Older, Faster, Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer

There were many similarities between the author and myself, (even my first name). My challenges, thoughts were on these pages. I even choked up at the end! Loved the history, data, facts provided. A little more detail on the training would have been great, but the enough to help me figure it out. A great inspiration for me at 61 to get back to it!!

Before I bought this I read A. Dean's review. I was a little leary about buying it after that, because I'm in the same boat as A. Dean ...a new runner, 175 lbs, not out to run a marathon, just to get in shape, etc.Then I got a crazy idea. I thought, I'll read this allegedly inappropriate, far too advanced book to find out what is truly wrong with it. After I'm done I will chronicle my own experiences and write the book for the rest of us.Sadly, it looks like I'm going to have to find something else to write about, because I found "Older, Faster, Stronger" incredibly inspiring. I don't have much in common with Margaret Webb. I don't have her athletic history. I've been a bit of a couch potato all my life. When I recently took up running, I did it only to lose weight and get in shape. I had no aspirations to run any races, let alone a marathon. I am not competitive. I'm too old, I thought. I'll blow out my knees, have a heart attack and die.I was happy to discover, thanks to the book, that my age (49), my knees and my heart won't hold me back, that I don't have to close the book on the running chapter of my life. I think I am going to put a marathon goal out there, and I'm looking into running groups to join.I agree that it was heavy-duty, highly advanced stuff, but that's what makes it so motivating. If 85 year old women can run marathons, and hold on to their youth and their health as a result, so can I.I do agree with A. Dean, though, that Ms. Webb doesn't offer much in the way of instruction to the new runner. That doesn't mean that aspiring runners shouldn't read it, though. They should read it in conjunction with doing a couch-to-5K or SportMedBC's 13 week 10K walk/run program.Other than that she does lay out a good framework for a training plan, and I intend to follow it. I will write an update to this review when I get up to 10K.

I hate to give a bad review, I can only imagine how much work it is to write a book. However, I was looking for a book to motivate and inspire me and the book did exactly the opposite. Maybe I had the wrong expectations. I pre-ordered the book and could not wait to read it. I am 52 years old and just started running and pushing myself for 3 miles right now with the goal of running 5 by the end of the year. This book is about a marathon runner and it gave me no help regarding anything I was curious to read about. How should I start training (not for marathons), how much should I run, stretches, health considerations? The book is mostly about the author with bits of information that I found a bit useful but since I do not plan to train for a marathon it did not meet my expectations. The book starts out describing in great detail how her performance was tested on the treadmill. This was the first time I felt insulted, and I usually don't feel insulted very easily. She said that they started her at 10m/hr at a snails pace. Well, I currently run a 13 min/mile, is that a push-a-walker in front of me pace? I know it's not fast, but I'm out there exercising! I continued reading. I found the part about the diet interesting, I am a perimeter shopper and mostly eat a caveman diet, but her rant about Big Food was a bit to long and felt out of place. Then there was a discussion of how much it helps to reduce your weight because when you run it's about 4 x the impact on your knees. I began to wonder if I was doing more harm than good because I currently weigh 175 pounds. Should I be running at all? She is about my height and refers to herself as fat and obese and uses terms like "I larded on 8 pounds". As women always struggle with their image I found the description of her weight disturbing. Maybe it's overweight for a marathon runner, but if you do not run marathons her weight would hardly be considered obese. So now I felt like a very fat slow woman who probably will ruin her knees soon, still with no help or useful information. When I got to the part where she quoted somebody who said that when you run over 8 m/mile you have a 30% more likelihood of dying that was it for me. Now I'm fat, slow, will damage my knees and probably die soon. There are marathoners who have a heart attacks and there are slow old people who do just fine, so that makes no sense. I stopped reading the book because it certainly did not motivate me or inspire me, it achieved quite the opposite. The author writes a lot about herself, so if you know her it probably is an interesting book, but I could not identify. There were stories of other women but I wanted to read a lot more about them and they were just briefly mentioned. I'm running 3 miles this weekend as soon as I find my walker and tape my knees and try not to perish while trying to improve my run, sorry crawl.

I almost didn't buy this book because the first review up was negative. But I went ahead, because there aren't that many books that sound like they were written especially for me, and this one did. I'm so glad I did! I am 52 years old, and a runner for 8 years. I am not nearly as fast as Margaret, and probably never will be, and the longest I've run is a half marathon. But I do care about running, doing well in my age group, and staying fit for life. There is a lot of good information in here about things that I have not been doing that I could be doing in order to get faster (i.e. running with a group, speed training, weight training, learning from others' experiences). Of course I knew these things existed, but she makes them sound more appealing to me than others have, and I might just give them a try. I found her comments about her own weight to be self-deprecating and by no means "fat shaming", and there weren't that many of them, anyway. The book is definitely not only about Margaret. The most motivating parts of the book, to me, were the parts about the much older women runners that are still out there running circles around me, and what they did to get that way. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and increased my daily run by a mile today sheerly from book-generated enthusiasm!

Margaret Webb gives a first hand account of how she increased her fitness level at 50 years old to the point that she placed 4th in the International World Masters Event in Italy after her year of strengthening. I liked the way she elaborated on her training along with writing in a real human style. As a runner, I learned that I need to do more strength training, as well as more miles at an easier pace for my own training. It's a good read, and she gives lots of pointers on how to increase your fitness and running abilities.

I'm over 50..I have 4 kids..we're all active. It keeps me goin and who says after a certain age you can't do this or that! I dont follow the crowd..this book is a great incentive for me and my kids!

This person used to be a runner and also did not have much weight to lose. I stopped reading after 15 pages. It wasn't what I was hoping it was with the preview.

arrived on time excellent condition

Best running book I have read. The author truly is an inspiration and very motivating. I picked up this book after completing my 3rd marathon and I could not put it down. Margaret totally motivated me to start my SuperFit year and I have recommended and convinced my running friends to read the book and join me on the quest to ultimate fitness in 2016. Strongly recommend this book