Last night I read through the entire first part, even though I was planning on just reading the intro since it was the commercial break in a movie I was watching.
This man is so inspiring and fascinating. He makes sense to the average person who wants to start getting fit. He tells pieces of his life story and they may very well have been mine.
"Three weeks. That's as long as my inspiration lasted. Three weeks. It didn't matter what I decided to do or be, I couldn't get past the first 3 weeks of any quest."He dedicates a large part of the book to the mentality behind becoming a runner, dividing the book up in sections called Inspiration, Perspiration, Dedication and Celebration
"You may be uncomfortable hearing that no one can tell you what your fitness goals should be. No one can tell you how much activity is right for you, what eating strategy will work best, or how long it will take to achieve your early fitness goals. It's true that there's no shortage of people who will try. Friends, spouses, and even authors of books are certain that they know what's best for you. They don't."After each section he adds a chapter with practical information, like a guide on buying shoes, clothing and easy to use training schedules.
"Running is a relatively inexpensive hobby. It's not like you need a $15,000 bass boat or even a $1,000 set of clubs. But for the shop-till-you-drop fanatics among us, you can spend a lot of money on running clothes. In fact, you should plan to invest a little in your early running wardrobe. In the long run [pun intended], it will be money well spent."A very practical and inspiring book that is helping me over one of the biggest hurdles in my quest to becoming fit, simply losing interest and sneakingly just give up. John Bingham is giving advice without looking down on you and without 'golden fits-everyone rules', most importantly he teaches you to listen to your own body and do what you feel you can accomplish.
I've already decided to pick up another book by him.
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3 shout-outs:
Whatever it takes to get you out of the door: be it John Bingham, an air-raid warning or a bomb-blast. It's worth it.
I always try and focus on how I'll feel after the run, rather than how I feel before it. Because there's never been a day, no matter how bad a mood I was in before I ran (or even how good a mood), that I didn't feel better (at least mentally) when I finished.
Come on week 8!!!!
Daisy,
I read one of Bingham's books in my last foray into running and enjoyed it as well. I keep meaning to dig it out and read it again, but we moved last year and it's in 1 of about 200 boxes of books packed away in the basement. I can't bear to go dig through them. Maybe I'll just pick it up from the library.
Keep it up, you're doing great.
Thanks for the review, Daisy. I'm going to have to find that book!
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