Alex Hutchinson is one of the brightest and most forward-thinking exercise science journalists of our day.
Photo by Alexi Hobbs
He spends his time analyzing the latest science of performance, analyzing what’s useful, what the media gets wrong, and how we can upgrade our training to become faster, healthier runners.
Alex holds a PhD in physics from Cambridge and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia. He’s also an award-winning science journalist and contributor to major media like Popular Mechanics, Runner’s World and The Globe and Mail.
His book, Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? answers simple questions about fitness with the latest science to provide actionable, definitive answers.
A former national-class runner for Canada from 1997 – 2008, Alex focused on middle and long-distance events from 1500m to 12 kilometers.
You can catch up with Alex’s writing on Runner’s World where he writes the Sweat Science column (my favorite geeky running blog!).
And today, I’m bringing his best advice on the frontiers of running performance to you.
Alex Hutchinson on the Frontiers of Performance
Recently I was able to interview Alex on how runners will continue to race faster. The interview is part of the “Guest Expert” series for Team Strength Running.
Today you can listen to an excerpt of our conversation where we talk about:
- The importance of “the basics”
- Once you start running, what’s the top way to keep improving?
- Alex’s interests: training structure, heat adaptation, and dehydration
- The dangers of “over-recovery”
Click the play button below to listen. You can also click here to open the interview in a new tab in your browser.
[audio:https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/team-sr/Alex+Hutchinson+Interview+Excerpt.mp3]Please shoot Alex a note on Twitter to thank him for this interview. He’s generous with his time and I know he’ll appreciate it.
You’ll also be able to see the studies – and his analysis – that he posts that I highly recommend.
The Full Interview (and an important update)
This interview is particularly interesting because I didn’t come up with most of the questions! Members of Team Strength Running submitted their top questions and I was psyched to include them in this interview.
Here are more of the topics and ideas that we discuss:
- What current research is most exciting for helping runners continue to improve?
- What do elite runners do differently (besides running more and faster) than recreational runners?
- If you’re speaking with a group of 1:45 – 2:15 half marathoners, what’s the #1 training suggestion you have for these runners?
- What are some best practices for incorporating weight lifting into a running program?
Alex and I always seem to talk for a long time – the full interview is over 83 minutes – and we dive deeper into stress (both good and bad), adaptation, and recovery techniques.
The complete interview is available for members of the team in our Expert Network area.
Soon, we’ll be opening registration so if you’re interested in learning more, just sign up here and I’ll be in touch soon.
You’ll get access to Alex’s interview, plus seven additional experts like Travis Macy, Amelia Boone, and Ben Greenfield (not to mention our Training Plan Library and live coaching calls with me!).
