Becoming A Consummate Athlete

Tired of training and not getting wins? Feeling a lack of motivation, or that there just isn't enough time to do it all? Missing when sport felt fun?If you've been training for an endurance sport like cycling or running but find yourself feeling stuck or not getting the results that you want, your daily habits might be to blame. Being an all-around athletic, healthy human capable of tackling any outdoor adventure-a Consummate Athlete, if you will-takes smart training and thoughtful lifestyle choices. In this book, you'll learn new ways to look at your recovery, fueling, training, record keeping and even your gear in order to help you reach your athletic goals while actually enjoying your healthy lifestyle. Longtime endurance sport coach and kinesiologist Peter Glassford and his equally athletic wife, author and fellow coach Molly Hurford are going to change the way you view your training. Remember: You are an athlete, and you owe it to yourself to start living like one!

The Brave Athlete solves the 13 most common mental conundrums athletes face in their everyday training and in races. You don’t have one brainyou have three; your ancient Chimp brain that keeps you alive, your modern Professor brain that navigates the civilized world, and your Computer brain that accesses your memories and runs your habits (good and bad). They fight for control all the time and that’s when bad things happen; you get crazy nervous before a race, you choke under pressure, you quit when the going gets tough, you make dumb mistakes, you worry about how you look. What if you could stop the thoughts and feelings you don’t want? What if you could feel confident, suffer like a hero, and handle any stress? You can. The Brave Athlete from Dr. Simon Marshall and Lesley Paterson will help you take control of your brain so you can train harder, race faster, and better enjoy your sport. Dr. Marshall is a sport psychology expert who trains the brains of elite professional athletes. Paterson is a three-time world champion triathlete and coach. Together, they offer this innovative, brain training guide that is the first to draw from both clinical science and real-world experience with athletes. That means you won’t find outdated “positive self-talk” or visualization gimmicks here. No, the set of cutting-edge mental skills revealed in The Brave Athlete actually work because they challenge the source of the thoughts and feelings you don’t want. The Brave Athlete is packed with practical, evidence-based solutions to the most common mental challenges athletes face. Which of these sound like you? Why do I have thoughts and feelings I don’t want? I wish I felt more like an athlete. I don’t think I can. I don’t achieve my goals. Other athletes seem tougher, happier, and more badass than me. I feel fat. I don’t cope well with injury. People are worried about how much I exercise. I don’t like leaving my comfort zone. When the going gets tough, the tough leave me behind. I need to harden the f*ck up. I keep screwing up. I don’t handle pressure well. With The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion, you can solve these problems to become mentally strong and make your brain your most powerful asset.

Todd Durkin is the most sought-after personal trainer in sports, and if you don't know his name, you've definitely seen his work. He is the man who helped world-class athletes such as quarterback Drew Brees win a Super Bowl MVP, pitcher Cole Hamels win a World Series MVP, and professional snowboarder Shaun White win two Olympic gold medals. He is known throughout sports as the one trainer who can use any person’s unique raw materials to transform them into—quite literally—the best they can be. Now Durkin has tailored his elite training program for anyone looking to transform their bodies. Based on groundbreaking "muscle matrix" research, Durkin’s program is designed to adapt to your body to help you shed flab, build strength and flexibility, and enhance your athletic performance.

The sign on his office door simply says “Track & Field Coach.” His life says infinitely more. Coach Al Buehler has touched and enriched the lives of countless athletes, students, and others, including Olympians John Carlos and Carl Lewis, sports icons Mary Decker Slaney, Shane Battier, and Ellison Goodall Bishop (the first woman to run at Duke)—and thousands more who have never owned a pair of track shoes. Coach Al Buehler believes that finish lines are something to prepare for; and in his world, they should be a place to begin… Buehler is the consummate professor-athlete-coach. Following a stellar college track career at the University of Maryland, he came to Duke University in 1955 and has since coached thousands of track-and-field and cross-country athletes at the biggest moments in sports from the NCAA Championships to World Indoor Track Championships to the Olympic Games. Coach Buehler is the longest-term teaching professor and coach in the history of Duke as well as one of the most successful, with a long roster of All-Americans, six ACC championship teams, seven Penn Relay champions, and multiple Olympians to his credit. At a campus still segregated by race and gender, Buehler was an early and ardent advocate for both desegregation and Title IX. Amongst the many accolades and honors that he has received, he is a recipient of the Jackie Robinson Humanitarian Award. At heart, Coach Buehler is a mentor. And Starting at the Finish Line embodies his advice and memorable “Coachables”—along with commentary and insights by a host of notables, from Coach Mike Krzyzewski and Jackie Joyner-Kersee to Carl Lewis and Joan Benoit Samuelson—that have inspired, motivated, and educated athletes and students alike to play with integrity and heart—both on and off the track.

This classic memoir about life in the pros by the NBA hall of famer and former US senator was named a top 100 Sports Books by Sports Illustrated. Before Bill Bradley became known as a US senator and presidential candidate, he was famous for being a part of the world championship–winning New York Knicks. Now, long after his athletic and political careers have come to a close, his account of twenty days in a pro basketball season remains a classic of sports literature, unparalleled in its honesty and intelligence. Told with incredible candor, Bradley shows life on the road as a pro-athlete for what it is: a sometimes glamourous, often lonely journey. He takes readers from the court to the locker room; from the seamless teamwork of a winning game to the melancholy of a motel in a strange city. Bradley shows us the abuse of the press alongside the smothering adoration of the fans. We watch in horror as Earl Monroe is beaten outside Madison Square Garden barely an hour after twenty thousand people cheered him. And we come to understand the euphoria and exhaustion, the icy concentration and intense pressure, that are felt only by those who play basketball for keeps. “A remarkable, searching, smart book.” —Newsweek

If you were on a ride and sprained your ankle, would you say something to the group you were riding with? Obviously, you wouldn't just suffer in silence. But what about when you're out on a ride and you realize that you've gone completely numb 'down there, ' or you're chafing so badly you're afraid you're bleeding? Most people don't speak up in that case. Most will suffer in silence, come home and have no idea why they have massive saddle sores-if they realize what a saddle sore even looks like-or how to treat it. Your level of experience doesn't matter. I know riders from beginners to pros who have questions about their bodies that they aren't comfortable asking bike shop employees, coaches or even their doctors. We've been conditioned not to talk in public about our nether-regions, and that lack of communication is hurting our riding-making it a lot less fun. Riding shouldn't be uncomfortable. You shouldn't be getting saddle sores every ride. Cramping shouldn't make you cry on the bike. And you shouldn't be wearing your underwear with your bike shorts. Enter 'Saddle, Sore': the first guide to answer all of these embarrassing, awkward or just plain weird questions that you have about the bike and those sensitive areas. In this second edition, gynecologist, doctors, naturopaths, saddle makers, chamois designers, pelvic floor specialists, midwives, team soigneurs, and more, come together to provide their best tips. You'll learn how to diagnose and treat saddle sores, how to choose a saddle and chamois, whether a pad is better than a tampon, what causes numbness on the bike, how to get back to riding after pregnancy, and so much more. You'll also find new chapters-including a section for male riders-and many questions that have been asked and answered since the first edition came out in 2014.

Randy Couture -- voted "The Greatest Fighter of All Time" by viewers' choice -- recounts his record-breaking career, which has made him an undisputed UFC legend. Randy Couture wins fights with the seemingly effortless ease with which lesser mortals eat or breathe. He's the only athlete to have held championship titles in both the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions of the UFC, and he's the only six-time title earner in UFC history. In Becoming the Natural, Couture tells his story for the first time, beginning with a childhood spent in search of an elusive father figure, followed by the pure adrenaline rush that accompanied his first wrestling bout in grade school. In 1997, at the age of thirty-three, Couture made his UFC debut, defeating two opponents in the heavyweight class and then scoring a TKO victory against Brazilian phenom Vitor Belfort to earn the nickname "The Natural." He won his first heavyweight title that same year. At the age of forty, he defeated five-time defending champion Tito Ortiz for the undisputed light heavyweight title. Couture retired in 2006, only to reemerge the following year and seize the heavyweight championship title once again. Becoming the Natural is the remarkable story of one of the world's most gifted and dedicated athletes -- a born fighter whose skill and showmanship have helped to lift mixed martial arts out of the shadows and into the mainstream.

So you want to be a pro athlete? Awesome. But ... How do you do it? You put in the training hours, you start doing well at races, and then a big team or company just hands you a suitcase full of money, right? Sadly, it's not quite that simple. There are thousands of amazing athletes all over the world who can't make a living at their sport. By the time you shell out cash for the gear, the race entries, the travel, the lodging, the food, the massages, the gear you need after you break/wear out the first set, it's freaking expensive to be a pro.That means you need to hustle and find a team that can actually pay you living wage, figure out a job that you can work while pursuing your sport, or cobble together enough sponsorships to keep you afloat.This book will teach you how to do that, from finding the right brands to approach to developing a racer resume and website to cultivating your own personal brand identity through your social media, real life and racing. If you want a thriving career in sport, this book is for you.