Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

by Alex Hutchinson

physical pain is completely distinct from the sense of effort—the struggle to keep going against a mounting desire to stop—that

the road from theory to practice is littered with the smoking remains of countless heavily hyped ideas that didn’t pan out.

it all comes down to two guys on a bike, trying to beat each other.”

every stride you take during a race is a microdecision: will you speed up, slow down, or maintain your current pace?

Liquid soap isn’t a sustainable deception (eventually the athletes will start noticing how uncharacteristically good their teammates smell);

those who do respond to placebos aren’t merely imagining the effects.

the greater your interest in sports, the more superstitious you’re likely to be.

“You have to teach athletes, somewhere in their careers, that they can do more than they think they can.”

you’re capable of much more than you think,”

“It’s the most powerful lesson you can possibly learn

there’s more in there—if you’re willing to believe it.