Posts by stevemagness
What happens when we take a break from running?…Depression?
In high school, my coach would often laugh at the duration of my post-season breaks. It normally would constitute a day or two and then back to the mileage grind. In college, things didn’t change much as I became notorious for taking maybe 4-5 days off after the season and then being at a 100…
Read MoreThe Process of Endurance Training
One of my favorite conferences to attend and present at every year is Vern Gambetta’s GAIN symposium. The reason I love it so much is simple. It challenges you. You don’t just go to GAIN to nod along and get a pat on the back to reaffirm what you are doing. Instead, you go there…
Read MoreSoccer as the Battle between Endurance and Speed.
Looking at the world cup and soccer as the Battle between Endurance and Speed. With the world cup wrapping up, I figured it was a good time to throw some soccer, or football for our non-American centric readers, into the mix. Soccer, believe it or not, was my first sport. I grew up playing soccer…
Read MoreWhy tapering can be a dangerous thing!
Getting fit is the easy part. Getting fit at the right time is what makes our sport difficult. While we spend the majority of the time getting race ready, often times we let all of that training go to waste by messing up the final preparation for the race. It’s probably the most nerve racking part…
Read MoreHow your perceptions influence reality
The last time I mentioned dating in my blog, I got the most hits in my blogs history thanks to my spiel about breaking up with a girl because she did crossfit. So I figured I should use that same tactic again, to attract more visitors who don’t find my scientific treatise on various studies…
Read MoreClassifying Runners- Fun with numbers
In my book, I had an entire section on individualization and how to classify runners. Most coaches rely on simply splitting Instead, I tried to expound upon a model using a Fast Twitch vs. Slow Twitch fiber continuum for each event. Where we expand and instead of classify someone as a 5k runner for example,…
Read MoreRule Breaking is Contagious- How the Brain causes social concepts to spread
We’re all familiar with the idea that germs and diseases can be contagious. It makes perfect sense that if our family or social circle has people who are sick that our chances of getting sick if we are around them increases. It doesn’t mean we automatically get sick, thanks to the strength of our immune…
Read MoreThe Psychology of mental toughness- Willpower, self-control, and decision making
In the sport of distance running, we are used to embracing the idea of mental toughness. Whether it’s embraced through your standard Steve Prefontaine quote about guts and glory, or from the recent front running, make everyone suffer tactics of marathoner Shalane Flanagan, runners take pride in their ability to hurt. We spend countless hours…
Read MoreTrack is killing itself- Dual meets, Team Scoring, and Bye-Bye non-collegian racing
They’ve got it backwards. Yesterday, the news broke that the NCAA is considering legislation that would end post-collegiate athletes competing in college meets. Two weeks ago, our CC regional rep, who does a fantastic job, sent along the new legislation for us to look over. After confirming with him that indeed this would eliminate non-college…
Read MoreMeasuring Lactate Threshold without being pricked? BSX Insight
I have a love/hate relationship with the latest technology. On one hand, the science geek in me loves all of the latest gadgets. I have a make shift lab of gadgets in my house. I’ve got all the acronyms you could dream of, including a few make shift EMG and EEG devices,…
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