Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Book Review: OneHourIronMen

OneHourIronMen
 Bob Shuler


"Embrace and enjoy the day"


Still being relatively new to Triathlon and preparing for my first Iron Distance race this May (IMTX) I had been anxiously awaiting the release of OneHourIronMen ($13) by Bob "IronBob" Shuler.  Bob is a fellow blogger who is someone who has years of experience in endurance sports.  Bob has also been gracious enough to exchange emails with me over the last year helping me with nutrition and training numerous times.  He has helped me become better and more knowledgeable at this sport and I really respect his opinion.   So when I heard he was going to take all of his pearls of wisdom and place them in print I knew this was a book I wanted to read.

The subtitle to OneHourIronMen is: An Average Joe's Guide To Having It All In Iron Distance Racing (Family, Career, Spare Time & Training).  This really sums up the book rather nicely.  

The guts of the book is about how the everyday Age Grouper can complete one Iron Distance race per year by following a simple training plan that require no more than a one-hour average of training over 365 days.  Now do not be confused by the title this is not a Six Minute Abs type of sales pitch because hard work and dedication are required in order to reach your dreams of becoming an Ironman. And Bob gives you an easy to follow plan to achieve this goal but you will still need to put in the training.  I am not going to go into detail and give away all the training nuggets - you'll just have to buy the book yourself!

After you absorb the information about training the rest of the 159 pages of OneHourIronMen is focused on the trials and tribulations of Bob and his training partner Arnie.  They are the human guinea pigs in the  OneHourIronMen experiment.  I found Bob's writing style to be very engaging and quite easy to read.  I actually was through the entire book in under two-hours.  

Now this book is not just for the beginner Ironman.  Bob goes on to share information about equipment, nutrition, race day prep, motivation, blogs, the history of Ironman, and a few other miscellaneous tips.  As a novice I will use sections of this book as I prepare for my Ironman race and I imagine veteran Ironman can use the book to compare and contrast their own experiences with Bob's.  

Okay, now that OneHourIronMen has been given the Carrot Stamp of Approval you are probably dying to know how you can pick up your copy?  Very easy  Go to Ebay and type:  OneHourIronMen (plural)

On a personal note, a big Thank You to Bob for sharing his story with us in OneHourIronMan and I wish you the best of luck at Ironman Louisville on August 29th ... and I got the first round of beers after Ironman Texas!

Thanks for Reading, 

Jeff

(Disclaimer:  This book was paid for by me and the opinions are mine alone.)

10 comments:

  1. cool gonna check it out for sure, thanks for the review Jeff.

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  2. Thanks for the review! I've been meaning to check it out! :)

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  3. Wow, that book sounds awesome. I'll have to check it out!

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  4. I will def add this to my list of books to add to my library :) thanks!

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  5. Hey I just got the book in teh mail! Thanks for the review - time to sit down and do some reading!

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  6. Sounds like a great read and something that isn't touched on a lot when it comes to IM (the life balance).

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  7. Thanks! I'm going to have to pick myself up a copy.

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  8. I am ready to buy it and check it out for myself!

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  9. Oh man you stole my thunder! Good review, knew you'd like the stats.

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