Limits are An Illusion: Alex Hutchinson

When you’re running hard, pushing yourself to extremes, which do
you think is the more limiting factor, your body or your brain?
Alex Hutchinson has done extensive research on exactly that
question. 


 


The Toronto-based author and journalist focuses on the science of
endurance and fitness. You may know him from his book ENDURE:
Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance
or from Outside magazine where he’s a contributing editor and
writes the Sweat Science column. 


 


Alex believes that our limits are elastic, stretchable, and as of
yet, undefined. He and Coach Claire discuss those limits, and
also tackle hydration, fueling, carbohydrates, strength training,
aging and more.  And just for fun, they also get into the
science of why Coach Claire loves an out-and-back course way more
than a loop!


 


Alex also writes the Jockology column for The Globe and Mail, and
his writing has appeared in Canadian Running magazine, Popular
Mechanics (where he earned a National Magazine Award for his
energy reporting), the New York Times, and he was a Runner’s
World columnist from 2012 to 2017.


Prior to ENDURE, Alex wrote a practical guide to the science of
fitness called Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness
Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the
Science of Exercise, which was published in 2011. He is also the
author of the 2009 book, Big Ideas: 100 Modern Inventions That
Have Transformed Our World. 


Alex started out as a physicist, with a Ph.D. from the University
of Cambridge, followed by a few years as a postdoctoral
researcher with the U.S. National Security Agency, working on
quantum computing and nanomechanics. During that time, he
competed as a middle- and long-distance runner for the Canadian
national team, mostly as a miler but also dabbling in
cross-country and even a bit of mountain running. He still runs
most days, enjoys the rigors of hard training, and occasionally
races, but hates to think of how he’d do on an undergraduate
physics exam!


Alex’s best-selling book Endure has a forward written by Malcolm
Gladwell, another famous Canadian runner and writer, and the
updated version is now out in paperback.






Questions Alex is asked: 


 


3:34 You are an author and a journalist, but you really seem like
a scientist at heart.  How did you get into writing about
fitness and endurance sports?


 


5:22 What fascinates you most about how the body works when
exercising?


 


6:10 Your book Endure, if you could really sum it up, I would say
that it is trying to discover whether it’s the body or the brain
that’s mostly the limiting factor when you’re trying to go to
extremes but it’s clear that it’s a mix of the two. You can’t
say, “Oh, it’s just the brain” or “It’s just the body.” Can you
talk a little bit more about how they’re interrelated and what we
are finding out?


 


7:41 Tim Noakes is a South African scientist that has been very
controversial. He’s written a lot of things that turned out to be
totally true and then he’s written a bunch of things that maybe
people have not found to be true. Can you talk a little bit about
the controversy, both the good and bad things that Tim Noakes has
contributed?


 


10:35 I would love to distill the lessons that you’ve learned so
far about things that can help runners do better. The two main
topics I would love to get into are hydration and fueling. Let’s
talk about hydration specifically for the marathon. Hydration
needs are different for every type of body. Are there any rules
of thumb that recreational runners should think about when coming
up with a hydration plan for the marathon?


 


15:25 ‘Drink to thirst’ is starting to become more popular but
there are some populations that their thirst isn’t reliable. I’ve
heard that as you age, your sense of thirst is not as strong.
Have you heard that as well?


 


18:05 We could talk about fueling during the race or we could
talk about nutrition in general, but what I have found is that
human studies are just notoriously bad when it comes to nutrition
because we’re not rats and we can’t put humans in cages and
measure everything. So what would you say are the limitations to
studying nutrition on humans?


 


23:53 Let’s get into the great carbohydrate debate. As I often
tell people, what’s frustrating about the word carbohydrate is
that lentils, lollipops, and lumber are all carbohydrate. And if
you say do eat carbohydrates or don’t eat carbohydrates, clearly
those three things are processed differently in your body. First
of all, why do we lump carbohydrate? It’s an absolutely massive
category of food and clearly our body treats it differently.
Carbohydrate is the preferred fuel of the brain. It’s the
preferred fuel of the muscles. So why isn’t everybody on the
carbohydrate train?


 


25:35 Sugar or simple carbohydrate is bad if you’re not
exercising but it’s exactly what you need if you are trying to
run a fast marathon.


 


27:29 A keto diet could be exactly what an ultramarathoner would
want to do. They’re not so concerned about ultimate speed;
they’re concerned about eating all the time. Isn't that what they
say about ultras is that it’s not really a running race; it’s an
eating race?


 


28:58 What’s the point of all this science if the answer is
always “It depends?” 


 


30:22 Let's talk about strength training. What is the minimum
effective dose for a runner who is highly active and competitive
but not at the elite level?  


 


34:36 What is the minimum effective dose of strength training for
somebody who is actively training to be competitive in a race but
still at a sub-elite level?


 


40:10 I think a lot of what we attribute to normal aging is
actually more of lack of activity, and all the decline is mostly
for the couch potatoes, the more sedentary people, and we runners
think that maybe we’re immune to all of that stuff. Would you
agree a little bit with that?


 


44:12 You recently wrote an interesting article about the science
of finish lines or teleoanticipation and you related it to not
knowing when the pandemic will end.  Can you
explain?  


 


47:46 I like out and backs better than loops because I know what
to expect on the way back. There’s science that proves it, right?


 


49:28 The brain loves knowing what to expect and it predicts
what’s going to happen whether it’s right or wrong, right?


 


49:42 What questions are left unanswered? What kind of science
are you looking forward to in the future?


 


51:33 I think everybody wants to figure out how to make their
brains stronger, not just in running but in life and dealing with
little kids.






Questions I ask everyone:


 


52:22 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started
running, what advice would you give?


 


53:32 What is the greatest gift running has given you?


 


53:58 Where can listeners connect with you?


 
Quotes by Alex:

 


“For every situation that you think of the answer is both. The
answer is “Yes.” It’s just like nature and nurture. The answer is
your fate is 100% nature and it’s 100% nurture, and your physical
performance is 100% your body and 100% your brain.”


 


“If you look at the list right now of the top 100 men’s marathon
times ever run, 98 of them have been run by Kenyan or Ethiopian
marathoners so if they’re doing something wrong, I want to do it
wrong like they’re doing it because they’re pretty successful.
And if  you look at the data, in both cases they’re getting
more than 60% of their calories throughout the day from
carbohydrates. And for the Kenyans, apparently it’s more than 20%
of their calories come from the added sugar that they put in
their oatmeal and their tea. So is this healthy for a couch
dwelling office worker in North America? Probably not. But if you
want to run fast or if you’re training hard, sugar is not only
like you can use it, but like you said, you need it.”


 


“There is some pretty interesting evidence showing that older
runners like Masters runners get a much larger and more immediate
benefit from weight training for their running than younger
runners do because the younger runners have more muscle to
spare.”


 


“Your body knows, even parts of your body that you wouldn’t think
know exactly where the finish line is.”







Take a Listen on Your Next Run


 


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Mentioned in this podcast:

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human
Performance


Alex Hutchinson | Outside Online


Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community 


RunnersConnect Facebook page


RunnersConnect Focus Classes


email Coach Claire


 


Follow Alex on:


 


Twitter


Facebook






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