Posts by stevemagness
The 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,…
Read MoreWhy “Gladwell’s” 10,000 rule is just plain wrong.
The battle over nature versus nurture in expert performance is a never-ending one. It seems as we have shifted back and forth between seemingly extreme views of deterministic gene views and Gladwell popularized 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Of course no one believes it is an either/or question, even if they frame their stance that…
Read MoreWhy Breakthroughs can be dangerous? The Set Point Theory of Fatigue
First off, Thank you so much to all of you who have continued to make my new book, The Science of Running, a success. I cannot express how grateful I am for all of you who helped make it a success and wrote, emailed, or tweeted at me. I’ll have more on that in a…
Read MoreThe Science of Running Book NOW AVAILABLE! 48hr special giveaway!
The Science of Running book is available NOW! Buy Hard Copy! Buy Kindle Version! What it looks like: Why you should buy? I hate doing the “sales” thing. But one of the reasons I’m asking readers, who are interested, to buy the book is because I’m passionate about it. I poured as much knowledge as I…
Read MoreStaying in an Altitude Tent after workouts- What are the consequences?
A large part of my training philosophy lies in the simple realm of stimulus and adaptation. My mind has returned to these ideas for the past year as I’ve tried to flesh out these ideas. In writing my book, I had to really work to try and turn the ideas in my head into something…
Read MoreExciting Announcement: New Book out February 18th!
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be releasing a book next month. In earnest this project began in 2009 and went on hold for a few years as life got in the way. It’s finally time to release my little passion project, an all encompassing book. The idea was to write the training book I…
Read MoreA Brief History of My Reading Patterns
If you could track my book reading over the past decade of my life, the types of books I have been drawn to for improving performance tells an interesting tale. When I was first getting interested in coaching, I read just about every running/track coaching/training book there was. I started with the basics and…
Read MoreWhy Crossfit works…but really doesn’t. The randomness of adaptation, and why beginners just need change.
Adaptation, regardless of whether it’s to a workout or to a drug, follows a familiar pattern. We react high to an initial new stimulus before tapering off and slowly adapting less and less to the same stimulus. The same workout loses its effects, just as certain drugs might lose their effectiveness over time. Obviously, the…
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