Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously [Hardcover]

Bill McKibben (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2000

This text documents Bill McKribbens year as an imposter of sorts in the demanding world of competitive skiing. In his late 30s McKribben decided to test his body. He decided upon cross-country skiing. He took a year out and trained full-time - with the help of a coach/guru - putting in hours and miles typical of an Olympic athlete. McKribben's year culminated in a series of long-distance cross-country races, where his body experienced rhythms and possibilities like never before. Changing his lifestyle and training full-time test not only your body but also your mind and spirit. Whilst training McKribbens father developed an illness that would eventually cause his death. This forced McKribben to futher explore his body and spirit and that of his father's.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At the age of 37, bestselling author and journalist Bill McKibben stepped out of the ordinary routine of his life to spend a year in "real training" as a cross-country skier. With the help of a trainer-slash-guru, McKibben took on a regimen equivalent to that of an Olympic endurance athlete's, running and skiing for hours every day in preparation for a series of grueling long-distance ski races. What prompted this successful writer with an admitted aversion to competitive sports to push himself so hard, for so long?

Partly it was pure selfishness; after a decade as an environmental writer and activist, I needed a break from failing to save the world. But mostly it was curiosity that drove me. By year's end I hoped I'd have more sense of what life lived through the body felt like.

If Long Distance begins as a story about the transformation of the body and what it means to challenge one's physical limits, it evolves into a thoughtful lesson about a wholly different kind of endurance. Halfway through McKibben's training, his father was diagnosed with the most virulent form of brain cancer. As McKibben was reaching peak condition, his father's life lurched toward an end, forcing McKibben to snap out of his self-inflicted self-absorption. He had tried to think of endurance as "the ability to fight through the drama of pain. But now I understood it, too, as a kind of elegance, a lightness that could only come from such deep comfort with yourself that you began to forget about yourself." And the elegance of Long Distance is in its ultimate lesson that each of us has a mind, a body, and a spirit, and we must find our strength in all three realms. --Svenja Soldovieri

From Publishers 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684855976
• ISBN-13: 978-0684855974
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Skiing > Cross-Country

More About the Author

Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, Deep Economy, and numerous other books. He is the founder of the environmental organizations Step It Up and 350.org, and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming. He is a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and lives in Vermont with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, and their daughter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful book that goes beyond endurance training, January 2, 2001

By 

Charles Eddleston (Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tear-jerker of a read, June 14, 2005

By 

C. Redding - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously (Paperback)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Journel of Strenght and Sorrow, March 6, 2002

By 

Stephen F. Abney (SAN FRANCISCO, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously (Hardcover)

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.