Quotes from Christopher McDougall

Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, 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. When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one—you get those three, and you'll be fast.

V?šina lidí se domnívá, že neandertálci byli našimi p?edky, ve skute?nosti to však byl paralelní druh (lépe ?e?eno poddruh), který s Homo sapiens sout?žil o p?ežití. Výraz "sout?žil" je k nám p?itom pom?rn? laskavý, protože neandertálci nás p?ed?ili tak?ka ve všem. Byli siln?jší, vytrvalejší a pravd?podobn? také chyt?ejší.

Skillful marketing has made carbohydrate consumption a religion among athletes," he'd fume. "They believe that you cannot get energy from anywhere but carbs." The same foods Noakes had assured people would make them stronger and faster were a slow-acting poison making them fatter, weaker, and more prone to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and dementia.

knew that happiness, health, and security come from devoting yourself to two things—your family and your friends—and anything that doesn't bring you closer to both is pulling you in the wrong direction.

The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you.

As a rule of thumb, performance aberration in a basic skill is a good way to evaluate whether it's natural to a species. When you spot a giant ability gap between ages and genders, you know you're looking at nurture, not nature. Male

But in 1977, the United States separated itself from every other government in history by vilifying meat and pushing grains, which were traditionally used to fatten cattle. Soon after, America's obesity rate shot up and hasn't stopped.

Running isn't about making people buy stuff. Running should be free, man.

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.

The death toll had gotten so bad, Mexico would eventually rank second only to Iraq in the number of killed or kidnapped reporters.

As a rule of thumb, performance aberration in a basic skill is a good way to evaluate whether it's natural to a species. When you spot a giant ability gap between ages and genders, you know you're looking at nurture, not nature.

where you have more experts, you create more bystanders. Professionals

When it comes to mentors, you can't beat survival;

Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You're denying who you are.

at that moment, old Joe Vigil was the only coach in America shivering in a freezing forest at four in the morning, waiting for a glimpse of a community-college science teacher and seven men in dresses.

more than 90 percent of the female runners come home with a buckle, while 50 percent of the men come up with an excuse. Not even Ken Chlouber can explain the sky-high female finishing rate, but he can damn well exploit it: "All my pacers are women," Chlouber says. "They get the job done.

The truth is that there can be no proper training that does not educate the whole system of the man.

Nem?žeš b?hat do kopce a mít špatnou biomechaniku," vysv?tlil mi. "Prost? to nefunguje. Když se pokusíš s nap?ímenou nohou p?istát na patu, p?epadneš dozadu.

If he could do it, Churchill was certain, so could his fellow misfits.

Faced with the almost inescapable conclusion that it had been selling lemons, Nike shifted into make-lemonade mode. Jeff Pisciotta became head of a top-secret and seemingly impossible project: finding a way to make a buck off a naked foot.

Máte-li nohu v sád?e, b?hem šesti týdn? svaly atrofují o ?ty?icet až šedesát procent. Cosi podobného se stane s vaším chodidlem, je-li uv?zn?no v bot?.

Empathy, the Greeks believed, was a source of strength, not softness; the more you recognized yourself in others and connected with their distress, the more endurance, wisdom, cunning, and determination you could tap into.

Vigil couldn't quite put his finger on it, but his gut kept telling him that there was some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love running.

Because we have to answer to one another, and they did not.