Estimating the cost of training disruptions on marathon performance

• Published in: Frontiers in sports and active living 2023-01, Vol.4, p.1096124-1096124
• Main Authors: Feely, Ciara, Smyth, Barry, Caulfield, Brian, Lawlor, Aonghus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: marathon; marathon running; marathon training; recreational runners; recreational running; running related injuries; Sports and Active Living
• ISSN: 2624-9367; 2624-9367
• DOI: 10.3389/fspor.2022.1096124

Completing a marathon usually requires at least 12-16 weeks of consistent training, but busy lifestyles, illness or injury, and motivational issues can all conspire to disrupt training. This study aims to investigate the frequency and performance cost of training disruptions, especially among recreational runners. Using more than 15 million activities, from 300,000 recreational runners who completed marathons during 2014-2017, we identified periods of varying durations up to 16 weeks before the marathon where runners experienced a complete cessation of training (so-called training disruptions). We identified runners who had completed multiple marathons including: (i) at least one disrupted marathon with a long training disruption of 7 days; and (ii) at least one undisrupted marathon with no training disruptions. Next, we calculated the performance cost of long training disruptions as the percentage difference between these disrupted and undisrupted marathon times, comparing the frequency and cost of training disruptions according to the sex, age, and ability of runner, and whether the disruptions occurred early or late in training. Over 50% of runners experienced short training disruptions up to and including 6 days, but longer disruptions were found to be increasingly less frequent among those who made it to race-day. Runners who experience longer training disruptions ( 7 days) suffer a finish-time cost of 5-8% compared to when the same runners experienced only short training disruptions (