Posts by stevemagness
Episode 97: Fatigue, Speedwork, Racing, and More
It’s time for a throwback episode. When we started this podcast it was about two coaches having a conversation. Join us for a discussion on all things performance as we talk about what we are struggling with as coaches, what we’re reading, and how we are trying to innovate in our own coaching. We cover…
Read MoreFeeling Fatigued? 3 Strategies to Combat Overtraining
My new book The Passion Paradox is on sale for only $7 (61% off!!) on Amazon today. If you haven’t yet, consider giving it a read! Overtraining is one of those nebulous catch-all terms that coaches and athletes fear like the plague. After all, with highly competitive and slightly obsessive compulsive runners the issue is…
Read MoreCoaches: Make Time to THINK!
How do you think? It seems like a silly question to ask. After all, thinking is something we take for granted. It occurs naturally if we simply pause for a moment and let our mind go to work. What if the question was, what do you do when you encounter a problem in an athletes…
Read MoreNot Hard, Not Easy- The In-between Training Day
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…
Read MoreEpisode 96: A Real Talk Rant on Scholarships, Formulaic Coaching, and Core Values
This episode of the On Coaching podcast is my favorite type. A rant on hot topics in the coaching and sports world. Our goal is to give you the truth, the behind the scenes answers without any fluff. We start off with Athletic Scholarships. We cover everything from how difficult it is to obtain one,…
Read MoreAfter a breakthrough, you should back off, not press forward
20 x 400 meters. Working from 61 all the way down to 50.1. That’s 50.1 for his 20th 400m, and he went through the first 200m in 23 high. This mind-blowing workout comes from the log of Alan Webb. It was during his American Record (3:46-mile) season and occurred 2 weeks before he traveled…
Read MoreEpisode 95: Playing Hurt- Understanding the Nuance of Injury.
Injuries are the bane of any coach or athlete. They derail our seasons and sometimes our careers. In theory, injuries are relatively easy to deal with. Rest, recover, take time off. But in reality, coaches and athletes are met with much more uncertainty. Can we “train” through a bout of tendonitis? When do we pull…
Read MoreThe Real Struggle for Athletes: Moving on from their Sport
In June 2003, I ran the fastest mile by any high school runner in the country. Four minutes and one second. A hair shy of one of the most important barriers in sport. Awards and accolades soon followed. A proclamation by the Houston Chronicle as one of a handful of “Houston’s next generation of superstars”…
Read MoreEpisode 94: Is Peaking a Myth?
Peaking! Do we drop the volume and intensity a bit and hope that our performance skyrockets? Or do we perform an exacting sequence of workouts designed to get you ready for race day? There are a lot of misconceptions on what exactly peaking entails. At its most basic level, it’s simply about putting the athlete…
Read MoreThe Cool Down: What’s the point?
After grinding through those gut-wrenching 400-meter repeats or exhausting yourself in your most recent 10k race, there’s always that one thing left that we have to do before the workout is actually done: the cool down. Traditionally, we’ve looked at the cool down as a way to keep blood flow going after the workout…
Read More