EP 635: Why Are Runners Suddenly so Fast?
Trail Runner Nation
Trail Runner Nation
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2023
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This year it seems like course records throughout trail running have been dropping like flies. UltraRunning Magazine lists hundreds of new records for both men and women on their site. Some of these records are decades old. Are we getting faster? It sure seems like that. Alex Hutchinson has also been wondering this and decided to do his science thing and find out the truth. In his recent OutsideOnline article "Why Are Runners Suddenly So Fast? Records are falling and times are dropping. Is it the shoes, or something else?" he filters through the statistics to answer the question.
Read Alex's other articles at OutsideOnline here
Visit his web site and get his book Endure: Mind Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Yeah, I'm, you know, like 10 years ago, my hands that were being close to 28 of those |
| 0:06.5 | people are idiots, but in my sort of mellowing old age, I'm like, ah, you know, maybe only |
| 0:12.7 | 200 of them are idiots, and maybe 98 of them are challenging themselves, and not just |
| 0:17.5 | sort of trying to make it as easy as possible, they're like, no, I want to be on the edge |
| 0:20.7 | today. |
| 0:21.7 | Today is, I'm not going to jog the first part of the race. |
| 0:23.6 | So ultimately, if you're going to perform your very best, you have to be vulnerable at some |
| 0:29.2 | point in the middle. |
| 0:30.2 | You can't run a personal best fully under control of the whole way. |
| 0:44.2 | Welcome to the Trailhead of Trail Runner Nation, where we go on virtual trail runs with guests |
| 0:49.6 | that are going to help inspire us, teach us a little bit about running and endurance, |
| 0:55.8 | and hopefully make us better human beings. |
| 0:58.7 | Let's go. |
| 0:59.7 | Today, we're going to run with Alex Hutchinson, you know, I showed up to the Trailhead, expecting |
| 1:03.2 | to run somewhere with Alex, and all of a sudden, we went in another direction, and I don't |
| 1:07.4 | even know where we ended up, but I had the most fun on this conversation. |
| 1:14.4 | Don, can I tell you how much I am in love with my path projects, crest PX shorts? |
| 1:22.6 | I just love them. |
| 1:23.6 | They have lots of pockets right in the right places. |
| 1:25.9 | And when you pull up to your running drawer, you pull it out and you say, what am I going |
| 1:28.7 | to wear today? |
| 1:29.7 | Scott, you do pull those same pair of shorts, and I'm going to have a little talk to you |
... |
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