Brain Training for Runners: A Revolutionary New Training System to Improve Endurance, Speed, Health, and Results by Matt Fitzgerald, M.D., Tim Noakes Tim

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

An Interview with Matt Fitzgerald

Barnes & Noble: What is the difference between brain training and mental training?

Matt Fitzgerald: Mental training is a set of techniques including mental rehearsal (also called imaging) and goal setting that help athletes develop important psychological skills such as focus and self-confidence. These techniques and skills apply to all sports and have traditionally been treated separately from the physical component of training for each particular sport. Brain training, on the other hand, encompasses both the mental and physical components of training, and in fact tears down the partition between them. It treats running as both a bodily activity and an experience that the brain regulates.

B&N: Can you give an example of how brain training is different from the way runners typically train?

MF: A major component of brain training is proprioceptive cues, which are images and other sensory cues that enable runners to modify their stride for the better as they think about them while running. I developed a set of 12 proprioceptive cues that improve running technique in different ways. I encourage runners to use one of these cues throughout each run, while also pursuing the main fitness goal of the workout, whether it's building endurance, speed, or something else. In this way, every run in the brain training system serves two purposes instead of the one purpose served by conventional runs.

B&N: What inspired you to write Brain Training for Runners?

MF: I pay close attention to sports science research that is relevant to running. Over the past decade I noticed a quiet revolution that has produced a radical new understanding of the role of the brain in running performance. A growing number of sports scientists now see the brain as the most important organ for running performance, controlling everything from stride technique to pain tolerance to muscle fatigue. In analyzing this new brain-centered model of running performance, I decided it was necessary to create a new, updated training system that accounted for the latest knowledge.

B&N: Perhaps you can provide an example of a commonly held belief about running performance that your book will challenge?

MF: Most runners believe that fatigue is caused by fuel depletion in the muscles. However, numerous studies have shown that there is still fuel available to the muscles when fatigue occurs. Other studies have shown that the actual cause of running fatigue is a reduction in muscle activation by the brain that is influenced only in part by declining muscle energy stores. This phenomenon is believed to serve as a protective mechanism preventing us from running to the point where we seriously harm ourselves.

B&N: How does your brain training system help runners prevent this type of fatigue?

MF: The key to pushing back the brain's self-protective limits on running performance is to familiarize your brain and the rest of your body with the specific challenges of running at your goal pace in races. So the 12 training plans included in Brain Training for Runners are all carefully designed to make workouts more and more race-specific as the weeks go by.

B&N: Overuse injuries such as runner's knee are a major concern for most runners. Is there a special brain training approach to injury prevention?

MF: There is. It's based on my own experience with injuries and on cutting-edge research about the relationship between brain-body communications and the most common causes of running injuries. The brain training strategy for injury prevention has three components. The first is reprogramming your stride so that you run more naturally -- the way you would run barefoot -- which reduces stress on the tissues of the legs. The second component is using strength training to improve your brain's ability to activate important stabilizing muscles that take stress of your joints during running. And the third component is adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward abnormal pain -- your brain's warning message -- while running. Using this three-part strategy I was able to overcome a five-year battle with injuries and am now running healthier than ever.

B&N: Is Brain Training for Runners intended for a specific type of runner?

MF: Every runner can benefit from this book. Most of the runners I've communicated with about it are mid-pack runners who are interested in improving their best race times. But recently I heard from 2000 Olympic Triathlon Gold Medalist Simon Whitfield, who's interested in using brain training to get an edge over his competition in the upcoming triathlon season. So there's something for everyone in Brain Training for Runners.