This is an odd book. It's a very personal account of a super-obsessive guy who's having trouble crossing the threshold into middle age. His health and fitness are very poor and he takes a very unhealthy approach to correcting, err no... confronting this. Sound terrible? Well it turns out that he's got a great wit and can write well enough to tell his story in a very entertaining way.



It's a quick read-- more like an extended magazine article than a meaty book. He conveys his love for cycling in a

This is an odd book. It's a very personal account of a super-obsessive guy who's having trouble crossing the threshold into middle age. His health and fitness are very poor and he takes a very unhealthy approach to correcting, err no... confronting this. Sound terrible? Well it turns out that he's got a great wit and can write well enough to tell his story in a very entertaining way.



It's a quick read-- more like an extended magazine article than a meaty book. He conveys his love for cycling in a highly relatable way. If you, too, love cycling, that might be enough for you. Also, if you're staggering through mid-life, looking to regain focus, you might also identify with this book. This is not a self help book as there is little in the way of a model to follow. It's more of a cautionary tale than a "field guide." He quite clearly lays out that he's a morbidly obese, chain-smoking alcoholic. If you were his friend, you might conclude that he is probably self-medicating to treat his OCD and depression. He simply decides one day that growing old on his current path is starting to really suck and he's going to address this by abusing himself with a bicycle.



The book is very personal, but lacks a bit of depth. That's probably by design but makes it a bit confusing and unsatisfying at times. He's partying his way through his 20's and 30's. What does his wife say about this? We know that it's destroying his health but how is it affecting his relationship with his children? On the cover of the dust jacket is a picture of him at his heftiest, naked, on his bicycle (a parody of a famous Lance Armstrong photo.) It gives the sense that the author is laying himself bare for the reader, but the tone of the book seems to protect the deeper layers of what must have driven him to desperate rock bottom and what propelled him, quite maniacally, up and out of it. The tone is that of a great story told by a witty, eccentric and boisterous bar patron who's just getting his first few drinks in him: Self-effacing enough to draw big laughs and self-congratulatory enough to save some face.



On the positive side, the thread of finding his aggressive inner competitor later in life is quite inspiring as are his physical achievements-- climbing Mount Mitchell on a bike a year after being almost a hundred pounds overweight? Steadily riding 400 miles a week? You may find yourself envying these feats and daydreaming about your own goals. In this respect, I really enjoyed the book as an example of what's possible with the appropriate sacrifice and focus.



In the end, it's an illustration of extremes that the reader can relate to on his or her own scale. The rocky journey into middle age is a universal truth that has us all grasping for control of something -- anything to regain that sense of mastery that youthful ignorance had gifted us throughout our earlier lives. Mike Magnuson bought a bike and hammered his body into compliance with his lifelong dream of speed and unrealized human potential. To make peace with his slothful years spent sitting his girth on a barstool, he sweated his way to personal redemption and describes this with enough humor and skill to make the reader smile and ponder their own journey.