How Bad Do You Want It? ─ Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle

The greatest athletic performances take place in the mind, not the body.How Bad Do You Want It? explores some of the greatest moments in endurance sports to mine concrete habits and tactics we can use to cultivate our own mental strength.

Great endurance athletes often seem godlike in their abilities. But no matter how great, their physical abilities can take them only so far. The greatest moments in sports demand that these champions rely on their mind to confront and overpower the same fears we all face in sports and in life: fear of failure, fear of suffering, fear of change, to name a few. When we understand how much mental strength is demanded of the greatest athletes in pursuit of victory, their performances become vastly more inspiring. Behind every glorious win are doubts overcome, personal demons faced and setbacks surmounted.

How Bad Do You Want It? describes a new “psychobiological” model of endurance performance connecting the mind and body through the brain, and explains how athletes are sometimes able to overcome physical limitations with mental might. Each story in the book is viewed through the lens of this model, shedding new light on what science has to say about mental fortitude in sports. With its compelling accounts from triathlon, cycling, running, rowing, and swimming,How Bad Do You Want It? puts readers on the sidelines of more than a dozen epic races while also digging into the science to share the how and why of each transformative moment.

Matt Fitzgerald is a certified sports nutritionist and the author of numerous books on running, triathlon, nutrition, and weight loss. His most recent VeloPress books areRacing Weight Cookbook, Racing Weight Quick Start Guide, RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel,Racing Weight, and The Runner’s Diary. Matt is a regular contributor toCompetitor, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, Outside, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Running Times, Women’s Running, and other sports and fitness publications. Fitzgerald is a featured coach on Training Peaks, Pear Sports, and Active.com. He is a certified sports nutritionist (CISSN) licensed by the International Society of Sports Nutrition. He lives and trains near San Francisco, California.