Hmmm .... it's been awhile since my last blog entry. A lot has been happening - ie, all the normal busy stuff plus extra (including Little A's surgery, the kids' end of year exams, and the start of the festive season socialising). And of course the longer it is in between blog entries the harder it is to bring things back up to date. Anyway, here goes ...
The Tour de Femme was a fun enough morning. The weather wasn't as good as it had been in previous years but it was kind enough to hold off raining until after we'd finished. Little A and I spent most of our 20km tour talking about her choice of subjects for college next year and so it was both a productive morning as well as an easy exercise session.
Running over the last couple of weeks has followed my normal training formula for when I'm not heading into any particular race/event. I've got my heart set on a marathon in Japan but it looks like I'll have to wait until mid year to get into one of the ones I want to do. Between now and then there's plenty that I can run locally if I feel like "competing" but at the moment I'm happy to just train quietly.
In between the busy-ness and my own running, I recently finished two running books - (a) "Running Hot" by Lisa Tamati and (b) "Personal Record" by Rachel Toor. I'm sure people write running related books for different reasons and people read them for another whole set of different reasons. Personally I like to get something out of reading running books - either some training/racing tips, some info about international races, or the like. But I didn't get much of anything out of either of these two books. I was hoping Lisa Tamati's book was going to have specific ultra marathon training and racing info in it but instead it was a rough chronological account of her relationships and travels sprinkled with some very general information about particular events she has done like Badwater. It would have been much more interesting if she'd left out the "he said, she said" stuff and concentrated more on the detail of training for and racing ultras. Rachel Toor's book on the other hand, wasn't chronological at all. It was more like a series of unrelated chapters on different aspects of running. Some of them were a bit "ho hum", to the point where at times I thought she was telling even the newest runner in the world how to suck eggs, but there were other chapters that really hit the mark in terms of being an experience or an observation I could relate to 100%. Probably the best case in point was her chapter on how important her running watch is to her both as a training tool and as an accessory (fashion accessory?). Having said all that, both books were easy holiday reading (which is when I started both of them), and a less critical running reader may get more out of them then I did.
3 comments:
Good to hear from you! Thought you might have scooted to Melbourne so you could practise laps of the Tan ;)
I read Ruth's 'Running Hot' - yes, no 'how to' tips, but a good insight into the suffering endured in those desert ultras. Two running books I want to read are Charlie Spedding's and Lorraine Moller's.
I tried to make clear that my book was never intended to be a training book; it was meant to explore why running means so much to me (and by extension, then, to other runners) and to show the many things--other than fast times--that being serious about running can bring into our lives. Sorry if it wasn't your cup of tea.
Rachel Toor
Well .... I never expected the author of one of the books I was commenting on to post a comment on my blog. I guess some authors Google all comments about their books. Fair enough.
Rachel's post has not changed/moderated my view about her book but it has made me think I could have used softer language in posting my comments about it. To Rachel I say: I'm sure lots of people have and will continue to enjoy your book. My point is simply that runners (particularly experienced/long term runners) read running books hoping/expecting to get something out of them even if they are not billed as a training guide. If a running book doesn't provide other runners with anything other than a "I run too" sentiment then they are probably going to feel a bit short changed. Any running book that is only about the author's own feelings about their running may as well just be a personal diary, in which case, why publish it? We all keep running diaries and yet we don't all publish them. Why would we? Please don't be offended Rachel. Your book just didn't go much beyond being an "I love running too" book to me. That's all.
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