Episode 1: What Amateur Athletes Can Learn from Professionals with Guest Ben Rosario

Welcome the first ‘All Things Endurance’ podcast! In this inaugural episode, host Rick Prince chats with coach, Ben Rosario. Ben is the executive director, and former head coach of the HOKA Northern Arizona Elite professional running team – one of the top professional running teams in the world. Previous to his coaching career, Ben was a professional runner with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team. 

In this episode, Ben discusses what amateur runners can learn from professionals, and specifically, Ben covers a multitude of areas that amateurs can apply to their training and racing to be the best runner they can be. Some of the areas that Ben discusses are pacing, the importance of rest, mental training, running form, training volume, strength training and speedwork. 

 So, if you’re interested in improving your running performance, go ahead and give this podcast a listen- you won’t regret it! 

·      Pacing (2:53): Practice makes perfect. To understand how to pace properly in a race, you must trial the exact pace you’re looking to hold in a race in training.

·      Pacing (6:17): Not running slow is the number one mistake that most people make

·      Pacing (2:30): How to get better at interpreting rate of perceived exertion

·      Rest (18:20): Why is rest so critical for runners?

·      Rest (23:55): Make rest-related goals

·      Psychology (26:15): Correlation to being happy and running well

·      Running Form (29:27): Key running form aspects

·      Training Volume (36:34): Finding a sweet spot in your volume 

·      Strength Training (40:06): The importance of strength training 

·      Speedwork (43:55): The most valuable pace to train at