Racing Reviews

I started reading this book 2wks before the Chicago Marathon. The relaxation techniques and the different exercises for distraction during the race really worked. I have read dozens of books on training the body. This was the first I have read on training the mind. I plan to use these techniques with the children I coach. It really explains in basic and interesting format how important mental preparation is for competition. I highly recomend this book for anyone competing on any level.

Many people start to run because they want to get in a better shape. This book teaches your mind to get in a better shape too. You learn to focus in a new way and you are able to concentrate much better. Your mind learns not to wander so much and stay within the race. I have used the exercises in the book for my preparation of the Boston Marathon which I finished, despite running with an injury, with a new personal best by more than two minutes. I recalled the learned exercises during my preparation in the race and was even able to float up heartbreak hill without considerably more effort. I wonder how I would have raced hadn't I been hindered by a nagging hamstring injury.

There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of books on the market about how to train smarter, better, harder, or what have you. Some of them are quite good, and some of them quite bad. However, these books often neglect one of the key aspects of running and that is its mental component. And that's where Running Within: A Guide to Mastering the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection to the Ultimate Training and Racing comes in.

This book is designed for all runners from the novice runner to the elite athlete, and I think everyone who reads it will benefit tremendously. The book is designed to enable the reader to take his or her running to the next level, not only by giving concrete tips to mentally help one race faster, but also by helping one enjoy his or her running more, by exploring running's spiritual side and understanding the reasons we do run. As the authors state in the introduction, "Running Within uniquely presents the reciprocal relationship among the physiological, mental, and spiritual aspects of running performance, and how you can use specific mental exercises and attitudinal shifts in your daily training and racing to great advantage".

Spiritual Running Although many of us run for physical reasons (i.e. to say fit, to lose wait, to get faster, to win races), those of us who truly enjoy running recognize what it does for us mentally. Not only the ability to clear our minds at the end of a tough day, but the ability to explore and learn about ourselves, as we transform preconceived notions about ourselves.

One intent of the book is to connect runners with the spiritual side of running. It wants to help them explore fully the reasons they run. The book explains that often the concrete goals we have in running (i.e. I want to run a certain time in a certain race, be All-State, finish a marathon) are not what give us joy from running. Rather, it's the steps we take along the way to reach these goals that make running so enjoyable. By better understanding our motivations for running, we can not only get more enjoyment out of running, but can learn how to run faster.

Running faster. And the book definitely can helps us run faster. Those who like to say that running is 99% physical are missing the point. Sure we can not run beyond our bodies' limits, or use mental tricks to make up for not training. But often the limits we set upon ourselves are self-imposed limits. One of the greatest things about running is the self discovery and self-confidence that comes from getting our body to do what once seemed impossible.

Running Within has excellent advice on goal setting and the type of goals we should set. It helps us set goals that push beyond our self-imposed barriers, but at the same time makes sure these goals do not end up discouraging us because they are too unreasonable.

But as all runners know, goal setting is not enough because the toughest part of running is the battle of mind versus body during a race or tough workout. No matter what kind of shape we are in physically, there comes a point in a race when our bodies start to feel that they've had enough. As the race or workout progresses, the urges to back off a bit, slow down, or quit altogether grow. If one is able to recognize these urges and overcome them one can come closer to reaching his or her physical potential.

To overcome these urges to quit, Running Within helps its readers come up with the self-confidence necessary to achieve their goals and not give in to the urges to quit. It provides a mental framework on how to approach races and workouts and has many practical strategies for dealing with fatigue, racing, race strategies, and the like.

But all of these things combined would still leave a lot of our potential untapped. For one of the keys to racing fast is a bit paradoxical, and that is to learn to relax. It seems impossible to do, to relax while the body is using all of its resources to struggle. But Running Within teaches us ways to relax while straining, and shows us the tremendous physiological benefits that come from relaxing.

Summary I recommend this book whole heartedly. Most sports psychology books are full of many tips and tricks to help us perform better, but there is often little foundation to tie the things together. Ultimately, these books fail because they are not much more than a list of things to try. This book is different for while it does list many tips that are useful, it only does so after providing a larger framework to tie them together. The overall theme is the "body-mind-spirit" connection of running. With this framework, the book helps us explore the reasons why we run and what we get from our running. Once we have a better understanding of these things or are at least are aware of them, the books builds upon them and very effectively makes us get more from our running (and become better racers if that's our goal).

On a personal note, I credit this book with as being instrumental to my improvement as a runner (my 10k time went from 29:49 to 28:27 in one year). I am intrigued by the mental side of running and knew there was a lot more I could learn. However, at the same time, I've always been very skeptical of a lot of the "pop-psychology" and sports psychology books on the market. This book pleasantly surprised me and should be on the book shelves of all runners.

The Three Dogs were big and muscular, there was Bruno, Kalia but that they look and sound cool. The book gets more better towards the end when the three dogs won the sledding contest at Colorada. Kalia is a husky, which is a type of a wolf. Bruno looks like a black lab mixed with husky. I wish I could have these dogs from The Three Dog Winter. This is a good book. I will rate it a five.

I think that this is a great book. I couldn't put it down. It's about a boy named Scott McClure who races sled dogs with his dad. Then his father dies and his mother remarries . He moves from California to Montana. He had troble with his stepfather and his stepbrother Brad. Scott won't lett anyone or anything interfere with his dream. If you want to find out whats next read this book.

This is a thrilling winter story that took my breath away as I read page after page of this exciting novel. As Scott and his family are trying to recover from the death of his father, Scott's mom seems to immediately re-marry again. Scott and his dad had both loved sled dog racing. In the new home with more siblings, Scott wonders if he'll ever be able to race a great team like his dad, since he only has one dog. Especially with this new family and new home.

A great book that covers not only the earliest races at "The Glen", but that also conveys the trials and travails that early sports car racing enthusiasts endured in America. I expected a history of street racing in Watkins Glen to be in the book, but I didn't expect such an encompassing history of racing to be included.

Philippe's coverage of "The Great Controversy" is very enlightening in view of the current rifts in American Road Racing. I had no idea the battle of the isolationists vs. the internationalists had its roots so far back in time. Highly recommended for an entertaining read.

No matter how one spells Philippe's last name most readers will remember his exciting book about the racer James Dean. And now in this book Philippe has uncovered little known facts about Watkins Glen, just as he did with James Dean. This book takes you back to the streets of Watkins Glen with Cunninghams, Ferraris and MG specials. If you collect motorsports history books as I do, your collection won't be complete without this one.

the author has done a great job of defining the times and of digging through the details of the renaissance of road racing in america. if you weren't there, you feel as though you had been once you finish.

Grand Prix motor racing, despite a long parade of contenders to the pinnacle of motor sport, remains the ultimate distillation of technology and driver courage/skill. The 50 years since WWII, thoughtfully framed by a "Before the War" chapter for historical perspective, are recorded superbly in this magnificent book. No significant aspects of the cars and drivers of this eventful half century have been neglected. Sidebars constantly divert and inform. Even the advertising is captivating.
The reader comes away in awe, sated by the integrity of the text under Alan Henry's meticulous editing and the wonderful photographs of Bernard and Paul-Henri Cahier.
Younger enthusiasts who read this book, who have been watching the boring, little-passing parades of advertising-festooned F1 slot cars of recent years, will acquire essential perspective from this great book and will note--perhaps wistfully--the transition from a high-risk driver's sport to a technology-money game in which the driver has become increasingly subordinated to the machinery and lawyers manipulate the rules. They may also note, by studying the evolution of Grand Prix machinery, the transition (not only in GP but in prototype sports cars) from vehicles that could be driven on road courses to caricatures that can only be driven on billiard-table-smooth tracks, whose characteristics (mile-wide slicks, ground effects, minimal ground clearance, bizarre aerodynamics aids, engine lifetimes measures in minutes or hours of running) have virtually nothing to do with any other kind of road vehicle. The great Stirling Moss, one of the finest drivers who ever raced, railed against this loss of relevance to 'real' cars when interviewed by me on the microphone at Sears Point (where he was Grand Marshall of a historics event). Beyond nostalgia, who is to say that he is not right in decrying this disconnect between racing cars and real cars? Don't suggest NASCAR, fake into the bones, as representative of any remotely real road vehicle.
Alan Henry sensibly avoids much of the recent controversy over rules and money, which have effected so many not-so-subtle changes in what used to be a sport and not a business, although he does gum the issues of the tobacco wars and the rise of lovable Bernie Ecclestone to the role of F1 dictator. The book was published in 2000 and thus could not have anticipated the struggle of F1 in the new Millennium, blandly asserting its posture as "firm and secure." Well, maybe.
In the end, nothing that the recent philistines can do diminishes the ultimate greatness of this world motorsports arena or the care with which this book and brilliant historical record has been assembled.

This title is even more precious than the other already outstanding Autocourse Annuals. You can see how it looked when it all started back in 1950. Live through different eras of the past 50 years in F1 racing. I suggect all F1 fans get this book asap or it will disappear from book stores very soon. The team of Henry and Cahier(s) should get more than 5 stars just for this outstanding work.

The Formula One world driving championship was inaugurated in 1950, making 1999 it's 50th season. The people of AUTOCOURSE have chronicled the sport since 1951, and have never had any equals. This AUTOCOURSE history of the first 50 years is absolutely breathtaking. An "art" book of immensely high quality, it marries the journalistic expertise of veteran correspondent Alan Henry (editor of AUTOCOURSE since 1988) with the photographic brilliance of Bernard Cahier (covering primarily the 50's, 60's and into the 70's) and his son, the imcomparable photographic artist, Paul-Henri Cahier (primarily 80's and 90's). Their photos are simply stunning. The decision to restrict the photographic content of a 50-year history to just 2 men was a brave one, but considering that they chose the true artists of their eras, the choice was clearly inspired. It puts the book on another level entirely. A comprehensive championship table (season-by-season) is present at the back, but there is nothing dry or statistical about this book. Rather than comprehensively document the series "race-by-race", this is a book in which the essence of each era and the true character of its participants (and the cars involved) is brought to life. The people at AUTOCOURE have no peers, and with this book, they've truly outdone themselves. A "desert island" F1 book for sure. Congrats!

Race track fans and journalists will enjoy Crisp's bright and insighful discussion about his experiences in both worlds. His ideas about the future of thoroughbred horseracing are interesting and his discussion about his betting experiences will ring true with any died-in-the-wool throughbred race fan. A fun read.

Unfortunately, horse racing continues to decline in popularity and rarely gets mainstream attention. If it did, this book might be a bestseller. Steve Crist is one of the best horse racing handicappers in the world but will be mainly revered by most horse racing fans as the man who had the guts to take on the Racing Form a number of years ago and then to come in and save the publication from its decline.

During what has been a short career, Crist has went to lead horse racing writer at the New York Times,editor of the Racing Times, served on a statewide commission regarding horse racing and now is the publisher of the Daily Racing Form. All of this is recounted in the book with prose that is easy to read and very informative.

The only minor quibble I would have with the book is that Crist spends very little time discussing the craft of betting on horses. He spends a few pages talking about the Pick Six, an exotic wager that he has hit many time, but doesn't explain his strategy in all that much detail. In some ways I don't blame him, but I sense that I could learn a lot from him which is why this book is worth buying.

I bought this book for background on a paper I was writing on horse racing, but read it cover to cover. Nobody knows or explains racing from a player's perspective better than Steven Crist. A great read from a guy who has been there, done it and tells a great story."

Don't be misled by the title; this book is not for everyone. Unless you are very comfortable with calculus and have more than a nodding acquaintance with differential equations this book isn't for you. The author does a good job of providing solutions to interesting problems through applied mathematics. However, he does something that mathematics professors always did that used to drive me crazy and it still does. He sets up a model, develops some defining equations and then makes a leap with something like "using these relationships, it can be established that ..." or "With this information, we easily determine that ..." Some intermediate steps would have been helpful.

The book is interesting and entertaining but without a background in calculus and an understanding of ordinary differential equations, you won't like it.

The charm and attraction of most of the problems in this book comes from their unusual nature. I for one probably would have never thought to ask what the relative areas of the colors are in the flag of the United States. Another fascinating computation deals with how many times the world's water has been consumed (ingested) by humans. Not surprisingly, it is on the order of one part per million. An interesting supplemental problem would be the rate of change of this ratio. Given the high current population, the rate of increase is the highest in history. While the problems are extremely interesting, one is often hard pressed to find a practical application for the results.
My favorite problem is the computation of the length of the seam of a baseball. The problem fits in well with the mindset of baseball aficionados, who adore obscure statistics concerning the sport they love so passionately. When the weather turns bad, there is not one person among us who has not stood in a shelter and asked the question, "Will I get more rain on me if I run as fast as I can or if I just walk?" The answer here is thorough, as the author even considers the amount of water that splashes on you when your feet hit the ground. To learn the answer to this pressing question, you will have to read it for yourself.
If you ever wish to complete my childhood fantasy of going to China by the direct route through the Earth, then you will want to read chapter 11 before you make the attempt. Assuming you can iron out all the minor engineering details concerning the molten core of the Earth, you will need to understand what will happen to an object at one end of the shaft if it is dropped. The journey to the other side of the Earth would also be a surprisingly short one, roughly forty two minutes in duration.
Learning and teaching mathematics requires that certain problems be presented and solved. However, once the core is covered, consider taking a sideways trip and explore these delightful oddities. It is well worth the effort.

This book, together with the author's earlier title "Towing Icebergs, Falling Dominoes" belong to the bookshelf of everyone who loves applied mathematics. They contain some of the best examples I have ever seen on "applied" math (versus many other great titles on "pure" math), represented by numerous fun and funny cases. Read the preface and be intrigued by the questions addressed in them. As all good scientists and engineers know, the key to problem solving is really not math, but how to apply them, how to "model" or "approximate" real world cases. That's what these 2 books are all about.

To fully appreciate these problem-solving skills, you need to be comfortable with advanced calculus or basic differential equations (probably at the halfway point of these courses). On the other hand, students who are taking these courses should read Banks' books just to see what they are really learning. Math really comes to alive through these pages. I had a great time.

My young nephews love - love! - this book. It reminds me of the Richard Scarry books that I was into as a kid. This is a numbers book--perhaps Mark Todd will do a storybook next time. After all, his audience are getting older every day!

Guess what? My 17 month old daughter loves Start Your Engines as much as the boys do. She has something that she does for each page (i.e. when "five foxes test the shocks" she bounces up and down; and when "four flamingoes fix a flat" she says "UH OH!!"). It's a great book with which to interact.

This book rocks! The illustration is wonderful. Super fun to read, and easy for kids of all ages to relate to.You can look at the pictures over and over and still see something new each time. Its the kind of book you want to keep for your whole life, and look back to fondly when you're an adult. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

This book provides the necessary information to get you going toward developing or improving your serious engine building skills. What it doesn't and shouldn't have are the figures for your particular combination. For example: If you are building a small block Ford, it doesn't tell you that your pin height should be XYZ with ABC stroke. What it does do is tell you how use the precision tools required to assemble cylinder heads, short block (including degreeing your cam) and all of the computational formulas needed for compression ratio, CID, etc..etc.

The material is presented well and is full of lots of good information without the common bias for a particular brand engine . Even though Small Block Chevy parts are pictorialized throughout the book, the text and information apply to any motor. An example describing how to check pushrod length and rocker arm geometry alone is worth $....

Impressive, fact-filled read of Engine Blueprinting without forcing you to go step-by-step, but giving them to you in logical order.

Take Care.

Rob!

I purchased and read several engine blueprinting books before undertaking my 396 LT1 stroker project. Voeglin's book is not a step by step guide, unless its been revised since I read it, but it does flow in logical order. What it does have is some of the best and most complete advise on what to check and why. This book is not for the plastigauge set: you'll need a set of micrometers and preferably a dial bore guage, etc. It will definately teach you how to use them.

Like most such books, it centers around the small block Chevrolet, but is not specific to them: he provides information in numerous places where Mopars and Fords deviate from the Chevrolet.

This book is packed with valuable information - a great text. it is the best engine book i have read- and i have tried quite a few. The author writes well and is not just repackaging information from every other how-to automotive book. In fact it is almost an overload and it might be even better with some tools to help bring it all together for someone who wants to apply this information to their own project.

For the author - you could really tie the information all together by putting in checklists at the end of the book, in addition to useful forms you already have. You could provide a selection of checklists for suggested preparation and mods for various levels of performance. You could add a project planning guide/checklist. you could add a suggested sequence of tasks for planning and carrying out an engine project. also, for those who will not do their own machine work - tips on choosing a good machine shop.

Also, we now know that exposure to various solvents, oils, used oils, and other chemicals can cause a variety of both acute and chronic illnesses. The illustrations in the book are great, but they show people using their bare hands to do various tasks that may expose their skin to potentially harmful substances, many of which can be harmful through skin absorption. Many of automotive/machine shop chemicals my have volatile components that can also create an inhalation hazard. Also, it is important to clean chemicals off of your skin before eating, smoking or holding your wife and kids. A few simple precautions can reduce or eliminate the potential harmful effects of these exposures: thin disposeable nitrile gloves (still have good tactile qualities and help reduce handwashing time and effort), frequent handwashing (especially immediately following accidental- or intentional - chemical-to-skin exposure), adequate ventilation, labelling of chemicals, Material Safety Data Sheets (so you know which chemicals are the really nasty ones), substitution of the nasty chemicals with less harmful ones where possible, proper storage of hazardous materials to prevent fire or spills. To preserve our environment for our kids: reuse or recycle chemicals, properly dispose of hazardous waste, keep harmful chemicals out of reach of kids, and teach your apprentice engine builders/racers/machinists good practices and respect for chemicals. Finally, it would set a good example to show the proper use of safety goggles or face shields in the illustrations. These precautions need not be restrictive. Good faceshields, gloves, ventilation and safety containers are designed to allow you to work unhindered.

These are meant as constructive suggestions to make a great book even better. thanks for the great information. You have helped me with my project. I will look for other books by the written by you.

Like the other reviewers, I loved this book. It will keep you interested in running for a long time to come. Henderson makes sense.

But I want to make sure that serious runners know what the book is really about. It's not a book about developing a competitive edge--at least not in the normal sense. It's not about living on the edge--in terms of high mileage training. It's about not falling off the edge--that is, staying healthy and interested in running over the long haul.

As much as I loved the book, I couldn't give it 5 stars because right now I'm in the competitive mode, determined to qualify and run the Boston Marathon. I need more tough training right now than Henderson promotes.

Once I run Boston, I'll come back to this book and love it more than ever.

I've only been running for about a year, and I was afraid this book would be too technical, or too focused on competitive/marathon runners. But I've gone through this book with a highlighter time and time again finding helpful tips to make running safer, healthier, and more fun. It's a keeper!

I am a triathlete, and as such I am always searching for ways to increase both my endurance and my enjoyment of excersize. Joe Henderson, not only makes reading about running fun but offers some unique and worthwhile suggestions for even the serious athlete.

Hey if it isn't still fun to run then read this book and follow his advice. Before long you will wonder why did not think to make these changes earlier and save yourself some unproductive pain.

Also, many of these lessons transfer nicely into other sports so do not be afraid to try them out.

"Betting Thoroughbreds" is a good book. After you read it, you will be equipped with many "weapons" on horse racing. This books tells you that horse racing is more an art than purely mathematics. I highly recommend you to read this book.

This is one of the best handicapping books I have ever read and I have read just about every one...it's not full of get rich quick strategies...just solid handicapping education by someone who has the experience and it shows in the book. I'd recommend this one coupled with Tom Ainslie's book.

From Silky Sullivan to the making of speed figures, and on through "looking through the trainer's window," Steve-O's book has things to teach even when he isn't trying. But most of all, this book is sound on the fundamentals. Handicapping thoroughbreds, as a craft, contains elements of math, intuition, reason and insight all bound up in a chance proposition. Cut down the chance-factors, concentrate on what you understand, and you CAN do well. Davidowitz's book is the first step & easy to read on top of it all.