Quotes About Performance

The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.

Stepping lightly, just like a ballerina.

Applause is not opinion. Applause is a feeling of love for the artist.

Politics is not a matter of ruling over the people or of exercising power. Politics is performance of service to people, contributing to the welfare of the people.

Body weight was found to have a statistically moderate effect on total race time, while body-fat percentage had a large effect on total race time and a moderate effect (bordering on large) on swim, bike, and run splits. Both body weight and body-fat percentage were more strongly correlated with split times and total race time than are training variables such as average weekly training time.

The practice of nutrient timing, or consuming the right nutrients at the right times throughout the day, will enable you to partition your energy more effectively and achieve your racing weight.

The common methods of performance weight management work—they improve performance—and are therefore more or less required for sustained success in endurance sports. Dieting, in contrast, tends to sabotage performance, making sustained competitive success difficult or impossible.

How does lifting weights enhance running economy and endurance? Other studies have shown that it works by increasing the stiffness of the leg when the foot hits the ground (Dumke et al. 2010). The legs function as springs during running. Physics teaches us that a stiffer spring loses less energy when it lands and bounces higher. Your legs will do the same thing if you strengthen them in the gym.

Based on my review of the scientific literature, I suggest that you aim for a daily carbohydrate intake target that is based on your training workload as indicated by Table 6.1. Be sure to use your optimal racing weight instead of your current weight to make these calculations, as you're not trying to fuel your excess fat stores for optimal performance!

You cannot change your height, the width of your hips, the length of your feet, or any of several other anthropometric variables affecting endurance performance that I have discussed in this chapter. You can't change your genetic potential for leanness, either. But you can reduce your body-fat percentage (and thereby adjust your weight) to the level that is optimal for performance in your chosen endurance sport given your unchangeable genetic constraints.

Each sport favors a particular body type. The principle of "form follows function" determines the particular physique that tends to perform best in a given sport or in a given position or role within a sport.

Body weight and body-fat percentage have no meaning in isolation for endurance athletes. These variables have meaning only in relation to performance. Weighing 145 pounds is not better than weighing 155 pounds unless you perform better at the lighter weight. A body-fat percentage of 12 is better than a body-fat percentage of 13 only if you're faster at 12 percent.

Remember, anything you do as an athlete that helps you perform better is likely to make you leaner as well; including enough carbohydrates in your diet is another example of this principle.

Editing yourself is like an irksome coin toss. You've got to strip yourself of super ego and operate from the id. Maybe I've got my Freud mixed up. It's just hard to trade a beauty shot for the performance with truth and a brightly lit zit.

All those years of skating and dancing have carried over. I can't design anything without thinking of how a woman's body will look and move when she's wearing it.

speed is a skill; therefore, the skill of sprinting can be taught if proper progression and principles of motor learning are applied.

As training age advances, that paradigm has to shift and the overload has to come from intensity.

It is not a matter of functional or nonfunctional; rather it is an understanding of how functional a particular movement or exercise is relative to the training objective.

focus on the efficiency and interaction of the systems rather than try to target one system for development.

Anyone can work, but allowing the work to take effect demands a good recovery plan.

training equals testing, and testing equals training.

Training will produce measurable results. Failing to train will also produce a measurable result. The training process is cumulative.

No differences exist in the quality of muscle between males and females.

The #1 demotivator for talented people is having to put up with bozos, as Steve Jobs would call them. Nothing is more frustrating for A Players than having to work with B and C Players who slow them down and suck their energy. In that sense, "The best thing you can do for employees — a perk better than foosball or free sushi — is hire only 'A' players to work alongside them. Excellent colleagues trump everything else