Matt Fitzgerald Books In Order

Publication Order of Racing Weight Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Matt Fitzgerald
Matt Fitzgerald is an acclaimed endurance sports writer, coach, and nutritionist whose work regularly appears in Women’s Running, Outside, and Men’s Journal, as well as other publications.

He got his start as an editor for Multisport magazine, and also worked for active.com, Triathlete, and Competitor Group before he struck out on his own. He’s a brand ambassador for Mizuno and is a Training Intelligence Specialist for PEAR Sports. Matt’s in demand as a public speaker and travels all over the United States and internationally to lead seminars and clinics for coaches and athletes.

Matt became a runner at the age of eleven, after he ran the last mile of the 1983 Boston Marathon with his dad, who had run the entire thing, and his two brothers. By that time, he was already a writer, a comedic poet to be more specific, having declared his intentions to make his future career as a writer when he was just nine. And he never changed his mind.

Even though he never planned on marrying his passions for fitness, sports, and writing, that is just how things worked out. Before he had even graduated high school, he was making some money writing articles about the exploits of his Oyster River High School Bobcats Cross Country Team for a local weekly paper.

He moved to California in 1995 for no real reason, two years after he got his BA in English from Haverford College (a DIII track and cross country “powerhouse” where Matt was intending to run yet didn’t because of burnout). Matt, who was willing to take the first writing job he could find in San Francisco, got offered a job from Bill Katovsky (Triathlete’s original founder) to join the small staff of an endurance startup magazine that was based in Sausalito. It was this opportunity that led to every subsequent opportunity in Matt’s career.

Matt, who was an All-State runner during high school, took up triathlon in his twenties, and has coached triathletes and runners since the year 2001. Matt holds certification in sports nutrition, has consulted for several sports nutrition companies, and provides peer reviews for sports nutrition journals.

His intention is to continue racing until he absolutely cannot. He has run a bunch of marathons and many shorter running events since he returned to the sport at the age of 27. In the year 1998, he branched out to triathlons, and fours after that finished his first (and only) Ironman.

“Iron War” was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.

“80/20 Running” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2014. Train easier to run faster. This revolutionary training method has been embraced by some elite runners, with rather extraordinary results, and now you can do it as well.

Matt explains how the 80/20 running program, in which you do 80 percent of runs at a lower intensity and only twenty percent at a higher intensity, is the best change runners of any and all abilities can make in order to improve their own performance. With a thorough examination of the research and science behind this method of training, this book is a hands-on guide for runners of every level with training programs for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon distances.

This book will help teach you how to transform your workouts to avoid burnout. You will carry less fatigue from one run to the next, your fitness levels will reach new heights, runs will get more pleasant and less draining, and your performance will improve in the few high-intensity runs. It promotes a message that all runners can embrace: Get better results by making the majority of your workouts easier.

“How Bad Do You Want It?” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2015. The greatest athletic performances come from the mind, not the body.

This is something that elite athletes have known for decades and now science is learning all about why it is actually true. Matt examines over a dozen crucial races to learn the surprising ways that elite athletes are able to strengthen their own mental toughness.

He puts readers into the pulse-pounding action of over dozen epic races from cycling, running, XTERRA, triathlon, and rowing with some thrilling race reports and revealing post-race interviews with these elites. Their own words reinforce what the research found: strong mental fitness lets us approach our own true physical limits, giving us an edge over the physically stronger competitors. Each of these chapters explore the why and how of an elite athlete’s transformative moment, revealing some new psychobiological principles that you can also practice to flex your own mental fitness.

This new psychobiological model of endurance performance shows that most important question in endurance sports is: how bad do you actually want it? This book is going to forever change how anybody answers the question and show how to master the psychology of mind over muscle. It’s these lessons that are going to help you push back your limits and uncover your full potential.

“The Comeback Quotient” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2020. What’s the secret to a great comeback?

Everybody loves a great comeback. And in “The Comeback Quotient, Matt examines the stories and science behind some of the most astonishing comebacks in sports. Why are some athletes able to overcome some overwhelming odds and rebound stronger than ever? Could they be superhuman? No, he argues, their powers come from “ultrarealism”, a mental fitness mindset which allows them to full accept, address, and embrace reality.

From ultrarunners like Rob Krar to triathletes like Mirinda Carfrae to various skiers, rowers, and cyclists from all around the globe, Matt dives into tales that aren’t just compelling yet also constructive. Along the way, he lays out the steps that anybody can take to rebound from their own setbacks in life and in sport. This combines some gripping stories with compelling research, and is sure to change how you perceive the challenges that you face, giving you the necessary tools and inspiration to make the next great comeback that you witness your own.