Steve Magness - The Science of Running

Theserious, committed runner is neglected. There are very few books, magazines, oreven advertisements aimed at the runner looking to maximize performance. Instead,the running industry has focused on the recreational runner. The endless supplyof articles explaining how to run your first marathon or how to run your best5k on 3 runs per week dominates the magazine articles and the bookshelves. Wewere all beginners at some time, so it is no knock on those who need suchinformation to get started. However, as we get further and further from therecreational runner, the resources become increasingly sparse.

Forthe highly competitive, elite, college, or serious runner looking to maximizeperformance, the options are few and far between. Unless you are lucky enoughto call some elite runners or high-level coaches friends, the information onhow top runners train is limited. My aim is to blow the doors wide open andprovide the details that Ive accumulated through running myself, coachinghigh-level runners, working with great coaches and studying practically everyelite coach in running history. My hope is that the information on trainingprovided will not only help you maximize your or your athletes runningperformance but also lead to better and more innovative training practices. Wehave a long way to go until the training process is figured out, and hopefully,this book serves as not a final destination but as a stepping-stone andcatalyst for future improvements in training.

The firstsection focuses on the details on the science of running. This section had itsorigins as an in-depth literature review for my Masters thesis, but due to outsidecircumstances, I could not use it. Instead of letting it go to waste, it servedas the foundation of the Science section of the book. Similar to the trainingsection, I felt that the running physiology that was available in the massmedia was dumbed down. I set out to look at everything we knew about thescience of running and offer a critical review of that information. Mostrunning science books take an explanatory approach. Instead, my goal was to tryand answer the question what limits running performance?

Despitemy background in sports science, this section was not written from ascientists point of view. Instead, I wanted to look at the science from adifferent perspective, that of a high-level athlete and successful coach. Thisallowed me the unique opportunity to analyze everything as a member of twoopposing groups, a coach, and a sports scientist. What caught my attention wasthe level of disagreement between the two groups and the degree in which theyworked seemingly oblivious to the other group. There are exceptions of course,but it blew my mind that I would read paper after paper about the benefits oflow mileage/high-intensity training and how the Kenyans success was based onthis system, while at the same time coaches were espousing the completeopposite and having phenomenal success with that approach. The two groups,real-world application vs. laboratory science, seem to work independently ofeach other without either group acknowledging the others work.

Myhope is that this book will serve to bridge the gap. The coaches will get in-depthscientific knowledge and a new training paradigm for distance running, whilethe sports scientists will get a look at what actually works with runners inthe real world. I hope that you find this informative, useful, and above all,thought-provoking.

-SteveMagness

www.ScienceofRunning.com