Posts by stevemagness
Episode 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 MoreAre you a Planner or Intuitive Type Coach?
Writers of fiction are often separated into two categories: planners and pantsers. Planners take the time to prepare a deep outline, mapping out each ebb and flow of the plot. On the other hand, pantsers, short for ‘flying by the seat of their pants’, have a rough idea of the story and where it…
Read MoreAll of Your Questions Answered on the Caster Semenya Controversy
Last week, a woman who is the poster athlete for perseverance and grit had her career and livelihood ripped away from her. She did nothing wrong. She did not use performance enhancing drugs like many of her competitors. Instead, she has had her private life blown open, with details about her inner organs discussed around…
Read MoreEpisode 93: The Biggest Mistakes Coaches Are Making Today
It’s time for a moment of reflection on the coaching profession. What are the things we are doing well? What can we improve on? What are some of the things we are doing now that we might look back upon in 30 years and wonder why we did that training? Coaching is a process of…
Read MoreOvertraining: Three Strategies to Reset Your Body
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 not in in prodding them to do more work, but instead in holding them back just enough to keep them from reaching into this unwanted zone…
Read MoreTraining Focus to Improve Performance
The Stress of Life Pain is the name of the game when it comes to performing. We’re all used to dealing with a large amount of effort during our workouts and races. Generally we attribute this to pain coming from the muscles themselves and the effort that it is taking to generate our speed. More…
Read MoreHow difficult should your hard workouts be??
How difficult should your hard workouts be?? When I was competing in high school, my teammates knew the drill; always have a trash can nearby. It didn’t matter whether it was a small race or a hard workout; chances were I was going to throw up afterwards. It simply occurred, regardless of any modifications in…
Read MoreEpisode 92: How to Crawl Out of the Burnout Hole
Note: Today is the last day to get exclusive running bonuses with the purchase of my new book, THE PASSION PARADOX! Check them out here. On this episode, we take on a very important topic, digging ourselves out of burnout. Both Jon and I have suffered through the ills of burnout. What we’ve found is…
Read MoreStress and Adaptation: Everything You Need to Know
If you like my work, consider checking out my NEW book, The Passion Paradox! It just came out and is on sale for $13. I’d greatly appreciate it! The (Scientific) Origins of Stress Stress. Even the work itself evokes feelings, perhaps even emotion. Thoughts, mostly negative, enter our minds about how stress impacts our…
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