How To Do “Impossible” Things

 Endure (2016) by physicist and elite distance runner Alex Hutchinson dives deep into the science of human endurance. In this memo, find out just how flexible human limits are, and how we can trick the body to go further than it believes possible.

4 min mile. Landy was stuck at 4:02. He couldn’t run the mile in under 4 mins: “the four-minute mile is beyond my capabilities.” In fact, no human had ever done it. Then R. Bannister did it, and 37 days later, Landy ran a mile in 3:57. Within 2 years, 337 others did the same.

 No Oxygen? No Problem. Human limits are bafflingly elastic. Since 1924, no one had scaled Everest to a 6,000m peak without extra oxygen. When Messner & Habeler did it in 1978, 197 people followed suit. Hutchinson writes: "the mind frames the outer limits for what is possible."

Body v/s Mind. Triplett's 1898 study found that cyclists "ride faster with others than alone." This sowed the seed of sports psychology. Puzzling questions arose - what defines our limits? The body or the brain? Does our brain trick our body? Could we possibly trick it back?

Catching a second wind. Right when runners think they're going to give up, they produce "an end spurt" to finish the race. If the body could go faster, why didn't it earlier? Tom Noakes says that the brain sets safety limits - & uses energy reserves when we're nearly done.

 Seeing & Un-seeing Effort. Marcora's psychobiological model says - how we see our effort affects our performance. To reduce fatigue, perceive difficult tasks as easy i.e. un-see their difficulty. Mind over muscle. Changed perception will change how difficult it feels.

A Swish in Time. Merely swishing & spitting out a sports drink boosted the performance of cyclists in a 2004 American study. Their brains relaxed & let energy reserves be used - tricked into believing that "more fuel is on the way."

Go further with better self-talk. A Denmark study found cyclists collapse once the body temperature reaches 104.5°. But a Canadian study showed pre-test “positive self talk” kept the cyclists going till their core temp was 105°. This meant 3 extra mins of exertion.

Go further with..a slushie. In the Denmark study, cyclists who were soaked in cool water before the test rode the longest. Drinking slushies pre-races is seen in Olympics - athletes lower their body temperature so they take longer to reach their thermal breaking point.

Bottom Line. Endurance is not only about pushing the self - it's about gauging how the brain & body interact. The brain tricks us, but we can trick it right back. Hutchinson reminds us to stay curious of our capabilities - they're not always where we think they are!