Book was okay for learning about the sport of cross-country running but not a great read as it got repetitive at times. I really didn't enjoy it all that much for that reason, but I did finish the book and I always give at least three stars for any book that keeps my attention until the end. Meaning it's at least okay overall.

I’ve been looking for a really good book about distance running for a very long time. And unfortunately, I’m still looking.

While Bloom writes competently and the subject matter had potential, there simply wasn’t enough here to justify an entire book. It gets very repetitive about a quarter of the way in and stays that way. This would have made a great long form article, but it’s very thin on content for a book of its length.

I was somewhat curious to compare the training methods of the best cross country team in America with that of my own former team (dominant in the area but not nationally relevant). It would seem that we did a lot more interval training and logged a lot less mileage, but there were some similarities. And weirdly, it seems we both listened to a lot of Pink Floyd.

It’s an interesting topic and Bloom does what he can with the material he has to work with, but this wasn’t the riveting tome on distance running that I keep trying and failing to find.