Final Surge - Guide

Final Surge is an interactive platform (website and app) for coaches and athletes that acts as both a log for training and a calendar for your workouts. Athletes can find coaches or purchase available training plans. Some of the plans include structured workouts, which if you have a compatible Garmin device, will guide to through your workouts while running. 

The app is free to athletes, but as a coach I have to pay an annual subscription fee. Athletes will need to pay a coach to populate to their calendars. These are the Tiers available on the Training Programs page.

How Do I Join?

If interested in receiving a Training Plan, please click HERE.

Once you've completed the intake form and have registered, I'll add you to the platform and you'll receive an email asking you to accept the coaching invitation and create a Final Surge account. IMPORTANT: THE ADDRESS YOU USE FOR THE FINAL SURGE ACCOUNT MUST MATCH THE ADDRESS YOU USE FOR THE INVITE.  

Accessing Final Surge

Final Surge can be accessed in two ways. Via the website's web platform or via the Final Surge app available on Android and iPhone. 

Depending on your preference both ways to access Final Surge have the same content, just different methods to access. I'm a laptop/PC person and like to have the full view the web platform provides (IF ACCESSING WEB VERSION CHOOSE THE BETA MODE - See Below))

Connecting Your Device to Final Surge

The first step in maintaining your activity log is to connect your run tracking service to Final Surge. Final Surge is pretty flexibleworking with a wide variety of providers such as: 

The connection to upload your activities to Final Surge is pretty straightforward and done through the Final Surge App. If you use both Garmin and Strava, you only need to connect the one service to Final Surge as this will lead to duplicate entries in your training calendar. 

Calendars

The calendar is the centerpiece of the Final Surge platform. As noted earlier the website (beta) platform is the best view in a user friendly manner. The app is still relays the same info, but has to make use of more limited screen sizing. 

There are new types of calendars I can build: an individual plan for an athlete or if you have a group of people training together regularly I can create a Team Calendar. 

Individual Calendars - These are for those athletes who have specific target event they are tackling on a solo basis. These are easily manipulated by the athlete. By default, unless instructed by an athlete I will set up three weekly runs, with Tuesday and Thursday being the weekday workouts and Sunday being the long run. I can set your calendar up on a different schedule, but if for example you want to adjust your Long Run from Sunday to Saturday it's simple, in the web platform, just click and drag.

On the App you need a few more clicks. 

Team Calendars - Primarily I'm using team calendars for my group of PRC athletes who show up to the weekly runs. I lay out a "PRC schedule" based on the NLAA race schedule, typically starting with a 5K/Winter Conditioning plan, escalating to longer distance/Tely Prep, then the late summer/fall with a focus on marathon or Cape 2 Cabot Training. 

The advantage for a team calendar with me, is that if I have 20 athletes on the same plan (or even a pair of friends), I don't need to make changes to 20 calendars to each change. I have one Team Calendar and any change I make in that will automatically roll down to the athletes calendars. The disadvantage of this for users is that runs in the Team Calendar are "fixed" in place. So if I have long runs on a Sunday, and one an athlete wants to move theirs to Saturday, there is a slightly different process. They need to "break" the run from the calendar. 

To Move A Team Calendar Run:

The process is similar in the app:

After saving, once again the workout is 'broken' from the Team Calendar and can be moved, copied, or deleted as described earlier. 

Structured Workouts

One of the commitments I've made with Final Surge is setting up my athletes with all the info they need to execute a workout. One of the best features for this is the ability to build a structured workout that the athlete can sync to their watch and use as a guide while running. For For running, unfortunately this option is only available with Garmin (excluding some older models) and Apple Watches, support for more devices is coming soon.

For example, a fartlek workout with 30 second intervals and 1 minute recovery periods repeated 10 to 12 times.

You can manually push the workouts to your Garmin Connect calendar by clicking on the workout and choosing push to Garmin.

However, Final Surge can be set up to automatically sync workouts to your device (structured or unstructured). This must be done in the web platform.

Follow these instructions to continuously sync the next 4 days of workouts: Sync Planned Workouts From Final Surge

Additionally, other 3rd party calendars can sync with Final Surge; but only Garmin/Apple will sync the Structured Workouts: Sync Final Surge to 3rd Party Calendars 

Mailbox

The mailbox is an easy feature to become quickly acquainted with as I use it to send the orientation email.  Most training related conversation should happen here, so I know where to find it. 

On the web platform, it'll be available on the left side of the screen, on the app, it'll be with the list that pops up when you select the dots on the bottom right.  

Social Wall

The Social Wall is basically a version of Facebook/Strava within the Final Surge app. I have a wall set up that can be seen by everyone under the coaching platform (Iceberg Training Social Wall), as well as one for the PRC group training (PRC Training Wall). 

This feature can be used to interact among participants or to provide useful information. An important thing to note is that by default, notifications of posts are turned off. Notifications can be turned on (or customized) on the web platform (beta) by entering the social wall, and clicking on the little bell on the top right, by Create Post. 

On the web platform, the Social Wall will available on the left side of the screen, on the app, it'll be with the list that pops up when you select the dots on the bottom right.  

Run Analysis - Comments/Reports

Run of the key features as a coach or an athlete is being able to review a workout. 

At it's simplest you get a lot of the data available from Garmin Connect/Strava, but it has some nice more in-depth features (some can be accessed from outside the Analysis view as well).  

Zones will allow you view time spend in the established training zones. 

Pain & injury report is a great way to track your own pain issues as well as provide insight to me. I received notifications of entries. 

Post Workout Notes allow you to add your own post workout notes that can let me know any additional details.

Workout Builder allows you to see how I've set up the workout prior to a run, or to make alternations/build you own.

Video & Attachments may be developed in the future as I find media to help assist with workout types. 

Comments is a great way to reach out to me and bring attention to a run. My goal is to comment on runs weekly, but anything you post here, I'll receive a notification of. 

Run - Analysis - Feeling/Effort

This is something I want all athletes to make a habit of doing. When you finish you run, go into Final Surge (app or web) and answer the questions "How I Felt" and rate your Perceived Effort on a scale on 1 to 10 (based on the RPE scale I've provided). Be honest with yourself. 

Tutorials

I cannot recommend this one enough. The Tutorial videos from Final Surge as well as the help articles available on their website, are a great resource. 

On the web platform, the Social Wall will available on the left side of the screen, on the app, it'll be with the list that pops up when you select the dots on the bottom right.  

If you have any questions reach out to me through Final Surge, e-mail: markdidham@gmail.com; or Facebook PM.