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In this episode we bring you a fascinating interview with Alex Hutchinson, author of the new book Endure -Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.
In addition to being an endurance science geek, Alex was one of the few journalists allowed access to the Nike Breaking 2 project in Italy where Eliud Kipchoge ran the fastest marathon in history at 2:00:25 (an unofficial world record).
Alex Hutchinson writes the @sweatscience column for Outside Magazine. He’s also a contributor to The New Yorker, Popular Mechanics, and Canadian Running magazine. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge and worked as a researcher for the U.S. National Security Agency. He represented Canada internationally in track, cross-country, and road racing. Alex currently lives in Toronto.
In this conversation we talk with Alex about The Central Governor Theory, the mind body connection, how to improve your race by smiling more, why more people don’t die in the marathon, and the Nike Breaking 2 project -he was one of the few journalists allowed behind the scenes. You’re going to enjoy this conversation!
Also Mentioned In this Episode
Alex Hutchinson Website: http://www.alexhutchinson.net
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One Response
I really enjoyed this breakdown of Alex Hutchinson’s work. The “Central Governor Theory” is such a fascinating concept—it’s wild to think our brains are essentially acting as a safety brake to prevent us from pushing our bodies to a point of actual damage, even when we feel like we’ve hit a wall.
It actually reminds me a bit of the technical work I do with older server infrastructure. Sometimes, even when you have high-performance 12GBps SAS drives https://serverorbit.com/hard-disk-drives/sas-12gbps that are capable of immense throughput, the system firmware or controller bottlenecks force a “governor” of sorts on the performance to ensure nothing overheats or fails under sustained load. It’s funny how the physical limitations of hardware and the biological limitations of the human body mirror each other in that way.
Do you think that by consciously “tricking” the brain, we’re essentially bypassing a necessary safety mechanism, or are we just finally accessing the actual potential that’s been there all along?