eBook Meditations From the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America ePub

The journey runner takes you on an adventure that perfectly embodies the simplistic nature of running. We often forget just the value of each step forward into the open space, and Shapiro helps you reconnect to that feeling. I consistently read and re-read this book for the last two months of a personal goal to complete 100+ miles a week for one full year. It kept my focus on the goal, and successfully magnified an appreciation for running in and of itself.

Required reading for anyone who desires to run at the highest level . James Shapiro does not compete with other runners but with himself and the limit beliefs and fears that hold him back . He shows great courage in facing up and running through his own limiting beliefs . He also wrote the book "on the road-the marathon "under the name Jim Shapiro

Shapiro captures the poetic beauty of a transcontinental run and provides insight into why runners are drawn to this distance.

Poetic, honest with jems of brilliant insights scatters all over. It inspired many of my longer and harder runs.

I ordered 'Meditations From The Breakdown Lane' as a used book, and it arrived promptly and was in good condition. The price was right, and the book is an outstanding read! I would definitely buy a used item from Amazon again, and this reseller was great as well!

Great inspirational reading if you're into long distance running and interested in the how things were back in the 70-80-ties.

Shapiro is a great writer. He spent several months running from just north of San Francisco to New York - using this book to share his innermost thoughts. He gets quite philosophical about life, relationships, jobs, perseverance, etc... He also talks about the joy of running, the endurance mindset, all the odd peripheral stuff (finding money on the road, dirty diapers, shoes, etc...), the people he meets along the way, the greater appreciation he gets for people in more rural areas, and a bunch of other musings that really make the book readable and make this sentence a huge run-on sentence. It helps that Shapiro spent time with Zen prior to his run. Shapiro spends a lot of time on perseverance, even what happens when an injury threatens to end his run. Yet... this perseverance theme is a more minor part of the book than many similar books that fixate on endurance events

I read this book about 5 years after it first came out, and I appreciated the running portions at my young age, but not all the philosophical parts. Fast forward 25 years - and with the wisdom of age - I have a much greater appreciation for the balance of it all.

Highly recommend as motivational for any sort of endurance athlete, not just runners - and even those needing a long-term approach to life vs. a sprint could get value from it.

I read the book when it first came out in the 1980s. A few days ago--Feb. 2012--I pulled it from the shelf again. My markings 30+ years ago indicated how much it impressed me then. At that time I was a runner too but a marathon was a long daya and only happened twice over 28 years. Ultramarathons were but a dream. Those days and dreams ended with a knee replacement some years back.

However, now, as a long distance bicyclist, I am finding the book just as inspiring. Shapiro's writing gets at the essence, the Zen, of long sustained effort over time. You come to find out who you are. You keep going. You eventually learn you are the thing that keeps going. There is a sense of peace and deep accomplishment with that kind of sustained effort, where you finally take yourself to the essentials. As one of his teachers said, breathe in the world, breathe out the self. His writing expresses this very fine experience well. I would call it a spiritual book, one that any endurance athlete will find satisfying in a deep way, like the endurance activity itself.