Alex Hutchinson

Alex Hutchinson is a sports science journalist with the Outside magazine and the Globe and Mail. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a postdoctoral physicist with the U.S. National Security Agency and competed for the Canadian national team in track, cross-country, and mountain running.

Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience) is a sports science journalist with the Outside magazine and the Globe and Mail, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Endure Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a postdoctoral physicist with the U.S. National Security Agency and competed for the Canadian national team in track, cross-country, and mountain running.

Podcast Summary:

Alex talks about why he ran and often asked himself, “Do I run for the sake of running or do I run to win?” Based off of this question, Stefan and Alex discuss the importance of doing what you love and not just for the money or the win. Alex talks about his book and the deep meaning behind it: “When you are at your hardest point, what is holding you back and not pushing yourself more?” Stefan goes further with this point to talk about a past podcast guest who was a navy seal and discussed how the point of training is to break you. The only people that pass and make it are the ones that get past the pain and “Hell week”.  Stefan and Alex talk about how they are able to get their “white space” and let their mind go free. Alex then goes to talk about the steps he took to become a New York Times bestseller. This podcast is great to learn about staying focused and maintaining your drive and passion in life.

00:00 – Ex: “A really good quote” or A very interesting topic

0:55 – what is mountain running

2:00 – talks about learning when to walk and when to run

3:00 – “what got you into all of this”

3:30 – “do you enjoy running or do you enjoy winning”

6:20 – Stefan talks about how the podcast show and how he is thankful for talking to amazing people

7:00 – Alex talks about how running is a really personal thing

7:55 – Stefan talks about two types of people

8:30 – “do you think running is like playing chess against yourself?”

9:20 – team sports vs. individual sports

10:15 – “a race is a race”

12:00 – “running is a suffering test”

12:40 – Stefan asks Alex about his book

16:00 – Alex talks about the navy seal and ranger selection process and mindset

20:00 – Alex talks about how having passion for something fuels you but over time people lose that passion and how to not do that

21:40 – “a balanced life is a myth”23:10alex doesn’t listen to music or anything while running.. his mind spaces out

26:15 – “creativity is incompatible with a routine”

28:20 – “you’re in the midstream of the mind and get creative and then once a phone rings you get out of it”

30:00 – creativity is about the space

30:40 – Stefan talks about having themed days.. doing podcasts Thursday coaching Monday, etc.

32:30 – horizontal thinking and vertical thinking

34:10 – how did you get to be a new york times best seller

36:15 – talks about Malcolm Gladwell

40:05 – they talk about publishers and if you should go with one or self publish

48:15 – make longterm goals

52:30 – Alex would tell 18-year-olds to work on their attention span

Get Connected with Alex:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/sweatscience1/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/sweatscience/

Website – https://alexhutchinson.net/