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Alex Hutchinson

Exercise-science journalist; writes the Sweat Science column for Outside and a newsletter of the same name, and is the author of Endure and The Explorer’s Gene.

13 things

The GameBook Ken Dryden

loved

The Game, one of the great sports books of all time, written four decades ago by goaltending legend Ken Dryden, who died a few months ago

Sweat Science newsletter pointing to his yearly holiday list of books he enjoyed

2025-12-09·sweatscience.substack.com ↗

The Art of PacingBook Elizabeth Svoboda

recommended

The Art of Pacing, by Elizabeth Svoboda It’s a motley collection, but each of them has something interesting to offer

His 2026 Sweat Science summer book list

2026-07-06·sweatscience.substack.com ↗

The Running GroundBook Nicholas Thompson

recommended

Every December, I share a list of books that I’ve enjoyed this year, most with at least a loose tie-in to the Sweat Science themes of endurance, fitness, and science. This year’s holiday list just went up at Outside. There are some fairly obvious picks (Nick Thompson’s The Running Ground

Sweat Science newsletter pointing to his yearly holiday list of books he enjoyed

2025-12-09·sweatscience.substack.com ↗

The Endurance ArtistBook Jared Beasley

recommended

There are some fairly obvious picks (Nick Thompson’s The Running Ground; Jared Beasley’s The Endurance Artist, about Lazarus Lake and the Barkley Marathons).

Sweat Science newsletter pointing to his yearly holiday list of books he enjoyed

2025-12-09·sweatscience.substack.com ↗

The Last of the GiantsBook Doug Mayers

recommended

And there are a few sleeper picks (Doug Mayers’s The Last of the Giants, a graphic novel about the epic ultramarathon Tor des Géants

Sweat Science newsletter pointing to his yearly holiday list of books he enjoyed

2025-12-09·sweatscience.substack.com ↗

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The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

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