This is our second Note on one of Phil Maffetone’s books. This is called “The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing” for a reason. It’s a REALLY Big Book. (Hah!) It’s 516 pages, but the small font and two-column pages make it considerably denser; like, encyclopedically dense—which I found fantastic as I wanted to get into every nook and cranny of Phil’s brain. (Studying it was a wonderful mental-endurance workout. :) It’s essentially the distillation of over three decades (!) of clinical work with the world’s absolute best endurance athletes. Big Ideas we explore include the "Big Four" of the Big Book, the difference between aerobic and anaearobic (it's not just about oxygen!), building your superchargers (aka your mitochondria), flipping the switch to fat burning (pro tip: eliminate sugar and flour!), and stress: the good, the bad and the ugly (remember: training = work + rest!).
