ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the charting of the development of contemporary endurance running training theory. What are today considered to be the dominant characteristics of society, and subsequently the 'natural' and 'normal' ways of being, are actually quite 'new' to human nature, developing as they did out of a particular history associated with the advent of capitalism. Further supporting and legitimating the rapid changes taking place in modern society was a new found belief in the power of science as the one arbiter of truth to provide 'guaranteed' explanations about the world. The form of training that Gerschler and Reindell 'invented' became known as interval training because of the importance of the rest interval in bringing about the training effect. The growing competitiveness, commercialism, and appeal of sport in the twentieth century were also driven by heightened tensions rising out of an inhospitable West versus East Cold War climate.
