Using first-hand experience of Eliud Kipchoge’s 2017 attempt to break the two hour barrier in the marathon as a framing device, Alex Hutchinson’s Endure is a rare thing: a book which presents a wide variety of scientific information in an eminently readable manner. The first half looks at things like muscular endurance, lactate production and oxygen consumption; the second half looks at cutting-edge research into the mental side of human endurance. Picked by Stephen.