How To Transform Your Running with a Simple, Yet Powerful Digital Training Tool: Tim Surface
Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running
RunnersConnect: Coaching Community, Running Experts, Inspiring Runners, No Fluff Blog
4.5 • 936 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2021
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To this day, many athletes and coaches use some combo of spreadsheets, emails, calendars, and even paper to plan and record their training. There is a better and more simple way, thanks to the technology of companies like Final Surge. CEO TIm Surface joins Coach Claire to explain more.
In this episode, you learn:
- why to log your runs to track progress
- how planning your running schedule digitally can save you time
- how to work with a coach on a digital platform
- how technology has advanced to make planning your training and/or working with a coach easier, cheaper, and more effective
Once you decide that you really like running and want to work to get better at it, the first step is tracking your progress. The simplest way to do that is to wear a basic watch and write down how far and how fast you ran on a piece of paper.
This is how runners have been doing it for perhaps hundreds of years. Now with technology like GPS watches and the apps that go along with it, we can track dozens of data points about our runs and share every detail with the internet.
The next step beyond simply logging our runs, is coming up with a plan that will help us achieve our running goals. We can come up with something ourselves, we can follow a premade plan from a book or online, or we can work with a coach to truly maximize our progress.
Many athletes and coaches today still use some combo of emails, spreadsheets, and even paper schedules to work together. While that can work, it's cumbersome and time consuming. Fortunately, there is technology out there that can make this process work so much better for both athletes and coaches.
Today, we talk about one of the companies out there that is creating the platforms that make training better. It's called Final Surge and its CEO is Tim Surface.
As a disclaimer, Final Surge is not sponsoring the show and in fact, they really do no formal marketing at all. Its success has been entirely word of mouth.
It's free for athletes to use and it can be a great way to take your training to the next level, even if you are not working with a coach. Tim explains the details.
A little background on Tim, he was a runner growing up and in college and holds a 2:24 marathon PR. He unexpectedly fell in love with web development and technology in college and began with a few startups before eventually coming up with Final Surge with his business partner.
Once the new platform was ready, he cold called some of the best coaches in the country to try to convince them to give Final Surge a try. He got his first big win when legendary coach (and former Run to the Top guest Jeff Galloway came on board.
Today, Final Surge is home for teams like the Northern Arizona Elite, The New York Road Runners, The Atlanta Track Club and more.
At its core, it's a communication avenue for coaches and athletes, teams and individuals, all with the goal of being better runners with less hassle.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Tim Surface, and you're listening to the Run to the top podcast. Hi there my running friend, this is Coach Claire Bartholic, the planted |
| 0:21.2 | runner and this is the run to the Top Podcast, one of the first and only |
| 0:25.6 | running podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. |
| 0:30.8 | We are created and produced by the expert team of running coaches at runnersconnect.net where you can find the best running information on the internet as well as running coaching plans to fit every runner and every budget. |
| 0:44.0 | Once you decide that you really like running and you want to work to get better at it. The first |
| 0:54.1 | step is tracking your progress. The simplest way to do that is to wear a basic watch and |
| 0:58.6 | write down how far and how fast you ran on a piece of paper. This is how runners have been doing it for |
| 1:04.1 | perhaps hundreds of years. Now with technology like GPS watches and the |
| 1:09.3 | apps that go along with it, we can track dozens of data points about our runs and share every detail with the internet. |
| 1:16.0 | The next step beyond simply logging our runs is coming up with a plan that will help us achieve our running goals. We can make up |
| 1:24.6 | something ourselves, we can follow a pre-made plan from a book or online, or we can |
| 1:29.5 | work with a coach to truly maximize our progress. Many athletes and coaches today still use some |
| 1:36.4 | combo of emails, spreadsheets, and maybe even paper schedules to work together. |
| 1:41.2 | While that, Cannon does work, it's cumbersome and time consuming. |
| 1:46.0 | Fortunately, there's technology out there that can make this process work so much better |
| 1:50.0 | for both athletes and coaches. Today, I'd like to talk about one of the companies |
| 1:54.8 | out there that is creating the platforms that make training better. This one's called |
| 1:59.1 | Final Surge and its CEO is Tim Surface. |
| 2:03.4 | As a disclaimer final search is not sponsoring the show and in fact they really don't do any formal |
| 2:08.4 | advertising or marketing at all. |
| 2:11.1 | Its success has entirely been word of mouth. I use the platform with my own personal |
| 2:16.0 | athletes and I'm simply a fan of their work, which is why I wanted to share it with you. |
... |
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