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Final Surge Podcast

In the Final Surge Podcast, we interview coaches, athletes authors, and endurance industry experts to help you train with a purpose.
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Now displaying: October, 2016
Oct 26, 2016

Welcome to Episode 18 of the Final Surge Podcast. Our guest today is Steve Magness. Steve is a former high school prodigy, the author of the well respected book Science of Running and a coach at the University of Houston and to several professional runners. We talk about everything from training the extremes, race strategy, breaking through plateaus, tapering and psychology or racing.

Most of our listeners probably know who you are, but let’s give any who may not know your background. Can you tell us about how you got started running?

You made that huge jump your senior year can you tell us about that and what changes you made to have that breakthrough?

What was your training like your first three years of high school?

Your book the Science of Running is one of those books that I think every coach, no matter how experienced should have on their books shelf. But I understand you are working on a new book, what can we expect from that one.

You took over coaching at your alma mater University of Houston a few years ago. As a college coach, who is getting in high school runners, what are you noticing about the high school athletes you get as far as their training and what they may be lacking?

You have a kid who has plateaued, say a 4:30 miler. When he hits a level where he is not improving any longer, this is when you need to change a stress?

When you have a group of 30-50 kids sometimes that balance is hard. What advice would you have for coaches with larger programs on what they should be looking for in each runner to see if they training needs to be changed up for some kids.

There is a debate among some in the high school distance ranks. The old volume vs intensity. One argument is they are young so work on their speed development and the other camp is they should be working on their aerobic capacity and leave the speed for the next level. Of course, the truth as always is probably somewhere in the middle. But I think both camps work on both, the intensity camp may be more of a 35 mile a week program with 2-3 days of really intense work while the volume camp may be more 50-55 miles a week with a lot more tempo work, but what advice would you have for high school runners and coaches?

Let’s look at a week for a high school kid, how would you structure a week of workouts?

This is another question from a high school coach. Actually, the same question came in from two coaches. He is getting ready to start prepping for his qualifying and state meet. They would like to know what percentage of volume do  you cut back. When do you start that? When does you have your last, hardest workout of the season?

You have a podcast Magness and Marcus, which as a coach is my favorite podcast because there is some talk about training, but a lot of talk about actually coaching. I'm curious, how much time do you guys spend talking coaching outside that podcast?

When you are working with your mid pack cross country runners, you are not talking to them about strategies to win a race, so what coaching advice are you giving them on a race plan, what does that conversation look like?

You have been coaching for a few years now at a very high level. If you could go back and give advice to yourself when you started coaching high school, what advice would you give a younger Steve?

Recommended Reads from Steve 

One of your athletes, and one of our favorite Final Surge runners Neely Spence Gracey is going to be running the NYC marathon here shortly, how is her training looking? Episode 9 LINK

A question from twitter, we have a listener who has been putting in great training over the last year with great training runs. But on race day they are having sub-par performances in the 10k-Marathon races. Occasionally will have a good race so their fitness level is there, they are just not racing well. I know it could be a lot of things, but can you give this runner some general areas to look into to racing better?

Another question from twitter, when you are looking at recruits, what are you looking for in an athlete?

scienceofrunning.com/recommended-reads
Favorite running book? - Once a runner
Current trainers you are wearing? - Asics
Favorite race? - 1/2 Marathon
Favorite recovery meal or recovery drink? - Chocolate Milk
Your favorite piece of running equipment that is not your shoes? - Timex non-GPS watch

Steve's website
Steve on Twitter

Oct 19, 2016

How did you get your start in running?

What was the main driving force that got you into running as much as you have?

How long was it before you did your first ultra marathon race?

How did you make the transition into charging the first person from giving advice for free?

I watched a video of yours and you made an interesting observation. New tennis players, new golfers etc will often hire a coach to learn good habits early, but new runners tend to now hire coaches.

Are all your clients online?

What type of clients do you take on, what does a typical client of yours look like, how long have they been running, what happened to make them want to look for a coach?

You are doing some interesting stuff online, you are very active, is that where you are doing all your marketing?

What can a client expect and what type of guidance do you provide for strength work?

How often do you have your athletes run?

With newer runners of course, we always face injuries, what are the most common injuries you see with your runners?

You mentioned you use Final Surge. how do you use Final Surge in your coaching

Rapid Fire... 5 questions in under 1 minute
Favorite running book? -
Current trainers you are wearing? -
Favorite race? -
Favorite recovery meal or recovery drink? -
Your favorite piece of running equipment that is not your shoes? -

<a href="http://KyleKranz.com" target="_blank">KyleKranz.com</a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/kyle_j_kranz" target="_blank">Kyle on Twitter</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4m70j9EVX77PhCYOq1Q7bQ" target="_blank">Kyle on Youtube</a>

Oct 12, 2016

On episode  17 we talk to Mario Fraioli of Ekiden Coaching. Mario is a competitive runner, former editor at Competitor Magazine and recently got involved in an online coaching service called Ekiden. 

How did you get your start in running?

Did you run in college and post collegiately too?

Many of our listeners probably know you from Competitor Magazine. When did you make your transition there?

You recently launched your own coaching company, can you tell us how that came about?

Where did the name Ekiden come from?

You personally have worked with some great coaches in your lifetime. What have you learned form them that you hope to bring to your clients?

When you coach virtually, communications is the hardest part. How does your system overcome those struggles?

Do you have a certain clientele that you are trying to attract?

I was looking at the site and I noticed these blue dots… kind of interesting how you are using that as a visual cue, can you explain the blue dots?

What type of plans/levels of coaching do you offer?

How many coaches do you have on the team right now?

Rapid Fire... 5 questions in under 1 minute
Favorite running book? - Once a runner
Current trainers you are wearing? - Brooks Launch
Favorite race? - Boston Marathon
Favorite recovery meal or recovery drink? - Burger, fries and beer
Your favorite piece of running equipment that is not your shoes? - Hat

Mario's website
Mario on Twitter
Ekiden Coaching
Morning Shakeout

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