Amanda Brooks

Welcome to episode 157 of the Final Surge Podcast. Today we welcome Amanda Brooks. Amanda is a coach, but you probably know here from her running blog Run To The Finish. Amanda is one of the most successful running bloggers of all time. We talk to her about her blog, about coaching athletes, how she is coping with the stay at home orders and we discuss her new book.

:59 How are you holding up during these stay at home orders?

1:28 How did you get started in running?

2:40 Did that conversation about being awkward in running, did that not lead you to track or anything?

3:19 Did you have the flexibility issues when you ran your first half marathon?

4:14 What happened after your first race?

5:16 The next year how did you come up with a training plan?

6:06 How did the blog develop?

7:14 2007 Everyone was getting a blog, was Run To The Finish the first blog?

7:47 When did you start getting involved in coaching?

8:44 You went 5 years before you made the blog your career, how did you stay with it that long?

10:20 The running blog community was a great community early on, where were some of your early inspirations?

11:50 When you decided you were going to make this a career what was the hardest obstacle?

12:34 How has viewership changed with social media?

13:36 How many blog posts do you have?

13:58 What is your most popular post?

14:17 Is the half marathon your distance you like?

14:55 During the quarantine how had viewership changed?

15:34 I see a lot more people in the day, do you think there are more out there running?

16:27 Are your coaching clients more experienced or newbies?

17:12 What are their goals?

17:49 When you start working with a client how do you start and come up with a gameplan?

19:16 What is the best way you like to work with new clients? What type of plans are there?

21:06 New runners and coaches

22:32 What are the most common injury issues?

24:28 What do you do with low heart rate training?

25:20 How does the 4 months of low heart rate running work?

27:40 How strict are you with the heart rate

28:04 If you have someone been running for a few years how hard is it for them to not get discouraged?

29:18 What do you recommend for heart rate monitors?

31:28 That Vo2 max on a watch can be off by a lot

32:02 What do you do for weak hips?

33:16 How are you using Final Surge?

34:42 Tell us about the new book

36:18 Did the 13 years of writing for the website give you most of the content, or is there all new material?

37:00 Will there still be a book tour?

Final Surge round, 5 questions in under a minute

Favorite endurance/running book? -  80/20
Current trainers you are wearing? -   Nike Epic React
Favorite race? – Philly Marathon
Favorite recovery meal or recovery drink? – Almand butter and Cheerios
Your favorite workout – Long Run

Resources
Coaching
Website
Amanda Brooks on Twitter
Run To The Finish Book