Posts by stevemagness
Frequency Matters More than Intensity. For Workouts & Happiness
How hard do we need to go in a workout? Do we need to push the bounds of fatigue, get our athletes to experience a new level of discomfort, ‘shock’ the system with a new stimulus? It’s a question I ponder often. One we could answer by diving into the world of stress and adaptation,…
Read MoreEpisode 119: Upgrading Lactate Dynamics: A Key to Running Faster Longer
What’s it mean to improve the lactate threshold? What about lactate buffering capacity? In this episode, John and Steve take you down the rabbit hole of workouts designed to improve every part of the lactate curve. You’ll learn why traditional tempo runs push the lactate curve up, but you can also pull the curve. You’ll…
Read MoreVO2max, LT, Critical Velocity- They are much more messy than we think.
VO2max Lactate Threshold Maximum Lactate Steady State Critical Velocity/Power What’s the point of the above? You may answer that they explain a physiological phenomenon. VO2max is when oxygen consumption plateaus. Lactate Threshold is a marker where lactate goes from a steady state or slow trickle of increasing lactate to a flood. Critical Velocity is the…
Read MoreHow Perceived Control Impacts the Physiological Limits of Performance
The Physical and Psychological- Impact on Limits of Performance When I was beginning my college journey in the world of exercise physiology, VO2max was king. Stick someone on a treadmill, ramp up the pace or incline until they fell off the back of the treadmill or cried uncle and then you were given a magical…
Read MoreEpisode 118: The Future of College Sports and the NCAA
The NCAA and college sports are in disarray. Facing a mass pandemic, postponement and cancelation of fall sports, and a growing understanding by the athletes the leverage that they have. With many of us wondering what in the world is the future of college sports, this week we brough on an expert, Dr. Roger Pielke…
Read MoreEpisode 117: Development Part 2- Middle Distance Training
The Middle Distance Events. That combination of speed and endurance makes them one of the most enjoyable but also challenging events to train for or coach. In this episode, we dive deep into the challenges of training for the 800m and 1,500m.We walk you through: The wisdom of Percy Cerutty on coaching the mid-distance events.…
Read MoreImproving Our Relationship with Failure
She started in the back, where she expected to be, but something changed halfway through the race. She was moving up, and gradually passing one runner after another, keeping a steady rhythm as others slowed. My excitement and enthusiasm grew with each passing lap. “You can PR big! Keep it going!” I’d yell as she…
Read MoreEpisode 116: Endurance Development- Part 1
It’s time for a deep dive into training. This week begins a multi-part series on the development of an athlete. We start with the intake process and deciding where to go with the athlete, and move on to what kind of training the athlete should do. For this week, we focus on the 5k and…
Read MoreEpisode 115: Fartleks, Alternations and the Lost Workout Style
Fartleks, the wonderful invention of Gusta Holmer in the 1930’s, is something we are all familiar with. Run hard for a minute, jog for a minute, repeat twenty times. But in today’s world where everything is measured and coaches rely on that feedback to adjust workloads, the fartlek is becoming a lost art. In this…
Read MoreThe In-Between Zone: Training isn’t just hard-easy.
Since Bill Bowerman popularized the idea of alternating days in which we do a hard workout and follow it up with a recovery day of, runners have fallen in love with the back and forth nature of intervals and then going for a distance run in the subsequent days. It’s no wonder that this…
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