Effect of Training on the Physiological Factors of Performance in Elite Marathon Runners (Males and Females)

Abstract

This study examined the effect of 8 weeks of specific marathon training before the Olympic trials on the physiological factors of the marathon performance in top-class marathon runners. Five males and four females, age 34 ± 6 yr (± SD) with a marathon performance time of 2 h 11 min 40 s ± 2 min 27 s for males and 2 h 35 min 34 s ± 2 min 54 s for females, performed one test ten and two weeks before the trials. Between this period they trained weekly 180 ± 27 km and 155 ± 19 km with 11 ± 7 and 7 ± 0 % of this distance at velocity over 10000 m for males and females, respectively. The purpose of this test was to determine in real conditions i. e. on level road: V˙O₂peak, the energy cost of running and the fractional utilisation of V˙O₂peak at the marathon velocity (vMarathon). They ran 10 km at the speed of their personal best marathon performance on a level road and after a rest of 6 min they ran an all-out 1000 m run. V˙O₂peak increased after the 8 weeks of pre-competitive training (66.3 ± 9.2 vs 69.9 ± 9.4 ml × min^-1 × kg^-1, p = 0.01). Moreover, since the oxygen cost of running at vMarathon did not change after this training, the fractional utilization (F) of V˙O₂peak during the 10 km run at vMarathon decreased significantly after training (94.6 ± 6.2 % V˙O₂peak vs 90.3 ± 9.5 % V˙O₂peak, p = 0.04). The high intensity of pre-competitive training increased V˙O₂peak and did not change the running economy at vMarathon and decreased the fractional utilization of V˙O₂peak at vMarathon.

Key words

Training - oxygen uptake - running - female

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