HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? revisits some of the most extraordinary moments from the history of endurance sports to show how mental strength allows some athletes to perform at a level way beyond their physical limits - to will their body to do what was previously thought biologically impossible. Drawing on cutting-edge scientific research it suggests concrete habits and tactics we can use to cultivate our own mental strength, whilst providing thrilling accounts of some of the most inspiring and astonishing feats in sporting history. In 2010 Sammy Wanjiru entered the Boston Marathon suffering from injuries to his knee and his lower back, a stomach virus that prevented him from training and a lifestyle that meant he spent more time in nightclubs than on the track. He shouldn't have even been able to finish the race, and at times he seemed as if he literally had nothing left to give, yet in an epic battle he crossed the finishing line first. How did he manage it? HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? describes a new 'psychobiological' model of endurance performance connecting the mind, body and brain. Compelling accounts from triathlon, cycling, running, rowing and swimming are viewed through the lens of this model shedding new light on what science has to say about mental fortitude in sports. Featured athletes include: Sammy Wanjiru, Jenny Barringer, Greg LeMond, Willie Stewart, Cadel Evans, Joseph Sullivan, Paula Newby-Fraser, Ryan Vail, Thomas Voeckler, Ned Overend, Steve Prefontaine

This is not a book about how to train for an Ironman, the kit you need or anything that could actually prove to be useful. If there is anything useful in this book then that's purely by accident. If you are looking for some genuine training tips on Ironman then please get one of the decent training books - not the 55,000 words of illiterate drivel this represents. This is a simply a story about someone (fat northerner in the shape of Darren) deciding to do something as stupid as Ironman and the things you encounter on the way. Such as the psychotic geese, paperless portaloos, the mind games and the doomsday feeling that no matter how much training you do it's never enough. Darren is fat, bald, ugly and lives in the North West of England with his wife Amy and daughter Lilly-Mae where he continues to try to be a triathlete.

It's race day and you have your quick-closure running shoes, sleek suits, bikes, goggles, and watches, but if you haven't been training with the proper nutrition, you'll be left in the dust in the third mile. Enter Swim, Bike, Run---Eat to guide you through day one of training to the finish line and help your body perform at the peak of fitness. In this book, an ideal companion to author Tom Holland's The 12-Week Triathlete, he will join sports dietitian Amy Goodson covering race-day essentials, food choices to complement your training regimen, as well as recovery nutrition. Learn how to determine what to eat; what to drink; how many calories to consume each day; whether or not to carry snacks while training; the difference between taking in calories from solid foods, semi-solids, and liquids; and whether or not to take electrolyte or salt tablets. Casual and core triathletes alike require a nutrition guide that is easy to understand with expert advice that is easy to implement. Look no further and get ready to take your triathlon to a new, healthier level.

Are you a triathlete, runner, cyclist, swimmer, cross-country skier, or other athlete seeking greater endurance? The Endurance Handbook teaches athletes how to stay healthy, achieve optimal athletic potential, and be injury-free for many productive years. Dr. Philip Maffetone's approach to endurance offers a truly "individualized" outlook and unique system that he has refined over three decades of training and treating athletes, ranging from world champions to weekend warriors. Maffetone's training and racing philosophy emphasizes building a strong aerobic base for increased fat burning, weight loss, sustained energy, and a healthy immune system. Good nutrition and stress reduction are also key to this common-sense, big-picture approach. Dr. Maffetone also dispels many of the commonly held myths that linger in participatory sports and which adversely impact performance and explains the "truths" about endurance, such as: The need to train slower to race faster will enable your aerobic system to improve endurance Why expensive running shoes can actually cause foot and leg injuries The fact that refined carbohydrates actually reduce endurance energy and disrupt hormone balance How overtraining can be avoided in its earliest stages And much more! If you are looking to increase your endurance and maximize your athletic potential, The Endurance Handbook is your one-stop guide to training and racing effectively. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

For those who have ever thought they were too old or too unfit to compete in a triathlon, From Couch Potato to Endurance Athlete will prove that it is never too late to compete! This is a story about overcoming life's obstacles-from injury and business trouble to grief and loss and everything in between. Hilary Topper was a 48-year-old working mother who once upon a time had practically failed high school gym class. She was working 60-plus hours a week, running a small business. Her focus was on others-her children, her aging parents, and her staff. In the meantime, her weight kept increasing, and she was unhappy with the way her life was going. She needed a change. To turn things around, she joined a gym for the first time in her life. This book will take the reader on Hilary's decade-long journey as she trains for and runs her first 5K, swims the aqua-blue waters of the Caribbean, cycles a hilly course in Milwaukee, learns how to run-walk her way through the New York City Marathon, and competes in her first triathlon in Sanibel, Florida. The reader will be right with Hilary as she narrates each experience-even a 5-mile swim in the murky waters of Long Island. Hilary's story will move, motivate, and inspire readers. They will laugh and cry as they follow her on her journey.

Redemption: From Iron Bars to Ironman is the fascinating, frightening and inspirational autobiography of former career criminal, now world-record holder and endurance athlete John McAvoy. Born into a notorious London crime family, his uncle Micky was one of the key players in the legendary Brinks-Mat gold bullion caper. John bought his first gun at 16 and carved out a lucrative career in armed robbery. At one point he was one of Britain's most-wanted men. It took two spells in prison and the death of a friend on a botched heist to change his path. During his second stint in jail he discovered a miraculous natural talent while serving life in the Belmarsh high security unit - where fellow inmates included Abu Hamza, the hook-handed extremist cleric, and the 7/7 bombers. John broke three world rowing records while still an inmate and since his release has become one of the UK's leading Ironman competitors. Redemption is the ultimate story of sporting salvation.

See what it takes to maximize multisport strength, power, speed, and endurance. Let Triathlon Anatomy, Second Edition, prepare you for the starting line and show you how to reach your personal best by increasing muscular strength and optimizing the efficiency of every movement. Triathlon Anatomy features 74 of the most effective multisport exercises with step-by-step descriptions and full-color anatomical illustrations highlighting the muscles in action. But you’ll see much more than the exercises—you’ll also see the results. For each exercise, a Triathlon Focus feature illustrates how the movement is fundamentally linked to performance in each sport. You’ll see how to strengthen muscles and increase stamina for cycling steep inclines, running across various terrains, and swimming in open water. You’ll learn how to modify exercises to target specific areas, reduce muscle tension, and minimize common injuries. Best of all, you’ll learn how to put it all together to develop a training program based on your individual needs and goals. Whether you’re training for your first triathlon or preparing for your next Ironman, Triathlon Anatomy will ensure you’re ready to deliver your personal best.

A breakthrough program for triathletes -- beginner, intermediate, and advanced -- showing how to balance training intensity to maximize performance -- from a fitness expert and elite coach. Cutting-edge research has proven that triathletes and other endurance athletes experience their greatest performance when they do 80 percent of their training at low intensity and the remaining 20 percent at moderate to high intensity. But the vast majority of recreational triathletes are caught in the so-called moderate-intensity rut, spending almost half of their time training too hard--harder than the pros. Training harder isn't smarter; it actually results in low-grade chronic fatigue that prevents recreational athletes from getting the best results. In 80/20 Triathlon, Matt Fitzgerald and David Warden lay out the real-world and scientific evidence, offering concrete tips and strategies, along with complete training plans for every distance--Sprint, Olympic, Half-Ironman, and Ironman--to help athletes implement the 80/20 rule of intensity balance. Benefits include reduced fatigue and injury risk, improved fitness, increased motivation, and better race results.

Triathlon - a demanding combination of swimming, cycling and running - is by definition, more complicated that a single sport. How do you train for three activities at once, and remain injury free while you're doing it? Where can you practise swimming in open water? Should you focus on your strongest discipline, or your weakest? And then there's the race itself. Not only the physical challenge, but also the practicalities of getting out of a wetsuit and on to a bike against the clock, of riding a bike in close proximity to others and staying fuelled up throughout the race. This book takes the trial out of triathlon and ensures your first race experiences are fun, foolproof and successful.

Shaping up for a triathlon is serious business. "Triathlon Training For Dummies" is packed with insider tips and proven methods for training for a triathlon and pumping yourself into the best possible shape by race day. It helps you find the motivation you need to stick to your program, eat better to maximize your energy, and prevent injures both before and during the race.

This authoritative guide helps you evaluate your cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility, and to set manageable realistic training goals. You'll learn how to establish a workout schedule, choose a target finish time get the right, affordable equipment you'll need for each leg of the race, and maximize your fitness and form for swimming, biking, and running. You'll also get plenty of help in putting it all together as you focus your training, add dual workouts, become a quick-change artist, and save time during transitions. Discover how to: Choose an event to train for based on your fitness levelGet into your best possible shapeSelect the right equipment and sportswearTrain for an Olympic, Sprint, or Ironman triathlonFuel your body and prevent injuriesPrepare for training sessionsMaintain energy and recover quicklySet training schedules for every triathlon eventTreat common training and racing injuriesLive like an athlete

"Triathlon Training For Dummies" comes complete with resources for finding triathlons near you, lists of items to bring along on race day, and tips on registration formalities and racing etiquette.""

This book is both a lesson in true grit and determination, but its goal is one that is attainable. Andy isn't a sporting superstar, he holds down a 9-5 job and all the pressures that go with it; he isn't blessed with speed and talent; there are no multi-million pound sponsorship deals; yet this remarkable "common man" is inspiring in a way that some of today's sporting superstars have forgotten how to be. You wouldn't recognize Andy in the street, yet his story provides valuable lessons to us all: "Never give up" and "Anything is possible." "Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run" follows Andy Holgate's epic journey from being an overweight librarian to an Ironman triathlete. Before he could even begin the rollercoaster ride which amassed more punctures than Andy cares to remember, this would-be Superman had first to buy a second-hand bike and take swimming lessons. Along the way, he ended up in hospital, dealt with family crises, encountered crocodiles and deadly amoebas, and persuaded his friends that doing an Ironman event is what normal people do on their stag weekend. This is the inspirational, amusing and moving story of how one normal bloke learnt how to fall off a bike and not injure himself, to run a marathon despite two dodgy knees, and most importantly how not to drown.

Triathlon is more than the sum of its parts. You can swim, cycle, and run but you need more to become a triathlete. If you want to prepare for your first triathlon, this easy-to-understand introduction to the sport is what you need. Roch Frey and Paul Huddle, two of the most respected names in multisport coaching, cover all the bases to get you to the starting line and help you finish your first race. The book contains information on everything from weight training to flexibility up to nutrition. It also contains detailed workout schedules for the sprint and Olympic distances to guide you through your training period. Triathlon: Starting Out is an easy-to-use training book that will help you visualize the race and make it to the finish line. With Roch and Paul at your side, anyone can do a triathlon!

Triathlon Swimming reveals the rewarding and rigorous Tower 26 program for mastering open-water swimming by the world's leading open-water swimming coach Gerry Rodrigues and former pro triathlete Emma-Kate Lidbury. Triathlon swimming is unique in its challenges and physical and mental limits. Over his lifetime of over 100 open-water swim race wins and over 30 years of coaching, Rodrigues has perfected the art and science of open-water swimming. His famed Tower 26 swimming program trains athletes in both the pool and in rough open water conditions, making triathletes and swimmers skilled, confident, capable, and fast in any condition. In Triathlon Swimming, Rodrigues and Lidbury break down open-water swimming technique and show how triathlon swimming requires different form. From kicking to sighting, Triathlon Swimming describes the best technique for swimming in open water. This guide shares the best gear for open-water swimming, shows how to create your own effective open-water swim workouts, and shares a plan for race prep and taper. Tower 26 offers the best open-water swimming technique. With Rodrigues' coaching approach and Lidbury's first-hand experience and insight, Triathlon Swimming can help you become a master open-water swimmer for faster, fearless racing.

Swim. Bike. Run. If the combination of those three words gets you excited, then you need Train to Tri: Your First Triathlon. Written by experts with USA Triathlon (USAT), the largest multisport organization in the world, this book provides proven strategies, secrets, and advice to gear up for your first sprint-distance or standard-distance event. This is not another one-size-fits-all program. Train to Tri is designed so you can focus on the training you need most. You'll establish a baseline in each of the three phases: running, cycling, and swimming. You'll find bronze, silver, or gold levels of training for each phase, which can be combined and customized to your needs, your goals, and your lifestyle. Train to Tri is more than just training. It's total preparation. Featuring expert advice on selecting gear, staying motivated, overcoming challenges, preventing burnout, determining nutritional needs, and achieving recovery, it's a multifaceted plan for multisport success. If you're ready to go from athlete to triathlete, let Train to Tri and the experts at USAT lead the way.

The Triathlete Guide to Sprint and Olympic Triathlon Racing will help you discover the speed, thrill, and challenge of triathlon's most popular race distances. Not everyone has time to train for long-course triathlons. By pursuing triathlon's shorter distances, you can enjoy all the total body fitness benefits of the swim-bike-run sport and discover the unique challenges of short-course racing-all while enjoying a life outside of training. This complete guide from former pro triathletes Chris Foster and coach Ryan Bolton shares all the know-how you need to find speed and enjoy successful racing in sprint and Olympic-distance triathlons. Foster, now the Senior Editor of Triathlete magazine, shares his pro advice for how to set a smart race strategy, how to master triathlon pacing, how to execute fast transitions, how to train to improve your weakness and race to your strengths. Bolton offers smart, effective sprint and Olympic triathlon training plans so you can get started right away, no matter your background. Sprint and Olympic triathlons are triathlon's most popular distances for good reasons. Experienced triathletes returning to the short course will enjoy a break from long, slow hours of training and rediscover the joy of speed. Active people looking for a new challenge can jump right into triathlon's most beginner-friendly distances. The Triathlete Guide to Sprint and Olympic Triathlon Racing makes it simple to get back up to speed in the world's most rewarding endurance sport.

The Complete Book of Triathlon Training is for any athlete who wants to improve in, or convert to the fascinating sport of triathlon. Learn how to develop a training program and how to approach a competition. The book is an encyclopedic reference that covers all aspects of triathlon training. The triathlete and aspiring triathlete will have one reference with everything they need to know about triathlon, whether an endurance sport novice or an accomplished athlete in another sport. It tells you how to get started, what equipment to buy, the diet you will need, how to devise a training routine and how to arrange your busy life in order to accommodate it, and then explains how to finish a race, as well as how to recover from it. The Complete Book of Triathlon Training will tell you how to be the best that you can be in triathlon; not necessarily by training harder, but by training smarter. Every aspect of your life has the potential to affect your mental and physical performance, and you need to take this into account when devising your training in order to avoid both over-training and under-training. Marks system for monitoring training-stress levels which he has been successfully using for many years is unique to him but is revealed in this book. Use it and you can achieve your optimum performance

Serious triathletes may be the most tech-savvy of all athletes. You have the latest devices and know that data to improve your performance are at hand, but putting it all together can be a daunting, confusing task. Triathlete, coach, researcher, and author Jim Vance maintains that, despite access to the relevant information, most triathletes start a race undertrained or overtrained. That's why he's developed Triathlon 2.0: Data-Driven Performance Training, the first program to take advantage of the latest science and technology. Triathlon 2.0 examines the sport's most popular devices, including cycling power meters, GPS trackers, and heart rate monitors. Capture the most accurate readings, learn what they mean, and, just as important, what they don't. Then, put the numbers to work for you, translating your data into a comprehensive program based on your performance needs and triathlon goals. With Triathlon 2.0, you will learn these skills: * Establish and identify optimal aerobic fitness base. * Determine the exact number of intervals for the most effective training and quickest recovery. * Identify performance markers to track training results. * Develop a tapering plan for peak performance. * Monitor pace and progress in real time. If you're serious about maximizing performance, then turn to the only program built around your personal performance data. With Triathlon 2.0, the power and plan are in your hands.

You're 43, cruising through life when suddenly you're diagnosed with cancer. What do you do next? When Paul Smith found himself facing that question he decided to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 more and then run a marathon. There are tears and laughter in this brutally honest, good-humoured and intensely personal account of Paul's inspiring journey from being at death's door to conquering a triathlon. Join him on a life-affirming mission encompassing exhilarating highs and painful lows. After his devastatingly rare one-in-a-million bowel cancer diagnosis and his time in hospital confronting an operation ominously dubbed the 'Mother of all Surgeries', Paul has just ten months to train his broken body to peak fitness and fulfil his dream of completing one of the world's toughest and most intimidating triathlons, Ironman Wales. Paul lays bare his physical and mental battles in vivid detail. If you think completing an ironman triathlon is an impossible dream, read this truly inspirational story and think again.

Strength & Conditioning for Triathlon is an accessible, practical introduction to strength and conditioning for endurance sports, dispelling many of the myths which have led to misunderstanding and misuse of the techniques in the past. With specific chapters on injury prevention, the swim, the cycle and the run, this ideal triathlon companion gives detailed and practical examples of how each aspect of your programme can be enhanced. Each chapter includes information on how strength and conditioning will impact on you, the scientific evidence (in practical language) to support the claims, how much you can expect to gain and practical examples of how to implement the training. An indispensable practical guide, it looks at how to plan your strength and conditioning training throughout the calendar and how to incorporate this work into your regular triathlon training. It also provides a comprehensive resource of conditioning exercises, strength exercises and running drills, all of which are fully illustrated so you can guarantee great technique. This is the essential companion to anyone wishing to improve their triathlon results.

The training journal that will help triatheletes go the distance!

Triatheletes will find this spiral-bound diary the perfect tool to track and monitor their multi-sport training and conditioning progress. It's filled with instructional photos and illustrations, including distance charts and exercises to prevent injuries.

Whether you're an extreme exercise enthusiast or you're just looking to shed a few pounds, this is the last book on training, endurance, health, and life you will ever need. In this book you will learn: The 2 best ways to build fitness fast without destroying your body; Underground training tactics for maximising workout efficiency; the best biohacks for enhancing mental performance and entering the zone; how to know with laserlike accuracy whether your body has truly recovered; 26 ways to recover quickly from workouts, injuries, and overtraining; the 25 most important blood and saliva biomarkers and how to test them; 5 essential elements of training that most athletes neglect; 7 stress-fighting weapons to make your mind-body connection bulletproof; proven systems to enhance sleep, eliminate insomnia, and conquer jet lag; 40 high-calorie, nutrient-dense meals that won't destroy your metabolism; Easy tools for customising your carbs, proteins, and fats for your unique body; 9 ways to f