Why we run bernd heinrich

He has held numerous running records throughout his life and has committed much of his time to the study of the natural world.

His passion for running, and movement in general comes across so strongly in the interview. Having trained as a sports rehabilitation therapist, James now works exclusively with distance runners, helping athletes from beginner to pro to run stronger and pain free.

Map Find Harvard Book Store ». Harvard University harvard. Advanced Search. Our Shelves. Gift Cards. Add a gift card to your order! Choose your denomination:. It begins as a memoir, a look into his life as a child in eastern Europe. He enjoys describing the landscape and letting us even smell what his formative years were like. The problem is, these stories and locations don't come back later in the book to provide any reflective lessons or allow us to look back on his life with any new information.

Secondly, the framing of the book is a bit self-serving. It begins with Heinrich lining up to run a championship k race in Chicago in From there it steps back to his childhood, then leapfrogs to descriptions of the aerobic mechanics of various animals, from frogs to pronghorn antelopes, birds, and dogs. This, for me, was the best part of the book. He discusses each animal's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to endurance, from describing their physical composition to meticulously breaking down their abilities to take in air, perform and preserve energy.

We get insight into the camel's ability to stay hydrated, the cheetah's competitive advantage in explosive strength and an enlightening view of the pronghorn antelope's status as the best ultrarunning animal of its kind. But then once that is over, we come back to his k race, where he describes in huffs and puffs what it is like to run very fast for very long. He doesn't neatly weave back the lessons he's taught us in the previous chapters to any real relevance -- were he to describe his actions while running and compare them to other animals, I'd get a sense of cohesion.

This, however, wouldn't solve the irrelevance of his childhood vignettes. Sadly, this book wasn't as interesting as I was hoping it would be and it only served to show that I can read a book on running and not love it. View all 3 comments. Shelves: favorites. Award-winning ultra-marathoner, biologist, and writer Bernd Heinrich weaves a warm, persuasive narrative with threads of scientific data from his studies as a biologist and also with personal stories from his life as a dedicated runner.

Indeed, Why We Run brings together elements of an autobiography, of research notes on animal physical endurance, and of storytelling for distance runners. The result is a bid to understand that ordinary people poses the ability to run the distance and acquire eve Award-winning ultra-marathoner, biologist, and writer Bernd Heinrich weaves a warm, persuasive narrative with threads of scientific data from his studies as a biologist and also with personal stories from his life as a dedicated runner.

The result is a bid to understand that ordinary people poses the ability to run the distance and acquire even other desirable athletic abilities. But the invitation comes in a most unusual way. In the book, the author finds meaningful connections among otherwise disparate topics. Bees, antelopes, the Nandi tribe, the runner Barney Klecker, and even cranberry juice all help explain the nature of running. With this unique approach, the reader may seem pulled in different directions, but the reading flows surprisingly easily and interestingly.

Heinrich starts and ends the book by recounting a kilometer championship in Chicago. Corresponding with his warm-up for the race is a small amateur, but inspiring view of running history. Still outlining his running philosophy, Heinrich establishes an experiential reality of running that even explores some popular running myths.

He points out that most of the record-breaking Kenyan ultra-marathoners come from the laborious Nandi tribe, where running is a vital, natural ability for hunting food.

The author also shares some personal gems of wisdom and results of makeshift experiments with running exercises and diets. For example, he downplays the usefulness of stretching, and yet believes that modern cross-training techniques are reasonable for long-distance runners. The book finally concludes in a full circle with the account of the kilometer race against All-American ultra-runners. Probably to the surprise of many, the book is not a how-to-be-an-athlete, an instructional guide, or a customary piece of writing.

Why We Run simply tries to answer the same question the title is asking. View 1 comment. Bullet Review: I started this in July?! Geez, my reading really has suffered this year. This was a strange book. When the book is about that, I found it great.

Interesting, but a bit of a trudge. Not surprising it took so long to finish. Know what you're getting into. The cover and title are misleading. I loved Winter World and felt that Heinrich was a magnificent writer and scientist. This book muchly undid that feeling.

Firstly, what this book is not about: antelope, prehistorical man, the Olympics, modern running, Bernd's life, how to run, or why we run. It is, instead, partially about all of these things and more. It sounds like they might combine fabulously. But if you look at the other reviews, you'll see that for many it fal Know what you're getting into. But if you look at the other reviews, you'll see that for many it falls piteously short, because it tries to cover several topics without smoothly combining them.

It seems distinctly cut into near-disconnected chunks, and never covers any one topic completely. The main reason it comes off this way is simple: people interested in competitive running aren't usually interested in the complex physiology of animals; and people interested in explanatory, descriptive nature writing aren't usually interested in the names, times, and general specifics of competitive running. As a result, most people feel that only half or less of the book was of interest.

But as others have opined, the writing isn't that good either. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that if Bernd wasn't already well-established, this book would not be in print, or at the very least doing anywhere near as well as it is. It almost seems unfair, honestly.

If my rating which is due to the book having many insightful comments and containing interesting biological information weren't a 3, it wouldn't be a 4, if you take my meaning. If this all weren't enough, Bernd comes off as egotistical yet tries to seem humble, and it detracts from the book. His continual determination to win is sometimes weakly masked by comments like, "I did not record my finishing pace I think I was third I just wish he'd be more upfront about the fact that he wanted to be first and the best in everything he attempted.

Finally, I love animals in the lovey sense, not just the "you are cool" sense. For some scientists, animals are wonderful and fascinating; and they're even more fascinating once you grind them up whole to measure lactic acid or shoot them down and observe them in detail.

Don't think I didn't notice your brazen justification for meat-eating and hunting, Bernd, cuz there's only one group one would feel the need to argue against on that point. I normally don't mind these things I did find the frog-grinding highly disturbing , but once that justification was added, I definitely felt a little annoyed. In short, most people would benefit by skipping this book. I don't have much interest in running I picked it up thinking it involved early man and animals like antelopes, which I love , so I haven't gone into this, but I suggest looking up a book that better covers that interest, or whichever one you have.

If you're strongly interested in Heinrich, how animals expend energy, AND competitive running, then give it a shot. I really wanted to love this book, which I happily chanced on at a second-hand bookshop at a time when I am trying to double down on my training. But though I eagerly lap up non-fiction science books, this came as a complete and utter disappointment. I saw them carrying their black lunch pails, with a thermos and sandwich, each morning on their way to the dreary bowels of the claning wooden mill.

In the evening they came back, milked the cow, and went to bed. After some years of the same endlessly repeating routine, they died, usually in the same hospital they were born. I wanted to do something different. Such a great book. I'd like to take Bernd out for coffee and go for a run in the woods with him! Jul 23, Phillip Lecheminant rated it it was amazing.

One of my favorite books of I had never heard of it until I was browsing the sale section on iBooks and decided to take a chance. There were three main components on running included in this book.

You'll learn what is actually happening in your body when you run. Fair warning, it can get a little technical in places, but Bernd is a talented author that makes the hard science really interesting.

The chapter on antelopes is worth the book alone. They can maintain sprint speeds for long distances and have been reported to run 7 miles in 10 minutes.

Oftentimes they'll race cars and trains for the sheer enjoyment of a "running" competition. He included many philosophical tangents about his love for running. Running is a primitive act that connects us with our ancient ancestors.

From the beginning of mankind, humans have had to run and hunt with a specific goal in mind in order to survive. While I was once adamantly opposed to running, after training for my first half marathon I believe I activated that primitive desire to run with a goal in mind and fell in love with the very first sport of human existence.

I plan on reviewing this book before my first marathon. Jun 20, Keith rated it liked it Shelves: health-and-fitness. This book was very different than I expected. I though it would be a history of running, perhaps about the Tarahumara.

The first third was biography. Just as I reconciled myself to reading a biography, it switched to the metabolism details of specific insects. Then running metabolism of large mammals.

When we got to the last third of the book it was about his running training as an adult. At least twice he ignored medical advice and pressed on. In his case, he survived without permanent injury. He This book was very different than I expected. Through the course of reading this book I went from disappointment, to learning something, to being interested in the outcome of his training.