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Run Strong Stay Hungry: 9 Keys to Staying the Race
Run Strong, Stay Hungry explores the mind-sets and habits that allow runners to keep training and racing from youth to masters and beyond. Drawing on dozens of interviews of successful lifetime runners combined with research on successful aging, readers will discover how to set goals, create routines, structure their training, and gain perspectives to help manage the transitions that threaten to derail their running lives.
In Run Strong, Stay Hungry, running journalist Jonathan Beverly reveals the secrets of veteran racers who are still racing fast and loving the sport decades after they got their start. Beverly collects the habits and mindsets of more than 50 runners including Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Deena Kastor, Benji Durden, Colleen De Reuck, Dave Dunham, Kathrine Switzer, and Roger Robinson. Run Strong, Stay Hungry shares 9 keys from these veteran racers that let them keep running strong and staying hungry for competition.
Are they biomechanically gifted? Stubborn? Simply lucky to have avoided injury? Turns out, there’s a lot more to it. In his comprehensive research, Beverly discovers that these runners all share specific perspectives and habits that allow them to adapt to changing life circumstances, accept declining abilities, and rebound from setbacks. These keys not only keep them on their feet, but also allow them to continue to draw the same enjoyment from the sport whether they are winning championships or finishing in the middle of the pack, cranking out 100-mile weeks and doing blazing speed work on the track, or squeezing in just enough miles into a busy schedule to simply feel fit and fast and occasionally test that fitness in a race.
From training methods to mental attitudes to finding community among their fellow runners, there are specific keys that help these masters runners to adapt, accept, and rebound from the hurdles that life and aging put in their path. By adopting the practices of these lifetime competitors, you too can enjoy a lifelong, healthy running career as well as boost your enjoyment of running and your racing performance.
In Run Strong, Stay Hungry, running journalist Jonathan Beverly reveals the secrets of veteran racers who are still racing fast and loving the sport decades after they got their start. Beverly collects the habits and mindsets of more than 50 runners including Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Deena Kastor, Benji Durden, Colleen De Reuck, Dave Dunham, Kathrine Switzer, and Roger Robinson. Run Strong, Stay Hungry shares 9 keys from these veteran racers that let them keep running strong and staying hungry for competition.
Are they biomechanically gifted? Stubborn? Simply lucky to have avoided injury? Turns out, there’s a lot more to it. In his comprehensive research, Beverly discovers that these runners all share specific perspectives and habits that allow them to adapt to changing life circumstances, accept declining abilities, and rebound from setbacks. These keys not only keep them on their feet, but also allow them to continue to draw the same enjoyment from the sport whether they are winning championships or finishing in the middle of the pack, cranking out 100-mile weeks and doing blazing speed work on the track, or squeezing in just enough miles into a busy schedule to simply feel fit and fast and occasionally test that fitness in a race.
From training methods to mental attitudes to finding community among their fellow runners, there are specific keys that help these masters runners to adapt, accept, and rebound from the hurdles that life and aging put in their path. By adopting the practices of these lifetime competitors, you too can enjoy a lifelong, healthy running career as well as boost your enjoyment of running and your racing performance.
- GenresSportsNonfictionFitness
240 pages, Paperback
Published November 21, 2017
22 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2018
"The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquility of the evening." - W. Somerset Maugham, "The Summing Up" quoted in the Introduction.
This book is ostensibly about running, but has some solid advice about the constant renewal required for successful aging in all areas of life. I had a coach once who had us run hill sprints on tired legs. She'd tell us, "You ran 5 miles to get here, to the starting line -- don't waste this moment!" The first laps of a new love are wonderful, but mature love is worth all the running you did to get to the real starting line. This book offers ample examples of this phenomena to apply to your own challenges.
This book is ostensibly about running, but has some solid advice about the constant renewal required for successful aging in all areas of life. I had a coach once who had us run hill sprints on tired legs. She'd tell us, "You ran 5 miles to get here, to the starting line -- don't waste this moment!" The first laps of a new love are wonderful, but mature love is worth all the running you did to get to the real starting line. This book offers ample examples of this phenomena to apply to your own challenges.
January 17, 2018
Nearing my 45th birthday and weighed down my a couple of nagging injuries, I'm very interested in learning the ways strong older athletes have continued in the sport as they age and slow down. This books seems more geared to those who in their youth were truly fast, but nonetheless there are good tips here for the adult-onset runner who is also looking to the future. That future need not be bleak, say Beverly and his roster of star interviewees. I found their list of tips for physical and mental stamina very helpful.
January 18, 2018
Disclaimer is that I know, either from Internet message board or in several cases actual life, a decent number of the lifelong competitive runners he interviewed for this book. Biased or not, though, I found this a great book and very inspiring. Lots of practical suggestions for your training but also perspectives on how you can adapt emotionally to the inevitability of getting slower with aging.
Mixes in psychological theory/research when relevant in discussing motivation, learned optimism, etc. Author has quite a bit to draw on from his own racing career and high school coaching as well, but for the most part stays focused on the interviewees.
Many of them are regular mortals, some highly successful but not household names, and some legends who have stayed active in the sport as well (Joan Benoit Samuelson, Bill Rodgers, Deena Kastor......).
Mixes in psychological theory/research when relevant in discussing motivation, learned optimism, etc. Author has quite a bit to draw on from his own racing career and high school coaching as well, but for the most part stays focused on the interviewees.
Many of them are regular mortals, some highly successful but not household names, and some legends who have stayed active in the sport as well (Joan Benoit Samuelson, Bill Rodgers, Deena Kastor......).
April 14, 2018
Run Strong Stay Hungry is a must-read for those who want to continue running competitively and healthily through their entire lives.
Beverly conducted interviews with runners who have been competing their whole lives, many of them currently in their seventies. He delves into what it takes to continue running -- both mentally and physically as we age.
Even if you aren't a runner, this is an excellent book on the mental aspect of continuing to push for goals and achievements, even when your body says you can't. I found the chapters on adaptability the most intriguing and beneficial.
Beverly conducted interviews with runners who have been competing their whole lives, many of them currently in their seventies. He delves into what it takes to continue running -- both mentally and physically as we age.
Even if you aren't a runner, this is an excellent book on the mental aspect of continuing to push for goals and achievements, even when your body says you can't. I found the chapters on adaptability the most intriguing and beneficial.
May 28, 2018
Jonathan Beverly turns to running legends Deena Kastor, Bill Rodgers and Amby Burfoot, and deep thinkers like Jung, Fromm and Fukuyama in an effort to explore 9 keys to enjoying a lifetime of running. It was a very inspiring read!
January 3, 2018
A good read for all my runner friends.
January 1, 2019
Not for me. Not very motivational.
June 11, 2019
Probably aimed at people a little older than me, but pulled a few tips out of it.
September 26, 2022
⭐️⭐️/5: An intriguing look into what makes runners lifelong runners. “If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it…”
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews