Unlike its famous cousin the Tour de France, RAAM is much crazier, more gothic, and even savage: once the gun goes off the clock doesn't stop, and the first rider to complete the prescribed 3,000-mile route is the victor. In Hell on Two Wheels, Snyder follows a group of athletes before, during, and after the 2009 RAAM, the closest and most controversial race in the event's 30-year history. This work offers a thrilling and remarkably detailed account of the competitors' triumphs and tragedies as they test themselves, each other, and the limits of human endurance. As RAAM exacts its vicious toll, Snyder shows how the racers discover their essential humanity and experience profound joy and completeness, demonstrating how such a grueling effort can also be cleansing and self-revelatory.

    But is the rise of this most brutal and challenging sport―with races that extend into hundreds of miles, often in extreme environments―an antidote to modern life, or a symptom of a modern illness?In The Rise of the Ultra Runners, award-winning author Adharanand Finn travels to the heart of the sport to investigate the reasons behind its rise and discover what it takes to join the ranks of these ultra athletes. Through encounters with the extreme and colorful characters of the ultramarathon world, and his own experiences of running ultras everywhere from the deserts of Oman to the Rocky Mountains, Finn offers a fascinating account of people testing the boundaries of human endeavor.

    The workout never stays the same for long and the results–toned arms, flat abs, tight buns, lean legs, and curves in all the right places–just keep on coming.With no diet pills, gimmicks, or gadgets, The Body Sculpting Bible for Women, Revised Edition is the gold standard for body sculpting, and the essential guide to getting you the body of your dreams.Visit us online at www.bodysculptingbible.com.

    Good climbers have to build and maintain each of these assets. This is the first-ever book to provide climbers of all ages and experience with the knowledge and tools to design and follow a comprehensive, personalized exercise program. Part One covers the basics of physical conditioning and goal-setting. Part Two takes readers through warm-up and flexibility routines, entry-level strength training, weight loss tips, and fifteen core-conditioning exercises. Part Three details climbing-specific conditioning, with twenty exercises to target specific muscles of the fingers, arms and upper torso to develop power and endurance. An entire chapter focuses on the antagonist muscle groups that help provide balance and stability, and prevent muscle injury. This section also has a chapter devoted to stamina conditioning, increasing the climber's endurance at high altitudes. Part Four shows how to put together a customized training program to suit the climber's needs. The book includes workout sheets for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced skill levels, tips for children and those over age fifty, secrets of good nutrition and an insider's take on avoiding injuries. Eric H�rst is a performance coach who has helped thousands of climbers. His published works include Learning to Climb Indoors, Training for Climbing, and How to Climb 5.12. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

    In this compact and accessible book, he shows readers exactly how to improve and maintain the functioning of their knees by enhancing the four crucial abilities every knee must have:** muscular strength** flexibility** responsiveness (proprioception)** enduranceA chapter is devoted to each of these four functions, showing why they are essential. The reader is shown exactly how to do simple home exercises designed to restore or improve that particular ability. The last chapter is a "master plan" that pulls together all the concepts and exercises into a time-efficient exercise program. The author guides the reader effortlessly through the exercise routine.Clear drawings illustrate the muscles responsible for knee pain and the exact way to do the exercises.All the information is based on research trials and studies and evidence from peer-reviewed journals. The author has chosen for this book the best techniques for relieving knee pain.

     The Program: THE MERIDIAN FLEXIBILITY SYSTEM® provides stretches for 16 unique muscle groups with physiological and psychological benefits.

    wrestling champion Buddy Lee presents his jump rope training system used by over 25 U.S. Olympic teams.Workouts for a variety of sport skill and fitness components are included, such as endurance, strength and power, speed, agility, and balance. This second edition also includes the latest on rehabilitation of sport injuries and optimizing body composition for athletic performance. And, to get you started immediately, Jump Rope Training presents sample sport-specific training programs for more than 40 sports.If you're ready to take your workouts to the next level, turn to the system that the world's top athletes have come to rely on. Jump Rope Training will not only change the way you train but also change how you feel, look, and perform. It's the proven approach to improving fitness and performance.

    Recent studies have shown that up to 85% of runners get injured every year, how natural is that? The most important question that running "barefoot" or "naturally" doesn't address is how we should run. Repetitive ground impact forces are at the root of most running injuries. A 30 minute jog can log more than 5,000 foot strikes; its because of this volume of movement that efficient

    He was immediately inspired – but it was a huge undertaking and he’d hardly been on a bike in years. Could he really cycle all the way round the world, solo and unsupported?Six months later, after completing a punishing training schedule and packing up everything he owned into boxes, Sean was in Greenwich Park on the start line of the adventure of a lifetime. Soon he was way ahead of schedule, averaging 180 miles per day, and on course to break the round the world cycling record. But then disaster struck, and Sean was forced to confront the possibility that he may not be able to complete the race...In the course of his 16,000-mile journey, Sean travelled the famous pan-American highway across the Atacama Desert, outran tornados, relied on fellow travellers to ferry water across the Australian outback, and inadvertently joined a cycle club in Mumbai. He learnt things about himself he didn’t know and rediscovered a spirit of adventure that changed everything. This is a book about an amazing and sometimes incredibly difficult journey, but it’s also a book about never giving up when there’s an opportunity to follow your dreams.

    Allen Lim left the lab to work with professional cyclists, he found athletes weary of processed bars and gels and the same old pasta. So Lim joined professional chef Biju Thomas to make eating delicious and practical. When the menu changed, no one could argue with the race results. Their groundbreaking Feed Zone Cookbook brought the favorite recipes of the pros to everyday athletes. In their new cookbook Feed Zone Portables, Chef Biju and Dr. Lim offer 75 all-new portable food recipes for cyclists, runners, triathletes, mountain bikers, climbers, hikers, and backpackers. Each real food recipe is simple, delicious during exercise, easy to make—and ready to go on your next ride, run, climb, hike, road trip, or sporting event.Feed Zone Portables expands on the most popular features of The Feed Zone Cookbook with more quick and easy recipes for athletes, beautiful full-color photographs of every dish, complete nutrition data, tips on why these are the best foods for athletes, and time-saving ways on how to cook real food every day. In his introduction to Feed Zone Portables, Dr. Lim makes the case for real food as a more easily digestible, higher-performance source of energy than prepackaged fuel products. He shows how much athletes really need to eat and drink at different exercise intensities and in cold or hot weather. Because the body burns solid and liquid foods differently, Lim defines a new approach for athletes to drink for hydration and eat real food for energy.Feed Zone Portables includes • 75 all-new recipes that taste great during exercise: Rice Cakes, Two-Bite Pies, Griddle Cakes, Waffles, Baked Eggs, Sticky Bites, Rice Balls, Ride Sandwiches, Baked Cakes, and Cookies • A smart introduction on how real food works better for athletes • More than 50 no-fuss gluten-free recipes, including great-tasting cookies and cakes • More than 50 vegetarian recipes With the recipes, ideas, and guidance in Feed Zone Portables, athletes will nourish better performance with real food and learn to prepare their own creations at home or on the go.

    The book is a sensible workout plan which features two programs for all ages and levels of ability and is perfect for the home or gym.

    He has run over mountains, across Death Valley, and to the South Pole-and is probably the first person to eat an entire pizza while running. With an insight, candor, and humor rarely seen in sports memoirs (and written without the aid of a ghostwriter or cowriter), Ultramarathon Man has inspired tens of thousands of people-nonrunners and runners alike-to push themselves beyond their comfort zones and be reminded of what it feels like to be truly alive, says Sam Fussell, author of Muscle.Ultramarathon Man answers the questions Karnazes is continually asked:- Why do you do it?- How do you do it?- Are you insane?And in the new paperback edition, Karnazes answers the two questions he was most asked on his book tour:- What, exactly, do you eat?- How do you train to stay in such good shape?

    Universe competitionThis one-of-a-kind book profiles the high-intensity training (HIT) techniques pioneered by the late Mike Mentzer, the legendary bodybuilder, leading trainer, and renowned bodybuilding consultant. His highly effective, proven approach enables bodybuilders to get results--and win competitions--by doing shorter, less frequent workouts each week. Extremely time-efficient, HIT sessions require roughly 40 minutes per week of training--as compared with the lengthy workout sessions many bodybuilders would expect to put in daily.In addition to sharing Mentzer's workout and training techniques, featured here is fascinating biographical information and striking photos of the world-class bodybuilder--taken by noted professional bodybuilding photographers--that will inspire and instruct serious bodybuilders and weight lifters everywhere.

    The McGann's passionate and insightful writing evokes the raucous cast of riders, promoters, and journalists thrusting through highs and lows worthy of opera. This volume stands out as a must-read book for anyone seeking to appreciate cycling's race of races." -Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America's Jazz Age Sport and Hearts of Lions "There are LOTS of books on the Tour de France. An increasing number of them are actually written in English. However, of those, none educates Americans about this grand spectacle�s rich past. The Tour de France has a history as fascinating and sordid as Rome�s and it is high time someone undertook to explain this to our American sensibility. Our guide for the trip is a man with a ravenous appetite for both world history and bicycle racing, just the sort of person to paint a Tour champion with the dramatic grandiosity befitting Hannibal himself." -Pat Brady, Editor, Asphalt Magazine At the dawn of the 20th Century, French newspapers used bicycle races as promotions to build readership. Until 1903 these were one-day events. Looking to deliver a coup de grace in a vicious circulation war, Henri Desgrange�editor of the Parisian sports magazine L�Auto�took the suggestion of one of his writers to organize a race that would last several days longer than anything else, like the 6-day races on the track, but on the road. That�s exactly what happened. For almost 3 weeks the riders in the first Tour de France rode over dirt roads and cobblestones in a grand circumnavigation of France. The race was an electrifying success. Held annually (suspended only during the 2 World Wars), the Tour grew longer and more complex with an ever-changing set of rules, as Desgrange kept tinkering with the Tour, looking for the perfect formula for his race. Each year a new cast of riders would assemble to contest what has now become the greatest sporting event in the world.

    Yet surprisingly, for many, a desire to go faster is much more important than a desire to win. Someone who wants to go faster will work at the details and take small steps rather than focusing on winning. Winning just happens when you do everything right-it's the doing everything right that's hard. And that's what fascinates and obsesses Michael Hutchinson.With his usual deadpan delivery and an awareness that it's all mildly preposterous, Hutchinson looks at the things that make you faster-training, nutrition, the right psychology-and explains how they work, and how what we know about them changes all the time. He looks at the things that make you slower, and why, and how attempts to avoid them can result in serious athletes gradually painting themselves into the most peculiar life-style corners.Faster is a book about why cyclists do what they do, about what the riders, their coaches and the boffins get up to behind the scenes, and about why the whole idea of going faster is such an appealing, universal instinct for all of us.