This Running Life

by George Sheehan

"This practical training guide further develops Sheehan's idea that running is a metaphor for life and a path to self-knowledge, and explains how the body's design relates to running and fitness."

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

287 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 1980

About the author

Dr. George A. Sheehan is best known for his books and writings about the sport of running. His book, Running & Being: The Total Experience, became a New York Times best seller. He was a track star in college, and later became a cardiologist like his father. He served as a doctor in the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II on the destroyer USS Daly (DD-519). He married Mary Jane Fleming and they raised twelve children. He continued to write while struggling with prostate cancer. His last book, Going the Distance, was published shortly after his death.

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando peguei neste livro pela primeira vez, pensei que talvez não fosse gostar dele por ser uma obra bastante datada. E, de facto, é. No entanto, é precisamente essa característica que lhe confere grande parte do seu charme e interesse.

George Sheehan transporta-nos para uma época muito diferente da corrida, dos corredores e da forma como se vivia este desporto. Muitas das experiências e realidades que descreve já não se repetem, mas é precisamente esse contraste que torna a leitura tão fascinante. Ao mesmo tempo que percebemos o que mudou ao longo das décadas, também constatamos que aquilo que realmente importa permanece inalterado: o espírito de quem corre.

Mais do que um livro sobre corrida, esta é uma viagem pelas memórias de um corredor na casa dos sessenta anos, entrelaçada com profundas reflexões filosóficas e psicológicas. O autor explora de que forma o treino, as adversidades, a capacidade de suportar o desconforto, a disciplina, o rigor, a humildade, a perseverança e a coragem moldam não só os corredores, mas também as pessoas que eles são no dia a dia.

Gostei verdadeiramente desta leitura e revi-me em muitas das reflexões do autor. Embora grande parte das suas ideias possa ser aplicada a qualquer modalidade desportiva, acredito que este seja um livro que tocará de forma especial todos aqueles que correm.

Foi uma leitura surpreendente: uma obra datada na sua forma, mas extraordinariamente atual naquilo que realmente importa. Retirei muito deste livro e fiquei com a sensação de que algumas das suas mensagens são intemporais.

[Caseyfast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful philosophical discussion on what it feels like to maximize achievement with an aging body. I read this book years ago during the jogging craze. I admired it then, but really understand it now that I'm old.

[Ronald Lagerwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read most of his books some years ago and the message helped me in running. Now a diffirent message to motivate me.

[Nita · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are notes just for myself:

Chapter 4 "The Aids" beginning on page 71 was a very helpful list of things runners should do. 1. Keep a record of your morning pulse. 2. Weight regularly. 3. Do your exercises daily. 4. Eat to run. 5. Drink plenty of fluids. 6. Run on an empty colon. 7. Wear the right clothes. 8. Find your shoes and stick with them. 9. The fitness equation is thirty minutes at a comfortable pace four times a week. 10. Run economically. 11. Belly-breathe. 12. Wait for your second wind. 13. Run against traffic. 14. Give dogs their territory. 15. Learn to read your body. 16. Do not run with a cold. 17. Do not cheat on your sleep. 18. When injured, find a substitute activity to maintain fitness. 19. Most injuries result with a change in your training. 20. Training is a practical application of Hans Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome.

The introduction to Part Four "The Spirit" pages 239 through 241 summarized the positive personality changes runners experience.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a runner myself, I have ankle injuries which prevent it, but years ago I read this book and I've reread it a couple of times. It's really a very nice, paced set of reflections by an MD who took up running later in life. In many ways, it is similar to What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Having been written much earlier, back when the running movement was first starting, gives Dr. Sheehan's book a different feel.

Like Murakami's book, it s a bit of a memoir - the point of view a man who has run for many years and his love and hate of it.

[Casie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We who run are different from those who study us. We are out there experiencing what they are trying to put into words. We know what they are merely trying to know. They are seeking belief, while we already believe. Our difficulty is in expressing the whole truth of that experience, that knowledge, that belief.

So I wish that Emerson had run marathons. And somewhere around the twenty-three mile mark a friend had asked him, 'What's it all about Waldo?'"