Breakthrough Endurance

"It's the economy, stupid."      The implications of muscle damage during endurance events presents a paradox - the very act of racing progressively reduces our ability to maintain race pace. But it's not as simple as just muscle damage leads to reduced running economy. While the data we collected in our research project described in Part 1 demonstrate acute effects of muscle damage, the real-world implications during long races like marathons and ultramarathons are more complex and potentially performance limiting.      During a marathon, muscle damage accumulates through the race. Unlike the controlled laboratory setting where damage is induced through a single session of eccentric exercise, race-day muscle damage is compounded by multiple factors: repeated eccentric loading from thousands of footstrikes, environmental conditions, terrain, and the high-intensity nature of racing. By mile 20, when many runners hit the proverbial "wall," they're not jus...

     In grad school, we had to come with a research topic and collect data in the lab... It was more or less collecting pilot data for potential research topics. Being the endurance nerd I am, I somehow convinced my lab partner (who had little or no interest in running) that we should look into the effect of muscle damage on running economy.      We decided we'd collect running economy data using a metabolic cart while running on the treadmill, complete a "muscle damage" protocol then collect running economy data again 48-hours post muscle damage. I hypothesized we'd see a decrease in economy, and it'd feel absolutely awful.      I don't think I've ever been or ever will be more sore than I was after completing 6 sets of 10 eccentric leg press AND 100 depth jumps from 60cm. I stumbled out of the weightroom on Jell-O legs and my running would suffer for nearly a week - just from one workout that probably took less than an hour to complete. ...