In his younger days as a fly-half good enough to represent Scotland at schoolboy level, Barry Fudge had dreams of trading his Jordanhill jersey for dark blue and running onto the Murrayfield turf.

His body, alas, failed him. "I kept dislocating a shoulder," he recounts. "The thought of playing it now is just painful. I couldn't do it."

Instead, he now demands that others - Mo Farah included - push themselves beyond human extremities in his role as UK Athletics head of endurance. It makes him, in effect, the sport's scientist-in-chief in what passes for his personal laboratory at his base in Loughborough.

Originally from Fort William, he comes from the new school, knowledge honed and acquired through a degree, and then a doctorate, in Physiology from Glasgow University rather than standing with stopwatch or whistle in hand at the side of the training track. "I didn't have a running background," he declares with a touch of regret. It has not proven an impediment to rising into a position of immense influence.

Several of those within his circle of trust - Farah and fellow Scot Chris O'Hare included - will be in action in today's Sainsbury's Grand Prix in Birmingham. The double Olympic champion, fresh from his Tweetis horribilis this week, is freshly returned from a month in the mountains of Kenya at the satellite training centre overseen by Fudge with funding from London Marathon's coffers.

It is a country and a people he adores. While undertaking his Ph.D, he spent large chunks of three years in east Africa, exploring a thesis that pondered whether the environmental factors of the region were critical in the production line of distance-running leviathans.

"It all rolled from there," he recounts. What he uncovered was not an approach designed by tribal chiefs in white coats. "But there are lots of lessons you can take. They do certain things that go along scientific principles but they may not know it. A lot of the coaching is very evolutionary in its process. They'll learn from it and then move onto something else that underpins performance. What we take from their system then goes into the British system."

Farah, who will pursue the world record over two miles in this afternoon's televised meeting, has been one of his most committed guinea pigs. Although based at the Nike Project in Oregon, he has retained Fudge among his closest advisors, buying into the latest wheezes that can turn mortals into super-humans.

"I do have to catch myself quite often when I say: 'well, Mo does this...'," Fudge grins. "He brings a lot to a team in terms of being a professional athlete, experiences, how he conducts himself around the competition environment and the media. He adds massive value when he comes on teams. So I do catch myself quite often, trying not to use Mo as an example. But he is a brilliant example for a lot of athletes in the UK, about where you can come from and what you can achieve."

Others have followed Farah Stateside, including O'Hare - who is in the 1500m field in Birmingham - and Lynsey Sharp who has opted out of indoor combat. Both are now training under Fudge's UKA predecessor Terrence Mahon in Boston, the former full-time and the latter dividing her life between Edinburgh, Loughborough and preparatory stints in New England.

"Terrence is one of the most scientific coaches you'll come across so there are certainly no conflicts there," he declares. "Lynsey's very professional. She's very good at what she does. Not every athlete could cope with that long-distance arrangement. But she's mature about it and it's working really well."

You imagine talk of oxygen levels and blood lactate capacity remains anathema to the old taskmasters of coaching for whom an energy drink is the scientific limit. Some, Fudge shrugs, will push back. He will take the rest and let the numbers speak for themselves. "Sometimes it doesn't blend together but 95% of the time, it does blend very well," he confirms. "And everyone's trying to achieve the same thing. Some go about it in different ways but that's just life."

Elsewhere, Guy Learmonth will pursue a major championship debut when he races the 800 metres in Birmingham. The Borderer, who landed his maiden British title last weekend, needs to run under one minute and 48 seconds to book his spot in the British team at next month's European Indoors in Prague.

"I've missed out on selection a few times," he said. "So I'm going to go for it in Birmingham. I'm nice and relaxed. There's no pressure on me there other than to go and run fast. I'll attack the time and hopefully go in flying into Prague."

David Smith is set to chase a European place along side fellow Scot Allan Smith in the high jump while Laura Muir will step up to 3000 metres to take on Jess Judd.