Quotes from Christopher McDougall

That's the natural response for all running mammals; when they build up more heat in their bodies than they can puff out their mouths, they have to stop, or they die.

Their real strength was their ears: Theseus and Hercules were lifelong learners and equal-opportunity students, always seeking advice and just as happy to get it from women. That was the mark of a hero and the signature of pankration: total power and knowledge.

Competition perverts true fitness, Hébert believed. It tempts you to cheat; to overdevelop some talents while ignoring others;

Even your breakfast burrito plays a role; Lieberman's investigations had revealed that as our diet shifted over the centuries from chewy stuff like raw roots and wild game and gave way to mushy cooked staples like spaghetti and ground beef, our faces began to shrink. Ben Franklin's face was chunkier than yours; Caesar's was bigger than his.

Your foot is perfectly happy molding itself around rocks. All you've got to do is relax and let your foot flex. It

It's a natural law (or supernatural, if you're so inclined) that weird things appear where people tend to disappear. African jungles, Pacific islands, Himalayan wastelands—wherever expeditionary parties go missing, that's where lost species, Stonehengey stone idols, the flitting shadows of yetis, and ancient, unsurrendering Japanese soldiers are sure to pop up. The

Everyone knew that at some point in history, early humans got access to a big supply of protein, which allowed their brains to expand like a thirsty sponge in a bucket of water. Our brains kept growing until they were seven times larger than the brains of any comparable mammal. They also sucked up an ungodly number of calories; even though our brains account for only 2 percent of our body weight, they demand 20 percent of our energy, compared with just 9 percent for chimps.

as shoes wore down and their cushioning thinned, runners gained more foot control.

Know why people run marathons? he told Dr. Bramble. Because running is rooted in our collective imagination, and our imagination is rooted in running. Language, art, science; space shuttles, Starry Night, intravascular surgery; they all had their roots in our ability to run. Running was the superpower that made us human—which means it's a superpower all humans possess.

Once you jump ahead, you're vulnerable; you surrender all element of surprise, and become a prisoner of your own pace. Even

You get leafy greens in your body first thing in the morning and you'll lose a lot of weight.

iskiate is otherwise known as chia fresca—"chilly chia." It's brewed up by dissolving chia seeds in water with a little sugar and a squirt of lime. In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach, and human growth hormone. As tiny as those seeds are, they're superpacked with omega-3S, omega-6S, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber, and antioxidants.

When you can't answer the question, flip it over. Forget what makes something go fast--what makes it slow down?

chia fresca—"chilly chia." It's brewed up by dissolving chia seeds in water with a little sugar and a squirt of lime. In

The Handy Hammer Syndrome, in which the hammer in your hand makes everything look like a nail.

Just because men and women of our era don't live up to the myths doesn't mean no one ever has, or ever will again.

Running is the same way. Learn it wrong, and you'll never know how good it can feel.

his gut kept telling him that there was some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love running. The engineering was certainly the same: both depended on loosening your grip on your own desires, putting aside what you wanted and appreciating what you got, being patient and forgiving and undemanding.

Caesar set his legion's All Day speed at exactly "twenty Roman miles in five summer hours," or 15:00 minutes a mile. The next faster gear was double-time, a 13:30 clip that covered twenty-two Roman miles in five hours. When you factor in the gnarly terrain and 45-pound packs on their backs, that's a churn rate any ultrarunner would envy.

Natural Method of Physical Training: Making Muscle and Reducing Flesh Without Dieting or Apparatus. Critics' reactions were weird and rather frenzied: everyone loved it, without knowing exactly what it was.

Coach Vigil believed you had to become a strong person before you could become a strong runner. So

this ninety-five-year-old man came hiking twenty-five miles over the mountain. Know why he could do it? Because no one ever told him he couldn't. No one ever told him he oughta be off dying somewhere in an old age home. You live up to your own expectations, man.

Lesson two,' Caballo called. 'Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get's that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't give a shit how high the hill is or how far you've got to go.

There was something terribly sad, yet terribly uplifting, about watching this prophet of the ancient art of distance running turning his back on everything except his dream, and heading back down to "the best place in the world to run." Alone.