Final Surge Podcast

Welcome to episode 145 of the Final Surge Podcast. Today we welcome hall of fame sprint coach Tony Holler. Tony is an extremely popular coach known for his program Feed The Cats. He has been coaching for close to 40 years and we talk to Tony about how what he does with sprinters can translate to the endurance world.

1:00 How did Tony get started in track

4:08 What was your background in track before you became the head coach in 1990?

5:28 Where did that drive to change the program and learn come from?

7:58 Do you find that writing so much makes you examine closer the way you think and why you think them?

9:28 What can an endurance athlete or coach learn from your system Feed The Cats?

12:58 You say the faster your top-end speed, the faster your sub-max speed is, how does that work?

15:45 John O'Malley is also the only coach two have two different individuals win Footlocker

16:38 If a miler works on top-end speed, how is that helping with his mile time, is it biomechanical, neural, combination or what is impacting his mile time when we work on top-end?

20:32 You say speed is neurological, not muscular, does that mean a kid shouldn't be in the weight room, or they can, they just are not going to get the benefit they think they are going too?

24:23 Your school comes to you and says you are now the cross country coach, how do you implement springing, X-factor and lactate workouts?

30:32 Would you be doing those daily or part of the workout days or when?

Resources Track Football Consortium Feed The Cats Video series Tony on Twitter

Welcome to episode 144 of the Final Surge podcast. We welcome back the founder of the Boulder Running Clinics Jay Johnson to talk about his clinics and the state of high school distance running. What are the most successful programs doing and how are people incorporating things like speed more into their programs. I have been to several coaching clinics and I can say without a doubt that Jay's Boulder Clinic is the most informative and useful one I have ever been too. Enjoy this episode and if you attend the clinic in January come to say hi to me.

1:40 Intro to Boulder Running Clinics

4:03 You have been around the high school running scene for around 20 years now. It has changed a lot. What has been the biggest change you have seen?

8:02 You can have coaches sharing ideas and talking to each other but if they are doing different things how do you know what to implement.

17:33 One probably is you need to look at the whole system not just workouts because the system works as a whole.

25:55 Clinic is Jan 17, 18. Who else do you have presenting?

29:13 There was a lot of talk last year about Feed The Cats, can you talk about what that session was about?

Resources Boulder Running Clinics Website Jay on Twitter

Episode 143: Dathan Ritzenhein joins us to talk about the recent Chicago and NYC Marathons. Along with his own running, he is also coaching and his athletes include Olympic hopeful Parker Stinson. We talk Olympic marathon trials and shoe tech.

1:00 What happened so you needed to pull out of the Chicago Marathon?

4:28 We have 11 men under the A Standard now so it is harder than ever to make the team

5:01 Will the trials be your next race?

6:23 You are now coaching Parker Stinson who has the A Standard

7:47 Parker's first marathon he went out hard and blew up in historic fashion, this race was a perfect split

9:57 When did you and Parker start working together?

11:36 Was racing strategy the first thing you guys talked about?

13:50 There were 4 Americans all running within 20 seconds of each other

15:12 We are seeing crazy times being put up, how much do you attribute that to the shoes?

17:40 Is there any concern with you that the technology is getting too advanced?

19:44 Even if you could limit them in races, but that doesn't change the fact that they get the benefit in training

21:33 What did you think of the 1:59 marathon?

22:49 What did you think about the women's new marathon record?

23:40 Have you been to the Atlanta course to scope it out?

25:03 Is it a lot of hills, or the hills it has are big?

26:20 With the hilly course, who has an advantage?

28:01 Comparing marathon times on paper, but there are currently 4 guys are under 2:10, could this course be an equalizer?

30:02 How are you using Final Surge

Resources Dathan on Instagram Dathan on Twitter Dathan Coaching Services

Episode 142: This week we welcome Mario Fraioli to the podcast we talk about the recent Chicago and NYC marathons, the sub 1:59 marathon and what this all tells us about the upcoming Olympic Trials. We also discuss the shoes. How much do they help and what should be the limits. Please share the podcast with your friends.

1:08 Were there any big surprises or take-a-ways you had from the NYC marathon results?

2:59 Desi went out early, did that surprise you?

5:50 How did your NYC Marathon go?

6:15 Chicago on the men's side we had 10 under 2:12

7:54 Jared Ward had a great NYC race too

8:32 On the women's side of Chicago do you think that 2:14 was real?

10:47 We have so many distance runners getting popped for drugs, you almost need to ask yourself why they are still doing it

12:39 What did you think of the 1:59 marathon?

17:24 Looking at the US Trials we have twice as many men and women qualified, why? Is it because of the shoes?

19:55 The new shoes, how much do they make a difference?

23:20 Is there an advantage to Nike athletes?

25:53 Should there be some sort of technology limits we allow?

29:23 The US Marathon Trials course is hilly, who is this going to help?

33:00 On the women's side is there anyone a lock for the team?

35:50 So what are you up to with the Morning Shakeout Newsletter and Podcast?

Resources Morning Shakeout Mario on Instagram Mario on Twitter Mario's Website

Welcome to episode 141 of the Final Surge Podcast where today we welcome marathon and ultra runner Brad Lindeberg. We talk to Brad about his quest for 50 marathon or longer races in 50 states and how having a personal coach has helped him achieve new goals.

1:17 How you got started in running?

3:01 How was your high school cross country career?

5:08 Did you keep running after high school?

6:30 Did that 2010 marathon go much better than 2001?

7:20 At what point did you decide you wanted to pursue that goal of running 50 marathons in 50 states?

9:51 At what point did you decide to hire Neely as a coach?

13:30 You are running NYC this weekend, does that mean you got that sub 2:55 marathon?

15:23 How has that personal coaching helped you?

17:12 What is a big take away you have learned from Neely as a coach?

20:11 Is a lot of the communication going on in Final Surge?

22:40 How has your training block for NYC been going?

24:35 Has there been anything different in this training block?

27:02 Has she given you any advice specific to the course?

Final Surge 5 questions in under a minute

Favorite endurance/running book? -Inside The Marathon Current trainers you are wearing? - Altra Favorite race? - Boston and Shiprock Marathon Favorite recovery meal or recovery drink? - Salmon Burger with bacon and pickle Your favorite workout - Progression runs

Resources Brad on Twitter Neely Spence Gracey Coaching Brad on Instagram Brad on Strava

Welcome to episode 140 of the Final Surge Podcast. Corcoran High in California has a very successful running program. Coach Isaias Ramirez is the unlikely leader of the program. With no running background, Coach Ramirez leaned on other coaches to help develop his winning philosophy. In the last year, he has implemented something he learned at a clinic called RPR, Reflexive Performance Reset. He credits RPR for taking a successful program and making it even better and reducing injuries to almost nothing. We discuss what RPR is and how he uses it.

1:20 How did you get involved in running?

3:15 How long you been coaching now?

3:34 You were a lineman in football then a football coach and then became a cross country coach. Did your background in football help or how did you learn how to have so much success?

5:47 What was the philosophy you adopted for your program?

8:10 You start learning to develop your plan, what was your progression like?

9:54 What does a typical week look like for you?

11:18 CV, hill sprinting sounds like you have adopted some Tinman?

12:00 Do you have enough data to look at it and make some conclusions about how it is working?

13:01 How often are you doing those CV workouts?

14:43 You don't have a big team, injuries can hurt your team greatly so what are you doing with RPR and can you explain what it is?

20:14 Did you have shin splint issues before RPR?

20:58 Is it a certain stretching routine?

21:33 Is it a specific routine that is always the same?

23:30 How long was it before you started seeing results?

25:10 What about other common running injuries?

28:55 How are you implementing this?

30:00 Walk us through what your practice looks like

Resources RPR Corcoran on Twitter

This is a best of episode. Tom Schwartz joined us to talk about skills, hills and keeping the ball rolling.

Episode 139: Today we welcome back triathlon coach Mark Sortino to the podcast. Mark joined us on Episode 39 and now he joins us again 100 episodes later. Mark runs Team MPI and we talk to him about his coaching organization, some coaching continuing education sessions that he has coming up and what to expect at Kona 2019.

1:10 Tell is who you are and what you do in 2 minutes. For a more full bio listen to episode 39.

3:07 How many coaches are Team MPI up to?

3:40 With your 15 coaches are they full time or part-time and this is something they do on the side?

5:04 How many coaches are each coach working with and how do you match the athlete to the best coach?

6:58 How individualized is each plan if you have a coach working with 20 athletes.

8:22 What is the Team MPI system look like?

10:25 How do you work on a swim stroke or run gate for someone you are working with online?

13:52 Do you have people video themselves doing strides or such?

15:09 What type of education process do your Team MPI coaches go through?

17:04 A key is communications, how do you communicate with your athletes?

19:56 Do you find yourself using the Final Surge App more and more?

21:48 Talk about the upcoming coaches retreat you have at Ironman Arizona

25:05 Kona is coming up, can anyone beat Daniela Ryf on the women's side?

28:25 Patrick Lange, can someone beat him at Kona? Does any prepare better for one race than he does?

30:50 Jan Frodeno and Sebastian Kienle will likely be his biggest competition. All three are from Germany, what has happened to the American's?

32:23 Which of the men do you think is going to win?

Resources: Upcoming Coaches Retreat at IMAZ Team MPI Training Plans Team MPI Website Team MPI on Instagram Team MPI on Facebook

Episode 138: Jason Fitzgerald of Strength Running. Jason has been blogging and creating online courses for about a decade. Jason has a new program out called Running Smarter, Runner Stronger. This program is 17 chapters of high-quality video to make you a better runner. Check out Jason's program and if want to train with a purpose head over to FinalSurge.com for your free account, now onto the show.

1:33 How Strength Running Started

4:45 You have been doing this for a decade now, but when I saw your new trailer I knew this was next level stuff

6:25 Who is this new course designed for?

9:00 We expect strength training and injury prevention content from you, but this is so much more, does this take place of a coach?

10:50 One of the things you talk about is overstriding, in this video series what is the structure of the advice they would get?

15:25 One thing you hear often is you don't want to change form too quickly in their running for. What are some of the things you work on to do this?

18:50 Overstriding vs long stride

23:12 A new runner the cardiovascular system grows and develops faster than the body, how does your program deal with mileage buildup?

26:41 One of the chapters is on speedwork, can you give an example of what may be found in that chapter?

29:54 Where can people find out more online and get a sample lesson?

ResourcesRunning Smarter Program Jason on Twitter Run Smarter Course

Episode 137: Brad Curtis is the cross country coach of a small school in Arizona. Their boy's team this year is a top ten school in the state, not bad for a school of only 200 kids with only 12 boys on the team. We talk to Brad about the struggles of being a coach from such a small school and how he has built a strong culture.

1:10 When did you start in running?

2:08 His background in boxing and how far the boxing career went

4:02 How did that lead to being a cross country and track coach?

4:59 How old is the school and how big is it?

4:58 You are competing in a state where some schools have 3-4,000 kids

6:23 Small school makes it tough in what way?

7:52 How many kids are on the high school team?

8:15 When you took over the program from Josh how big was the team at the time?

9:00 When your team is not big and not competitive how do you entice kids to come out and get involved?

10:50 How big is your middle school program?

11:38 Are you losing them because you are a small school without the resources or facilities?

13:29 You have 25 kids and 12 boys, and you are looking at a top 10 school in the state this year. How hard is it to keep kids so you can build this?

16:00 When you have 3500 kids and you have 50 boys on the team it is much easier to develop and find those top driven kids, when you only have 12 you have to get the most out of each one of the kids, what is the secret to keeping them all driven and focused?

18:33 Has the success of Jordan Black helped by getting people working harder or does it discourage people because they cannot keep up with him?

22:21 How did you change the culture in the program?

24:33 How has training changed, what has been your philosophy?

26:40 What does a normal day look like at your practice?

27:40 What does the week look like?

29:38 So how many miles is that a week?

30:35 Small schools can fluctuate, what advice do you have to make the program more consistent?

33:00 Did it help with recruiting?

34:45 If you have only 12 boys, and some are really fast and some are really slow and then in between, that doesnt leave large packs, how do you monitor how much people are running and at what effort?

37:23 Do you find it beneficial for those who do log their miles?

38:35 Do you have a workout you repeat to kind of gauge your level of fitness and progression?

40:03 Are your 1k's at CV pace?

Final Surge 5 questions in under a minute

Favorite endurance/running book? - Running with the Buffalo's Current trainers you are wearing? - Brooks Ghost Favorite race? - 5k Favorite recovery meal or recovery drink? - Chocolate Milk Your favorite workout - 1k repeats

Resources Brad Curtis on Twitter North Phoenix Prep on Instagram