Book Review- How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind over Muscle by Matt Fitzgerald #Allaboutrunning Wednesday Blog Link up

Another Book review! Ha ha, my #allaboutrunning link ups have had a lot of book reviews recently, but I can’t help it.  Right now, I feel like a sponge and I have been a bit obsessed with reading running content.  With my own illness, and now my daughter is sick.  I have also had a bit more down time to read.

Product details How Bad Do You Want it? Mastering the Psychology of Mind of Muscle  Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: VeloPress; 1 edition (October 15, 2015) Language: English ISBN-10: 1937715418 ISBN-13: 978-1937715410

I actually acquired this book as an audio book. Something new to me.  I wasn’t sure if I would like it, however this was the perfect style of book for an audio book. The timing of me reading this book was absolutely perfect, as well.  Maybe that is why I was drawn to it? The message was great and overall the content was limited.

The book starts out bouncing back and forth between personal Matt’s introduction to running and personal struggles with the mental side of running, with the science and theory of endurance sports.   The theory and psychology was interesting, but not overly heavy or deep into the nitty gritty scientific components making this an easy read for most any .

Through this introduction Fitzgerald explains how much of our limitations are driven by our mental strength verse the physical limitations.  Our body self-regulating based on the perception of effort.  That training not only trains our bodies physical limitation it alters the brains perception of effort allowing us to be stronger.  He explains that, for endurance athletes, developing ones mental game is very limited outside of the parameters of training.  That training your mental game needs to happen with in and along side your physical training to get the most out of yourself.

After the introduction, much of the book become individual anecdotal stories of various athletes who manage different types of mental strength and over came different mental barriers for personal success.  I love that Matt Fitzgerald includes a variety of sports in this portion of the book; tri-athletes, cyclist and even rugby players included.  Each story has a unique element and I found them to be very uplifting.  The content in these sections are limited. I don’t want to share individual stories as that would take away from the author and the purpose of reading the book.

This book contains great information highlighting the importance of the psychology of endurance athletes and uplifting stories to go along with that message.  The book however, is not a “how to” on training that key component.  It doesn’t include practical exercises that one could apply to their personal training. He does however, discuss these components in his 80/20 book. (review coming soon!)

Overall I thought this book was well written, the stories matched the message and were very uplifting. This book is great for any level of runner; newbie or elites. Timing wise, this book was just what I needed as I work through some anxiety issues.  I think this book is great for starting a new training cycle and the uplifting stories would be a great message during a taper phase.  I will definitely revisit during my next taper.

As I mentioned, this was my first audio book and the way it was written and each chapter being its own mini-story was perfect for this form. It was easy to break between each chapter and restart on my next run.   I think a content heavy book, like Science of Running, would be hard in this format.  Matt Fitzgerald book, however was great.

I am completing Matt Fitzgeralds 80/20 Training book.  It’s a super fast easy read so I will easily be able to get a follow up post during Thanksgiving break.

I hope you enjoyed my Book Review.  Be sure to check out some of my other Book Reviews!

• Book Review-The Science of Running: How to find your limit and train to maximize your personal performance #allaboutrunning Wednesday Blog Link up!
• Daniels Running Formula-Book Review

What running books do you recommend? Do you prefer content or stories more? Comment below!

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