Endurance. Mind, Body, and the Surprisingly Flexible Limits of Human Potential

An interesting and deep exploration of endurance that helps understand how to achieve better results in sports and life.
The ability to endure is often a key factor in success in any endeavor. It is needed to run a hundred meters and a marathon, to climb Everest, to pass graduation exams, to complete a challenging project. But are there limits to human endurance? And how can we achieve more?
Alex Hutchinson, a well-known sports journalist, former athlete, and multiple award-winning professional, presents the results of recent research that shows that to achieve results, it is important to overcome not only physical but also psychological barriers, and that obstacles are posed not only by the body but also by the brain. This means that it is the mind that serves as a new frontier and that the limits of endurance are much more flexible than we thought.
However, to claim that «everything is in our heads» is also not true. By studying the physical aspects (pain, muscles, oxygen, heat, thirst, energy reserves) and illustrating his reasoning with stories of elite athletes and travelers, he shows the complexity of the interplay between mind and body.
Alex Hutchinson was one of two reporters granted access to the ultra-secret Nike Breaking2 project aimed at helping athletes run a marathon in less than 2 hours. This became the leitmotif of the book. During the project, Hutchinson had the opportunity to observe elite athletes and visit high-tech laboratories around the world, and the conclusions he drew from what he saw are surprisingly universal. Endurance, as Hutchinson writes, is the «struggle to keep going against the growing desire to stop» — and we are always capable of going a little further and doing more.
On October 12, 2019 (after the book's release in the West), Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in under two hours, finishing in 1:59:40. «Now I can tell everyone that human potential is limitless,» he said after crossing the finish line.