Quotes from Matt Fitzgerald

The most effective way to prevent off-season weight gain from getting out of hand is to set a specific weight-gain limit. I suggest you try to limit your off-season weight gain to no more than 8 percent of your optimal performance weight.

The Seven-Hour Standard is doing seven hours of running per week distributed across either six days with one day of absolute rest or seven days with one day of relative rest.

FASTING WORKOUTS. A fasting workout is a long, moderate-intensity workout undertaken in a fasting state—that is, without a meal beforehand and without carbohydrate consumption on the bike. When you deprive your muscles of carbohydrate in a long workout, they burn a lot more fat. Such workouts also boost general fat-burning capacity. I suggest that you perform one fasting workout per week during a quick start.

Who is ultimately stronger? The answer is undetermined.

For every runner who hits the wall because of his or her failure to consume enough carbohydrate during the race, there are several who hit the wall because of their failure to consume enough carbs in their everyday training diet. To

Perceived effort actually has two layers. The first layer is how the athlete feels. The second layer is how the athlete feels about how she feels. The first layer is strictly physiological, whereas the second is emotional, or affective.

Some say there's no magic formula. I say there is. It's just that the magic is different for everyone.

Because you never know exactly what you'll find inside that black box until you open it, there is a temptation to hope—perhaps not quite consciously—that your next race won't be one of those grinding affairs. This hope is a poor coping skill. Bracing yourself—always expecting your next race to be your hardest yet—is a much more mature and effective way to prepare mentally for competition.

how can fear ruin my experience if I embrace it as an integral part of the experience?

to turn pro." "It bothers me that so many runners feel they somehow don't deserve to take the sport all the way and find out how good they can be," I said. "I wish more folks with average talent would just go for it.

WHEN THE MUSCLES BURN MORE CARBOHYDRATE DURING A WORKOUT, THEY TEND TO BURN MORE FAT AFTER THE WORKOUT.

discovered that world-class athletes in the full suite of endurance sports share a common training approach. Specifically, they spend about 80 percent of their total training time at low intensity and the other 20 percent at moderate to high intensity.

Refined grains (regular old spaghetti being an example), fatty meats (hard salami), sweets (blueberry pie), and fried foods (bacon) are not poisonous. They are foods that just happen to be less wholesome than some other foods. There

The reason you are a runner is that you enjoy running. The objective of everything you do as a runner should be to increase our preserve your enjoyment of running.

Even the most talented artists have flaws and limitations that no amount of training can overcome, just as even the most exceptional individuals have hang-ups and quirks that no amount of personal growth can erase. The artists we consider great are those who make their flaws and limitations somehow complement their strengths and contribute to their signature style.

Athletes who have been gifted with exceptional talent and other blessings that enable them to sail to the top of their sport—athletes like Cadel Evans—may therefore be doubly disadvantaged where resilience is concerned.

There's a difference between nutrition knowledge and food knowledge.

Better athletes don't have to exert as much mental effort to control their sport-specific movements, so their movements are freer.

At the risk of sounding like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite who can't let go of the past

The human body produces an estimated 2,709 enzymes that facilitate approximately 896 chemical reactions.

the researchers found that bike training had a strong positive effect on running performance, but swimming did not.

Studies have shown that recreational athletes who exercise less than 45 minutes a day, on average, get the best results when they spend 80 percent of that time at low intensity and 20 percent at moderate to high intensity, just like the elites.

Endurance sports are largely about discomfort and stress; hence they are largely about coping.

Self-awareness plays a key role in stopping fear and laziness from standing in the way of accepting a reality that must be accepted in order to make the best of a bad situation.