Effects of Marathon Running on Aerobic Fitness and Performance in Recreational Runners One Week after a Race

Abstract

It is not clear whether or not recreational runners can recover aerobic fitness and performance within one week after marathon running. This study aimed to investigate the effects of running a marathon race on aerobic fitness and performance one week later. Eleven recreational runners (six men, five women) completed the race in 3 h 36 min 20 s ± 41 min 34 s (mean ± standard deviation). Before and 7 days after the race, they performed a treadmill running test. Perceived muscle soreness was assessed before the race and for the following 7 days. The magnitude of changes in the treadmill running test was considered possibly trivial for maximal oxygen uptake (V˙O2max) (mean difference −1.2 ml/kg/min; ±90% confidence limits 2 ml/kg/min), unclear for %V˙O2max at anaerobic threshold (AT) (−0.5; ±4.1%) and RE (0.2; ±3.5 ml/kg/km), and likely trivial for both velocity at AT and peak (−0.2; ±0.49 km/h and −0.3; ±0.28 km/h). Perceived muscle soreness increased until 3 days after the race, but there were no clear differences between the values before the race and 4–7 days after it. These results show that physiological capacity associated with marathon running performance is recovered within 7 days after a marathon run.

Runners' metabolomic changes following marathon

“…Previous studies demonstrated that hematological and biochemical markers changed immediately following the sport and returned to baseline levels after 2-7 days of recovery in the amateur half-marathon runners [1]. Several hormonal markers, such as insulin, leptin and adiponectin, showed unique patterns after a marathon running [9].…”

“…In order to achieve excellent performance, runners make efforts in exercise training. Usually, after runners complete a full marathon match, their skeletal muscle, myocardium, liver, and other tissues are presented with an elevated free radical production, lipid peroxidation and disordered ion and energy metabolism, which lead to exercise-induced fatigue [1][2][3].…”

“…The growing popularity of marathon is an intriguing phenomenon. However, in recent years, unreasonable exercise has led to such health problems as system injury, hyponatremia, abnormal liver and kidney function, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and even sudden death, which have cast an unpleasant shadow on this sport [1,4]. Much attention has been drawn to the promotion of physical exercise in order to prevent the associated diseases.…”

Relationship between Classic Physiological Variables and Running Performance in Recreational Runners

“…Furthermore, a time lag existed between treadmill running test and recent marathon race in the present study (n＝35, 154±111 days), suggesting that the classic physiological variables may change somewhat from those in the race. Takayama et al (2017) showed that approximately 80z of recent marathon time could be explained using vAT (r＝0.897, p＜ 0.001) in 11 recreational runners who completed the same race one week before the test. Compared with that previous report, the explanatory rate in this study was relatively lower (67z).…”

“…Therefore, RER1.0 is a useful method for measuring distance performance in recreational runners. A recent study has indicated that there were signiˆcant relationships between vAT, which was quantiˆed by the RER1.0 method, and recent marathon time in 11 recreational runners who completed the same race one week before the test (Takayama et al, 2017). In that study, however, the sample size was relatively small and the detailed relationship between classic physiological variables and performance was not reported (Takayama et al, 2017).…”