Marshall Burt

Ever heard of Mark Nenow and his solo 150-mile weeks? Neither had I until Gary Ditsch (gditsch) responded to my "Brain re-wiring" piece. (Here's Gary's comment.)

Here's my response to Gary and thanks to him for the intro to Nenow!

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Hi Gary... I'd encourage you to have a closer look at Rich's powerrunning site, Gary, as it really isn't focused on Noakes' central governor model. Rich (and Marshall Burt) are really trying to get a message across that quality is more important than quantity, and they have extraordinarily interesting ideas about the frequency of training and the physiological effects of training at race speeds.

If I seem to have gone quiet for a couple of days, it's because I've been having my brain re-wired.

It all started when I found Rich Gibbens' site www.powerrunning.com. Rich has got the finest collection I've seen of science-based articles questioning the "more miles the better" school of thought. The "aerobic madness" theory has dominated distance running -- and caused so many injuries and wrecked careers -- for too long. It's way past time for a change.

But change is hard: it hurts the brain.

Rich is one of a handful of independent thinkers who are closely examining what the latest research into training, physiology, biology and genetics, has to tell us about running faster. If the conclusions were put into practice, they would revolutionize the way we train. But you only need to look at the advice in Runners' World and Running Times and suchlike to realise that it's not going to happen any time soon.