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| Run with the Champions: Training Programs and Secrets of America's 50 Greatest Runners | 
| Author: Marc Bloom
Publisher: Rodale Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $16.94 (100%)
New (18) from $7.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 552871
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1579542905
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.7172
EAN: 9781579542900
ASIN: 1579542905
Publication Date: April 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Free bookmark with every order. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 13 | | NEXT » |
 History + Tips April 10, 2007
Tips for runners are combined with a history of some of America's best runners. This book is also a great motivational tool right before a race.
History and tips together January 5, 2007
this book is a summary, biased or not, of history and tips for runners. It will be a nice reading for those who appreciate reading a little bit of history of famous American runners, as well as knowing the way they did to get there. If you are not into history or not looking for tips, maybe better not buy it. If you don't think american runners deserve that much credit, maybe not buy it either. If you don't care about who runs and enjoy it as pure as runners from Kenia do, than that's a nice book for you, as it was for me.
All Runners Should Own This Book! August 14, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought a used copy on Amazon Marketplace and it was the best three bucks I ever spent! Entertaining, informative and inspiring, it profiles fifty of the greatest runners in short but amazingly detailed and well structured chapters...complete with racing states, biographical info, training plan and memorable quotes. There is something for every runner in the book... I came away with many interesting ideas and memorable words of encouragement.
Light, easy to read. Great to throw in your gym bag or keep in the car for a quick-pick-me-up before a race or training session.
"Motivation has to come from within. I make up my mind to shoot for the moon. Even if I don't make it, I'll be among the stars." --Francie Larrieu Smith
Excellent Look at Best US Distance Runners: Bio/Workouts May 3, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book surpassed my expecations because it not only masses the best all time U.S. distance runners of both sexes but Bloom does not just give you the workouts but includes compact and effective biographies on each runner that I found the most interesting of all. The fact that Frank Shorter was fair runner in his private HS years but later won the NCAA 10,000 meters is quite amazing and of course so are his marathon medals as well. Bill Rogers virtually borrow gear to get appropriately outfitted for a race (Pre sent him a pair of shoes he still has) and then runs his first 2:09 while stopping to tie his shoe (Bloom didn't mention that Rogers often stopped to drink water). Everyone remembers Jim Ryun but what about Billy Mills the great cinderella story gold medalist of the 64 Olymmpics and asthmatic Bob Schull who also wins in 64 in the 5000. Well both are covered extremely well and Schul wonders like Bloom where the top runners are of today (soccer suggests Bloom). Great personal nuggets of information plus a bit of where are they now in four pages on each athlete. The women are well represented with Doris Brown, the great miler and 800 runner Jan Merrill, Francie Laraeu, Pattie Catalano (2:27 marathon), Joan Bennoit and Mary Slaney. What's great about this book is that Bloom gives you a career look in the few pages he has on each athelete with their PR's and dates and locations along with their greatest acheivements, times, records and victories and touches of ther personal life (Schul's wife was his workout timer). For example both Slaney and Laraeu were well known milers and 1500 specialists but late in their careers both Francie Laraeu and Mary Decker Slaney ran excellent 10ks both qualifying for the Olympics late in their careers. Listed at the end of each chapter is a week out of one of their workouts during their peak period such as Frank Shorter doing intervals on the track with only 50 yards of rest just before the Olympics. Bill Rogers running almost 30 miles a day for over 200 miles a week. Mary Slaney and her impressive track workouts and Pre running 30 second 220s with a 40 second 220 (jog?) for two miles at an overall 9:20 pace. The book also includes recent stars like Bob Kennedy, Suzie Hamilton and Regina Jacobs (now shrouded in controversy).
The hardest part of the book is the rating system, outside the top 30, Bloom lists an honorable mention section but a few deserving folk seem to be missing. Bloom graciously invites you to submit anyone missed on email such as where is Rick Wolhoter the mid 70's dominate 800 meter specialist and later 1500 runner? He's the other guy that fell down in the heats at Munich. And can you believe that Rogers and Shorter still put in over 50 miles a week? If you follow U.S. distance running this is the book. Bloom also has an intro that sounds like "Where have all the U. S. distance runners gone?" He'll give you his best answer.
 a decent introduction November 12, 2004
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
If you don't know much about the history of American distance running, this book will give you a good introduction. Each runner profiled gets only 3 pages, though. Of course the result is that the book is super-formulaic and gets boring after a while.
The info on how the elites trained is very interesting. However, at its root this book is written in the Runner's World style: it's stated purpose is to promote the advancement of American distance running, while the book itself is a work of mediocrity that promotes only mediocrity.
In addition to 50 profiles, Bloom also includes a long essay on how to make Americans competitive again on the international stage. The essay is more of a fanatical diatribe than a thought-out exposition; Bloom never really even explains why he believes distance running is so much more important than any other sport. He has all these plans to coerce kids into joining cross country teams and he chastises Americans for being lazy and always seeking the short-term payoff. I don't understand why Bloom has the right to cast the accusing finger at US runners - he stated himself in the book that he was never a very good runner in high school (and apparently never became good after that, either), and as far as I can tell the only coaching he has done is at the high school level. I just can't help but think of this guy as some failed jock who spends the rest of his life hanging on to the sport for lack of anything better to do with himself.
For an excellent book of sketches of famous runners, read Kenny Moore's "Best Efforts".
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