—The limits of humans’ physical capabilities, and how endurance can, and cannot, change those limits—
The Non-fiction Feature
Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Author: Alex Hutchinson
Publisher: Mariner Books
Pages: 336 | 2021
The process of training expands the capabilities of the muscles and heart, sure, but it also recalibrates the brain’s horizons…trained ultra-runners have a higher pain tolerance than nonathletes, and even over the course of a single year the pain tolerance of athletes waxes and wanes with training cycles.
In this sense, all training is brain training, even if it doesn’t specifically target the brain.
The Memoir Spot
Just Add Water
Katie Ledecky
“Coping with excruciating discomfort during an event is a distinctive mental challenge….for any distance swimmer, the only question that actually matters is:
How are you going to respond to the pain? Are you going to shut down and throw in the towel, or are you going to hold steady, believe that you can survive your anguish, and carry on?”
The Product Spot
Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso is a show about belief–what happens when we believe in the best of ourselves and others, and what happens when we don’t.