The Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance * Simon Ward and Alex Hutchinson

The annual Training Peaks conference is recognised as having some great keynote speakers, several of whom I have managed to invite onto this show as guests (Stephen Seiler being the most recent one). This week I bring you another one of those insightful humans as I chat with Alex Hutchinson. Alex is a journalist and author. His latest book is Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance.  Alex is a keen runner, and in his younger years competed for the Canadian National team at middle distance with a 3:42:43 best at 1500m, and 49:20 for 10 miles. He studied at university as a physicist spending 3 years studying for his Phd in the UK, and eventually ended up as journalist.  In addition to having written books, he contributes regular columns for Outside magazine and others.

This is another great discussion so please listen in as we chat about:

• Some surprising truths and myths about training for sport
• Why your brain could be holding you back in races
• Why your environment matters if you want a PB
• How to harness the pack to race faster
• Building your belief to achieve your goals
• What will influence the big endurance breakthroughs in the next few years
• The obligatory (short) chat about Nike Vaporfly
• Alex’s top 4 tips for peak performance

Just a reminder about Alex’s books

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

Which Comes first? Cardio or weights?

We also chatted about some research which Alex references in his book.  This one is about how mental fatigue impairs physical performance, something you might want to take into account before a taper https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19131473

This research focusses on how motivational self talk can help performance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27580154

Finally this is the research where the cyclists were shown happy or sad faces for milliseconds and how it affected performance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4263011/

You can find Alex via his website, Alexhutchinson.net

And mostly in these social media places:

Twitter - @sweatscience

Facebook

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For any questions please email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com