Every Second Counts is a 2003 autobiography by cyclist Lance Armstrong written in collaboration with sports writer and columnist Sally Jenkins. It is a follow-up to Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life which was also written with Sally Jenkins. The narrative begins from after Armstrong's first Tour de France win in 1999 and continues up until his fifth win in 2003.
“A life spent defensively, worried, is a life wasted.”
Lance Armstrong book Every Second Counts
Source: Every Second Counts (2003), p. 21
Context: A life spent defensively, worried, is a life wasted.
You know when I need to die? When I'm done living. When I can't walk, can't eat, can't see, when I'm a crotchety old bastard, mad at the world. Then I can die.
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
Lance Armstrong book Every Second Counts
Source: Every Second Counts
Lance Armstrong book Every Second Counts
Source: Every Second Counts (2003), p. 157
Context: The Tour (de France) is essentially a math problem, a 2,000-mile race over three weeks that's sometimes won by a margin of a minute or less. How do you propel yourself through space on a bicycle, sometimes steeply uphill, at a speed sustainable for three weeks? Every second counts.
