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How Bad Do You Want It: Mastering The Psychology of Mind over Muscle by Matt Fitzgerald.

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 Chicago 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


-Google Books
 
Finished Hybrid-Athlete ebook by Alex Viada. I didn't get it for $45, not sure it's worth that, but that's what it is being sold for. He often refers to himself in the third person as "The Author" which I hate and breaks up the flow as I'm reading it. The breakdown of basic anatomical structures as it pertains to someone who is wanting to be really strong and competitive at endurance sports. For me specifically it was introduced me as I was discussing being a Rugby player and starting Triathlons as well as balancing the fitness requirement of Soldiering. He focuses on power lifting in the strength plans, for triathlons and swimming especially power production is important, so max weight for a single in building your maximal power production creating positive adaptation.

Pretty solid information but I think he spent too much time trying to convince strength athletes that cardio is important and endurance athletes that strength training is important. With a good editor and some more work I'd like to see the 2nd edition in hard copy.
 
You will laugh, cry, get angry and put your hand over your mouth in shock all within the reading. Enjoy...and don't drink too much while reading it.


I finished High Risk Soldier by Maj. Terron Wharton.

Anyone who served in combat in OIF/OEF or served with indigenous troops in any war needs to read this book. Anyone who's suffering from PTSD issues, anyone who has PTSD issues and is trying to maintain a military career, needs to read this book. People who counsel or treat PTSD should read this book. I could relate to much of it and I wasn't in Major Wharton's wars, but if it resonated as strongly with me I'm sure it will have an even stronger impact on his contemporaries. His observations on war, the Army, multiple deployments, counter-insurgency and the story of his epic struggle to overcome PTSD is an inspiration.
 
Today here is the Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore in 1942. Coincidentally I'm reading The Narrow Road To The Far North. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2014 & is very moving. It deals with the POWs' on the Thai-Burma railway, which those on this side of the ditch would be familiar with.
 
"The Dark Side of Man: Tracing the Origins of Male Violence". It was recommended to me by a MARSOC officer and family friend as one of the essential books for aspiring officers to read. The author was a platoon sergeant in Vietnam, but his inspiration for writing the book came from observing male chimpanzees commit murder, rape, and infanticide during a stint a researcher in Uganda in the 70's. Very interesting, I find the biological programming for male violence to be a fascinating topic.
 
Today here is the Anniversary of the Fall of Singapore in 1942. Coincidentally I'm reading The Narrow Road To The Far North. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2014 & is very moving. It deals with the POWs' on the Thai-Burma railway, which those on this side of the ditch would be familiar with.

You mean Narrow Road To The Deep North right?
I was just about to buy it until I saw it was a novel.

"The Dark Side of Man: Tracing the Origins of Male Violence". It was recommended to me by a MARSOC officer and family friend as one of the essential books for aspiring officers to read. The author was a platoon sergeant in Vietnam, but his inspiration for writing the book came from observing male chimpanzees commit murder, rape, and infanticide during a stint a researcher in Uganda in the 70's. Very interesting, I find the biological programming for male violence to be a fascinating topic.

Just male violence? Limiting and a little strange are my initial thoughts. Female humans and Chimps are also very violent.
 
Just male violence? Limiting and a little strange are my initial thoughts. Female humans and Chimps are also very violent.

The author doesn't discount or diminish female violence, but instead points out the differences between male and female violence as well as the factors that cause these differences.

I'm not too far into the book, so I cannot claim to fully know his explanation, but a lot of it has to do with differences in reproductive opportunities/functions between the sexes as well as the presence of certain hormones and their effects.
 
Finished Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it was a fun and fast read. The illustrations made it more fun and descriptive, would be nice if Winds of Winter had that going for it, but that would make it 3k pages long I'm sure.
 
Finished Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it was a fun and fast read. The illustrations made it more fun and descriptive, would be nice if Winds of Winter had that going for it, but that would make it 3k pages long I'm sure.

I think the Dunk and Egg graphic novels are awesome. The main reason I couldn't get into GoT was the world visually looked too different from what I had imagined reading and re-reading the song of fire and ice books as I waited for GRRM to write the next ones. The Dunk and Egg graphic novels are a much closer representation to what I was imagining reading the books.
 
I just finished reading an autobiographical trilogy by Deneys Reitz, a Boer War Commando who became the CO of a British battalion in WWI, then onto politics where he eventually became Deputy Prime Minister during WWII.
He was the son of the one time President of the Orange Free State, met Churchill when Churchill was a POW of the Boers. Was involved in the negotiations to end the war in 1902. Refused to sign the oath of loyalty to the British after the war and was exiled. Later became a firm supporter of the British Empire and fought against racism in South Africa for his entire political life.
A fascinating life and story!

Now onto Herbert McBride's second book, The Emma Gees. I loved his other book, A Rifleman Went To War. That should be required reading for any combat soldier and war historian.
 
Lawrence Wright's The Terror Years: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State. It is a collection of essay's that first appeared in The New Yorker. Wright also wrote The Looming Tower about Al Qaeda and 9/11 (a 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner) and Going Clear about Scientology (another great book). He's an excellent author.
 
Lawrence Wright's The Terror Years: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State. It is a collection of essay's that first appeared in The New Yorker. Wright also wrote The Looming Tower about Al Qaeda and 9/11 (a 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner) and Going Clear about Scientology (another great book). He's an excellent author.

The Looming Tower is sitting on my shelf, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
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