Episode 61: Alex Hutchinson on the Limits of Human Endurance

The Strength Running Podcast

Jason Fitzgerald

Health & Fitness, 10k, Beginnerrunning, Marathontraining, Fitness, Injuryprevention, Marathon, Halfmarathon, Running, Sports

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alex Hutchinson holds a PhD in Physics from Cambridge, a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia, and is a former national-class runner in Canada. He’s written for Runner’s World, Outside Magazine, The Globe & Mail, Popular Mechanics, and many other major media.

I’ve been pestering Alex to write another book after Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? became one of my favorite exercise science myth-busters (if you haven’t picked it up yet, I highly recommend it).

And he finally delivered! His new book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance has quickly become my favorite running book from the last few years.

Our conversation centers on the psychological limits of endurance:

intrinsic motivation
peer pressure
joy and running for “the right reasons”
how to access hidden reserves of energy
overriding the “central governor”

Alex’s book showed me the many factors that limit endurance – and practical methods for overcoming those limitations.

Often, it’s not your training that predicts your race performances, but what’s between your ears.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ready, set go.
0:04.7	This is episode 61 with award-winning science journalist, former national class runner for Canada,
0:10.4	an author of the new book Endure, Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance,
0:16.8	Mr. Alex Hutchinson. Hey everyone this is this is Jason and I'm excited to be together again because today's show is one that I was looking forward to recording for
0:35.1	months. I'm speaking with Alex Hutchinson, one of the brightest and most forward
0:39.6	thinking journalists of our day and he spends his time analyzing the latest science of
0:44.4	performance to tease out what's useful, what the media gets wrong, and how we can
0:50.1	upgrade our training to become faster, healthier runners.
0:54.4	Alex holds a PhD in physics from Cambridge,
0:57.1	a master's in journalism from Colombia,
0:59.2	and is a former national class runner from Canada.
1:01.8	He's an award-winning science journalist who's
1:03.9	contributed to major media like Popular Mechanics, Runner's World, and The Globe and
1:08.3	Mail. Now I've been bugging Alex for about two years to publish another book. I'm glad he's listened.
1:16.0	His first, which comes first, cardio or weights, is one of my favorite exercise science books
1:21.1	on the market today. The entire book is a series of
1:24.3	questions and answers based on the latest research and some of the questions like
1:29.4	should you have sex the night before a race I know you've been curious about for a while.
1:35.4	Before we dive in I want to thank Karina for leaving a wonderful review of the
1:39.7	Strength Running Podcast on Apple Podcasts. She said,
1:43.8	Jason and his guests are smart, approach a variety of topics and are
1:47.3	pleasant to listen to. I look forward to these episodes each week.
	...

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