About me
My name is Alex Hutchinson, and I’m a Toronto-based journalist who writes about the science of sport and exercise. I write the biweekly Jockology column in The Globe and Mail, and a regular feature called The Science of Running in Canadian Running magazine (where I’m a senior editor). I also contribute to a variety of newspapers and magazines across the continent, ranging from Runner’s World to The Walrus.
Between 1997 and 2008, I represented Canada as a long-distance runner in track, cross-country and road races around the world. During my running career, I was always eager to seek out the latest research and best advice about training programs, nutrition and athletic performance — advice that was often very different from the advice my friends were picking up from magazines and personal trainers.
Before becoming a journalist, I worked as a postdoctoral physics researcher, studying quantum mechanics and computation. This doesn’t mean that I have a naive faith in the power of science to answer our exercise questions — but it does mean that I’m comfortable going to the source of research studies, talking to the scientists, and finding out what we know for sure and what we’re still trying to figure out.
For more biographical information and some recent examples of my work, you can visit www.alexhutchinson.net. You can reach me at alex (at) alexhutchinson.net.