Taking The Long Way Home: Adventures of A Retired Couple Bicycling Across America


G. Frank Miller - 2012
    Three thousand one hundred miles and seventy-seven days later they arrived home in Melbourne Beach, Florida. The book, Taking the Long Way Home, is the story of this long journey. On their way home, the Millers crossed deserts, climbed mountains, and rode through large cities. They had to deal with aggressive dogs and aggressive police officers while meeting cowboys, an Emmy winner, a desert rat, EMTs, preachers, and a lot of friendly, interesting people. The America they experienced, traveling at 15 miles per hour while stopping in every small town in their path, was much different than the America seen from a car traveling 70 miles per hour on an interstate highway.Adventure starts when trip plans take a detour. Taking the Long Way Home is the story of an adventure. Each day the Millers mounted their bikes in a town they had never been before, and rode east to a destination that was determined as the day unfolded. They spent whole days feeling like the only ones on the road in a desolate part of America. Other days they were battling for space on crowded major highways. It is the author's hope that this story will encourage others to step out of their comfort zone and look for an interesting and long way home.

Waking Up in a Tent: Empty Nest on the Pacific Crest Trail


Laurel Siegel Gord - 2017
    What could possibly go wrong? “What was I thinking? In that moment of madness, I completely forgot that I’m a total wuss, terrified of heights. In my defense, it doesn’t come up much in my city life, although I do need to practice meditative deep breathing on freeway overpasses….” So swept along by the enthusiasm of her usually very predictable husband, a newly retired engineer, Laurel agrees to leave her overly busy life behind, let go of her worries about her grown children, and spend two months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. She hopes the shared adventure will bring added intimacy to her odd-couple marriage and that time in nature will support her spiritual growth, or at least help her talk some sense into her rampaging inner critic. Despite paralyzing fear, sickness, injury, and hail, the majestic grandeur of the High Sierra did work some kind of miracle. “I picked up Waking up in a Tent, planning to spend a few minutes looking it over. Before I knew it, two hours had flown by and I was halfway through the book. Much of the book’s charm comes from Laurel’s determination to bring a spiritual perspective to hardships on the trail and friction with her husband. It’s not only a great read, but an education in how to maintain a rewarding marriage.” Carolyn Godschild Miller, Ph.D. author of Creating Miracles, A Practical Guide to Divine Intervention “I’ve never been backpacking, but I felt I was there on the trail with Laurel and John, marveling at the beauty around me. Although Laurel struggles, she never takes herself too seriously, and that’s where the humor comes in. I laughed out loud at the depictions of her inner dialogue.” Joan Bell

Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal


Daniel Friebe - 2012
    I chose to race, so I chose to win.' For 14 years between 1965 and 1978, cyclist Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx simply devoured his rivals, their hopes and their careers. His legacy resides as much in the careers he ruined as the 445 victories - including five Tour de France wins and all the monument races - he amassed in his own right. So dominant had Merckx become by 1973 that he was ordered to stay away from the Tour for the good of the event.Stage 17 of the 1969 Tour de France perfectly illustrates his untouchable brilliance. Already wearing the yellow jersey on the col du Tourmalet, the Tour's most famous peak, Merckx powered clear and rode the last 140 kilometres to the finish-line in jaw-dropping solitude, eight minutes ahead of his nearest competitor.Merckx's era has been called cycling's Golden Age. It was full of memorable characters who, at any other time, would all have gone on to become legends. Yet Merckx's phenomenal career overshadowed them all. How did he achieve such incredible success? And how did his rivals really feel about him? Merckx failed drug tests three times in his career - were they really stitch ups as he claimed? And what of the crash at a track meet in Blois, France that killed Merckx's pacer Fernand Wambst, which Merckx claimed deeply affected him psychologically and physically? Or the attack by a spectator in 1975?Despite his unique achievements, we know little about the Cannibal beyond his victories. This is the first comprehensive biography of Merckx in English, and finally exposes the truth behind this legendary man.

Better Than Steroids


Warren Willey - 2006
    Better Than Steroids! is the secret to a bodybuilder's physique! Loaded with the exceptionally confidential information of successful bodybuilding, this book is a MUST for anyone wanting to look good!

The Bloodied Field


Michael Foley - 2014
    That afternoon she went with her fiancée to watch Tipperary and Dublin play a gaelic football match at Croke Park. Across the city nine men lay dead in their beds after a synchronised IRA attack designed to cripple British intelligence services in Ireland. Trucks of police and military rumbled through the city streets as hundreds of people clamoured at the metal gates of Dublin Castle seeking refuge. Some of them were headed for Croke Park.Award-winning journalist and author Michael Foley recounts the extraordinary story of Bloody Sunday in Croke Park and the 90 seconds of shooting that changed Irish history forever. In a deeply intimate portrait he tells for the first time the stories of those killed, the police and military that were in Croke Park that day, and the families left shattered in its aftermath, all against the backdrop of a fierce conflict that stretched from the streets of Dublin and the hedgerows of Tipperary to the halls of Westminster.

Pedalare!: A History of Italian Cycling


John Foot - 2011
    It was a sport so popular that it created the geography of Italy in the minds of her citizens, and some have said that it was cycling, not political change, that united Italy.Pedalare! Pedalare! is the first complete history of Italian cycling to be published in English. The book moves chronologically from the first Giro d'Italia (Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France) in 1909 to the present day. The tragedies and triumphs of great riders such as Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali appear alongside stories of the support riders, snow-bound mountains and the first and only woman to ride the whole Giro.Cycling's relationship with Italian history, politics and culture is always up front, with reference to fascism, the cold war and the effect of two world wars. The sport is explored alongside changes in Italian society as a whole, from the poor peasants who took up cycling in the early, pioneering period, to the slick, professional sport of today. Scandals and controversy appear throughout the book as constant features of the connection between fans, journalists and cycling.Concluding with an examination of doping, which has helped to destroy what was at one time the most popular sport of all, Pedalare, Pedalare is an engrossing history of a national passion.

Crossing the Line: How Australian Cricket Lost Its Way


Gideon Haigh - 2018
    Y’know, it's not within the spirit of the game.’ Steve Smith was not to know it at Cape Town on 24 March 2018, but he was addressing his last press conference as captain of the Australian cricket team. By the next day morning he would be swept from office by a tsunami of public indignation involving even the prime minister. In a unique admission, Smith confessed to condoning a policy of sandpapering the cricket ball in a Test against South Africa. He, the instigator David Warner and their agent Cameron Bancroft returned home to disgrace and to lengthy bans. The crisis plunged Australian cricket into a bout of unprecedented soul searching, with Cricket Australia yielding to demands for reviews of the cricket team and of itself to restore confidence in their ‘culture’. In Crossing the Line, Gideon Haigh conducts his own cultural review – ‘less official and far cheaper but genuinely independent’. Studying the cricket team across a decade of radical change, he finds an accident waiting to happen, and a system struggling to cope with self-created challenges, on the field and in the boardroom. And he wonders: is there even any longer a spirit of the game to be within? Crossing the Line is the first instalment in Slattery Media Group’s Sports Shorts collection, a new series of sports essays published as small-format books. Sports Shorts has been created as a home for ambitious, lively and engaging writing and journalism on sport—work of a scale and scope not suited to the confines of day-to-day journalism. Every instalment will illuminate or entertain, all the while fitting into your back pocket on the way to the game.

Training For Ultra: Ultra Running Stories From the Middle of the Pack


Rob Steger - 2019
    After my dad's major health scare, it was time for me to change everything. Little did I know how much I would learn after taking on some physical exercise. A radical diet change allowed me to lose a forth of my body weight and it gave me boundless energy to get outside and explore. It’s not clear to me why I chose running ultra marathons of all forms of exercise, since I was unable to run beyond 1 mile just a few years prior. But since that fateful day, I’ve never looked back. I was finding that sometimes the experiences of training for ultra could be just as rich and fulfilling as the ultra event itself.

The Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance


Adharanand Finn - 2019
    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.

Swim Speed Secrets for Swimmers and Triathletes


Sheila Taormina - 2012
    Over the course of 4 Olympic Games and throughout her career as a world champion triathlete, Taormina refined her exceptional technique as a student of the sport, studying the world's best swimmers using underwater photographs and video analysis. From Johnny Weissmuller to Michael Phelps, the world’s fastest swimmers share one common element: a high-elbow underwater pull. Too many swimmers and triathletes neglect the pull, distracted by stroke count or perfecting details like body position or streamlining. Taormina uses simple science and crystal clear underwater photos of Olympic athletes to show how the high-elbow underwater pull is the most crucial technique for faster swimming. With a commonsense approach that comes from decades of practice and 15 years of hands-on coaching experience, Taormina’s Swim Speed Secrets gives triathletes and swimmers the clear direction they need to overhaul their swim stroke and find the speed that’s been eluding them. Swim Speed Secrets includes: · The best drills to cultivate a more sensitive feel for the water· Dryland and strength building exercises to develop arm position and upper body musculature· Crisp photos of Olympic swimmers and variations in their high-elbow underwater pull· Clear descriptions of the key moments of the underwater pull· Tips that helped her perform at a world-class level for two decades Swim Speed Secrets brings the focus back where it belongs—to a powerful underwater stroke. With this book, triathletes and swimmers can stop swimming for survival and break through to new levels of speed and confidence in the water.

Let Every Breath... Secrets of the Russian Breath Masters


Vladimir Vasiliev - 2006
    This groundbreaking manual on Systema Breathing presents step-by-step training drills given to you in a thorough and comprehensive way. You will learn the unique methodology of Systema Breathing and get the foundation for every physical activity of your daily life. Whether you are looking to raise your athletic skills to the next level, or wish to increase your potential and to enjoy life, this is your tool to uncover the endless reserve of energy, health and happiness. At the same time, it is very easy reading, full of entertaining stories and thought provoking ideas.

Functional Training for Sports


Michael Boyle - 2003
    Through Functional Training for Sports, you will improve your total athleticism, enhance your performance, and reduce injuries through exercise progressions that will spur your development potential for specific movement patterns you commonly use in your sport.Providing tests for you to determine where to start, the progressions focus on training for the torso, the upper body, and the lower body. The book also provides detailed programs that incorporate the exercises and methods for these progressions. As you master each progression, you will be preparing yourself to perform in any situation with notable improvements in stability and balance, reaction time, core strength, and power.This whole-body, sport-applied system makes Functional Training for Sports your key to today's most effective and efficient training!

Fit For My King (His Princess)


Sheri Rose Shepherd - 2009
    Today, at nearly 50 years old, Sheri Rose is healthy and free. More than a half a million women have been set free through this life changing teaching.You can win this diet war once and for all! Sheri Rose Shepherd walks through each day with you, supporting you with 30 days of life changing devotions, heartwarming stories, creative cooking, and a daily dose of Scripture to keep you on track. The treasures of truth found in these pages will transform the way you see yourself forever.It's time to get your girlfriends together and become the best version of you! God loves you and will be with you every step of the way.

Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career


Tim Noakes - 2011
    Through a lifetime of research, he has developed key scientific concepts in sport that have not only redefined the way elite athletes and teams approach their professions, but challenged conventional global thinking in these areas.In this new and updated edition of Challenging Beliefs, Noakes gives his views on everything from overtraining, banned substances and the dangers of rugby to the sports-drink industry, and children and sport, debunking a few sporting myths in the process. Stories and case studies of the teams and athletes with whom he has worked are also included. In providing an intimate look at the golden threads running through Noakes's life and career, this truly fascinating book reveals the groundbreaking theories and principles generated by one of the greatest minds in the history of sports science.

High-Intensity Interval Training for Women: Burn More Fat in Less Time with HIIT Workouts You Can Do Anywhere


Sean Bartram - 2015
    according to the annual survey conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine... and for good reason! HIIT is widely recognized as the most efficient and effective way to burn fat and get in top physical condition. By alternating between intense bursts of exercise and less-intense periods of activity, the body burns more calories--even after working out--in less time compared to traditional forms of exercise.Written by the Official Trainer of the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders, High-Intensity Interval Training for Women is a step-by-step, highly visual guide packed with exercises, workouts, and multi-day programs to satisfy every fitness goal and any time commitment. Featured images include the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders in both swimsuit and game day attire. Women will learn the right way to perform more than 80 HIIT exercises that can be done anywhere and cover all the major muscle groups, with emphasis on core and lower body, and then they will learn how to integrate those exercises into a variety of workouts and programs that maximize results over a minimal amount of time.