Posts by stevemagness
The East African vs. American Mindset to Running: Volume or Quality
If you are a runner, you know the scene. You and your friends make it back to the parking lot, look down at your watch and it says 8.96 miles. Inevitably someone starts doing mini circles around the car until that number flips over to 9.00. It’s crazy, illogical, and makes little sense. I’ve…
Read MoreEpisode 77: You Can’t Force Improvement
You can’t force Fitness! In this weeks episode we talk about the trap of trying to force our way to racing fast. It’s a tempting trap to fall into. Train the athlete for how fast they want to be, not who they currently are. Yet, what we’ve noticed as coaches is the minute you start…
Read MoreAdvice for the Young and Driven: A letter to my 18-year old self
In my line of work, educating and coaching, I often get asked for advice by 18-25-year-olds on how they should tackle their next steps in life. In a question and answer session at St. Mary’s University, I was asked: “what piece of advice would you give yourself when you were just starting out?”…
Read MoreThe Origins of Stress- Understanding our bodies response
In 1915, a young Harvard Physiologist named Walter Cannon described “the necessities of fighting or flight” in his now classic book, Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage[i]. With the turn of a phrase, Cannon began the process of ingraining the now famous “fight or flight” instinct into our consciousness. As often occurs with…
Read MoreEpisode #76: Transitions, Ego, and Racing with 3:56 miler Daniel Herrera
We have a special guest for this week’s episode, Daniel Herrera. Dan is a 3:56 miler who trains under Jon Marcus at High Performance West. In this episode, Dan talks all about transitions, in coaching, life, and training. Dan drops a lot of knowledge and provides a unique perspective on running and racing. What was…
Read MoreA Different Way to Look at Fatigue: An Ecological Psychology Framework
Introduction: Understanding how fatigue impacts performance during middle distance running events has traditionally been seen through a mechanistic lens (Coyle, 1994). Dating back to work by AV Hill, scientists have looked at performance being limited via catastrophic failure at the muscular level (Noakes, 2012). Previously, researchers (Tucker & Noakes, 2009) focused on tasks to failure…
Read MoreEpisode #75: The Easy Days: How far, how fast, how much?
It’s all about recovery! On this episode we take on the topic of easy days. The oft neglected cousing to the more “important” hard workouts, easy days are essential for improving performance. We have a tendency to “check the box” and the only consideration we take is how much mileage we need. In this podcast…
Read MoreIs Coaching a Science or an Art?
“This workout is going to make a difference. Start with 100 meters, lengthen out the rep distance by 10 meters, increase the speed by…” [easyazon_link identifier=”1880047330″ locale=”US” tag=”onanofthtr-20″]Joe Vigil[/easyazon_link] was in full workout mode. A master of his craft, a man who was always pushing to learn more, Joe Vigil is the epitome of a…
Read MoreAre you setting up practice wrong? Understanding Movement and Action.
The running back takes the handoff and the hole that is supposed to be right in front of him isn’t there. He instantly darts to the right, squeezing between the tackles before shifting to the right to avoid the incoming linebacker. How did the running back decide to change his plan? How does a runner…
Read MoreOn Coaching #74: Alex Hutchinson-“The goal isn’t to go faster…the goal is to feel better doing it.”
Special Guest Alex Hutchinson has written the defining book on endurance and fatigue. His latest book Endure is a must read that blends storytelling and science to explain the intricacies of fatigue. In this weeks episode, Alex takes us through not only the surprising insight of his book but to his own athletic career. While…
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