@benshunter.bsky.social (@londonmetuni.bsky.social), Maunder (Auckland University of Technology), Jones (@exeter.ac.uk), Gallo (University of Pavia) and Muniz-Pumares (@herts.ac.uk) discuss the current approaches and essential considerations for assessing physiological durability.
📜 buff.ly/nJM1oaU
It’s great to see our review on the methodological considerations when profiling durability alongside some interesting work in this special issue.
Worth a read!
Thanks to @expphysiol.bsky.social for showcasing our work.
Thanks, Michele!
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🙏 Thank you to all those that made the study possible, particularly the runners!
🔁 Sharing this thread would be appreciated.
Happy to answer any Qs!
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🍔 Takeaway message:
- Determinants of endurance performance decline after prolonged running.
- Smaller drops in the sLT following prolonged running are associated with faster marathons.
- Durability should be considered alongside the “big three” when profiling runners.
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🤔 Why could the durability of the sLT matter?
sLT integrates VO₂peak, FULT, and RE, but these change to different extents between individuals following prolonged exercise.
Changes to sLT may be a useful composite measure of durability to monitor in runners.
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🔑 The key finding:
The smaller the decline in the sLT between PRE and POST, the faster the runner’s marathon time (D)
Runners with more “durable” thresholds performed better.
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After a 90-min run at lactate threshold pace, from PRE to POST on average:
- VO₂peak ⬇️ ~6%
- RE and FULT ↔️
- Speed at lactate threshold (sLT) ⬇️ ~0.7 km/h
⚠️ changes to these exhibited inter individual variability.
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In this study, we measured determinants of endurance performance (VO₂peak, FULT, and RE) in 18 runners from the 2024 London Marathon in both fresh (PRE) and fatigued (POST) states, as well as tracking their performance during the race.
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The “big three” deteriorate following prolonged exercise, potentially impacting marathon performance.
The resistance to this deterioration has been termed durability or resilience.
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Traditionally, performance is explained by the “big three”:
- Maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂peak)
- Fractional utilisation at lactate threshold (FULT)
- Running economy (RE)
These combine to give the speed at lactate threshold.
New 📖: Durability of parameters associated with endurance running in marathoners published in @eurojsportscience.bsky.social
We tested associations between durability of key physiological parameters and marathon performance.
🔗: doi.org/10.1002/ejsc...
🧵 below
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It would be cool to see future work further examine the relationship between changes to running biomechanics and durability, possibly in more controlled settings.
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Interestingly, only the most durable runners (low decoupling) changed their speed-adjusted stride mechanics over time:
⬆️ step frequency
⬇️ step length and vertical oscillation
These shifts may (or may not) reflect economical adaptations under fatigue.
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BUT after adjusting for speed, most of these differences disappeared, suggesting that The findings suggest that most commonly observed biomechanical changes following prolonged running are largely mediated by changes in speed.
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Runners with greater decoupling slowed more and showed larger biomechanical deteriorations.
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We recruited 69 marathon runners and analysed their HR + footpod data over 5 km splits during their respective marathons. They were separated into low, moderate, or high decoupling groups.
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Durability = ability to resist physiological deterioration (e.g., HR rising for same speed). Measured here as HR-to-speed decoupling. Lower decoupling = better durability.
New 📖: Durability of physiological and biomechanical variables during a marathon published in JSS, with Aldo Lena and Daniel Muniz
🔗: doi.org/10.1080/0264...
So the key aspect that makes a university is its research, so what is it when there's no or little research? A college?? A serious errosion of knowledge creation.
UK universities cut back on crucial research because of reduced funding www.theguardian.com/education/20...
A key attack line in the next few years coming from Trump/MAGA and Reform is that university teachers (lecturers/professors) are poisoning the minds of young people, brainwashing them into leftist thinking. Make no mistake, this is a pretext to defund the sector. 1/n
The preprint of our latest sex differences research is now online:
“Sex differences in durability following heavy intensity cycling exercise in trained athletes”
The result of a very fun collaboration between research groups with similar interests! 🇮🇹🇬🇧
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Please may I get a copy? Looking forward to reading the full text!
Tomorrow at @ecssofficial.bsky.social I’ll be discussing our findings on the durability of marathon runners and its association with performance.
🗓️ 02.07.2025, 13:15
📍 Lavatoio
If you’re not attending and would like a copy of the slides, get in touch.
New paper out in Scand J Med Sci Sports!
We tested the reliability of running economy (RE) and other physiological parameters during 90 min of running.
➡️ Running economy is highly reliable in a fatigued state, a 👍🏼 implication for testing durability
🆓📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Our new durability paper is out in SJMSS!
We tested how endurance performance determinants change after heavy-intensity running (90 and 120 min) in well-trained marathoners.
📌Below details of what we’ve found.
🆓 Open-Access
📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Excellent morning at the Marathon Medicine conference with some great speakers.
Biomech students are going to have this on repeat to demonstrate the Magnus effect. I’m not sorry.
Check out this excellent #Review from @benshunter.bsky.social et al., which delves into what we know about and how we approach physiological durability!
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
New in @expphysiol.bsky.social from @benshunter.bsky.social et al: Durability as an index of endurance exercise performance: Methodological considerations 👇
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
