the first-person perspective about a guy's yearlong effort to get in shape through cross-country skiing, and also to enjoy his relationship with his father during the latter's long bout with terminal cancer.

Because I enjoy all kinds of outdoor activity (I cycle toured around Australia not too long ago!), I was initially attracted to the book by the sports angle. From that perspective, the book was great. Having down-hill skied since the age of 5 I'm not overly versed about the world of cross-country skiing, but the author delves into different kinds of techniques, skis, waxes, and other equipment, as well as the underlying physiology in a detailed way that shed some light on the sport that I never got riding the lifts. Additionally, I definitely enjoyed gaining greater insight into the subculture (Did you know that the major event in the sport is called the "Birkebeiner"?)

What I didn't expect at first was such an emotionally gripping book about family relations during serious illnesses. The author describes the gradual decline of his father's health, and the toll that takes on the whole family. There are some really nice passages where you recognize the moments that all of us enjoy with our families, but the not-so-fun moments are part of the reality portrayed, too. By the end, I was glad for having read this book, because it was a lot more than just a journal of a year spent skiing.

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.

McKibben is one of those rare authors whose ideas touch both the heart and mind. There are really 2 subjects that McKibben writes about here--his experiment to train with the same intensity as an Olympic athlete, and the death of his father. Throughout this incredible book, McKibben questions his life, his motivation for conducting this fitness experiment, and his relationship with his father. There plenty of times when McKibben could have allowed this book to become a preachy, self-indulgent sermon on the emotional pain of watching his father die. Instead, McKibben keeps his story personal and in so doing, the lessons he learns become more meaningful. Just a warning though--this is a big time tear-jerker at places.

In turns, this account of his incredibly strenuous year is funny, heartbreaking, introspective and irreverent. I'm surprised how modest the author is about his ability to even perform some of the workouts -- a 3 hour and 55 minute run or ski! I'm an exercise fanatic myself, but I don't see any 4 hour workouts on my horizon. The chapters on the origin and development of cross country skiing are fascinating -- I used to hear about Koch and Caldwell when I taught at the Putney school. Our Olympic program hasn't really done much to produce skiiers since that time. You'll also gain a tremendous respect for the Norwegians, Swedes and Finns whose reverence for this grueling sport makes them the finest in the world. This book went well beyond just sports -- although his father's illness was introduced abruptly, it does serve as an anchor for much of hte second half of the book. His dignity to the end made it inspiring rather than depressing. My only small criticism is that since the book is so personal I would have liked to hear more from his wife and daughter's reactions to his training. He alludes to them, but it sounds like they lived on another planet for that year which I'm sure was not the case! Very rewarding and inspiring read, well written.

Reading this book, I was fascinated at how McKibben was able to excel at a rigorous endurance sport, despite his less than athletic upbringing. I chuckled when he described his youthful perception that the 600-yard run required in grade school gym was "unimaginably long," and that he had chosen to excel at debate, rather than sports. My sentiments and experience exactly!

Throughout his year of training, McKibben's goal is not to win or even to place, but simply to test the limits of his spiritual, mental, and physical endurance. He seeks to maximize his genetic potential, all the while realizing that he wasn't born to be an Olympic athlete. Every step along his journey indicates the fallacy in the American mindset that sports are for the Tiger Woods and Michael Jordans, with the rest of us relegated to the stands, cheering the "real" athletes on. McKibben made me long to live in Norway, where physical fitness seems valued above athletic superstardom.

The story of his father's losing battle with cancer helps to ground the book and put McKibben's year off in perspective. I found myself thinking how fortunate he was to be on this "vacation" year while dealing with this tragedy. The rest of us still have to juggle our jobs and other responsibilities at such times, a task equally as daunting as racing the Birkie.

Finally, as a Vermonter temporarily displaced to Minnesota, I found myself increasingly homesick as McKibben spoke of traveling to Burlington and Craftsbury, and especially the Adirondacks, which I once gazed at daily from my home in the Lake Champlain Islands. Reading this book made me long to go back, strap on my skis, and glide across the frozen expanse of Lake Champlain from South Hero Island to Plattsburgh!

Bill McKibben does a fabulous job of writing about his experience trying to be a better person. He learns, and shares with us, that it is more than just a physical challenge, its an emotional and interpersonal one as well. Beautifully written.

I'm no winter warrior. Three times a week in the gym is my idea of a challenge. But you don't have to care about sports or conditioning to cherish this book.

Simple reason: It's not really about skiing. It's a manual for life, an attempt to work out a philosophy that can be tested and applied.

What makes it work: McKibben is Everyman. Or that's his skill as a writer: He knows what's happening in his head, and, not surprisingly, a lot of what he's thinking is is your head too (mine, anyway).

I plan to give this book to any friend who's having trouble understanding that life is precious and effort matters.

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.

This book reports on a year-long exploration of the effects of strenuous exercise. Prior to the study described in this book, McKibben had considered himself endowed with no more than average physical ability. He was in his late-30s, in decent shape, but had never been a competitive athlete. He was curious about the natural physical limits of his body, and decided if he were ever going to discover what those limits were, he needed to act soon, before middle age took its toll. In this book, McKibben relates his experiences while training and competing in his first long distance ski races. At the same time he was monitoring the changes in his own body as he improved his physical conditioning, he was observing the rapid decline of his father's body as he succumbed to a fatal illness.

In the book, McKibben provides some interesting details about the science of athletic training, but as he discovers, the more interesting part of the journey is the spiritual aspect. From the outset, McKibben is aware that his chances of becoming a world-class athlete are practically nil, just as his father's chances of surviving brain cancer are practically zero. In such circumstances, what matters is not the final outcome, but one's attitude in facing the inevitable. The book is not meant as an athletic training guide, but rather a description of the mental conditioning one must master in order to successfully negotiate any long-term challenge.