236: Hard work vs. Overtraining: Finding the Sweet Spot for Optimal Adaptation:

Once a Runner tells the story of Quenton Cassidy, a competitive runner at fictional Southeastern University, whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. When the Vietnam War era intrudes into his school’s athletic department, Cassidy becomes involved in an athletes’ protest and is suspended from his track team. Under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Bruce Denton, a graduate student and former Olympic gold medalist, Cassidy gives up his scholarship, his girlfriend, and possibly his future to train in a monastic retreat in the countryside. The novel provides a rare insider’s account of the incredibly intense lives of elite distance runners and is an inspiring, funny, and spot-on tale of one individual’s quest to become a champion.