Abstract
Endurance running has become an immensely popular sporting activity, with millions of recreational runners around the world. Despite the great popularity of endurance running as a recreational activity during leisure time, there is no consensus on the best practice for recreational runners to effectively train to reach their individual objectives and improve physical performance in a healthy manner. Moreover, there are lots of anecdotal data without scientific support, while most scientific evidence on endurance running was developed from studies observing both recreational and professional athletes of different levels. Further, the transference of all this information to only recreational runners is difficult due to differences in the genetic predisposition for endurance running, the time available for training, and physical, psychological, and physiological characteristics. Therefore, the aim of this review is to present a selection of scientific evidence regarding endurance running to provide training guidelines to be used by recreational runners and their coaches. The review will focus on some key aspects of the training process, such as periodization, training methods and monitoring, performance prediction, running technique, and prevention and management of injuries associated with endurance running.
Highlights
Endurance running has been suggested to be a biological trait associated with the survival of our species [1,2]
Further studies are needed to appropriately test the validity of these suggestions. All these findings suggest that both high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and strength training (ST) should be implemented in the training regime of recreational runners in order to improve performance and its determining factors, such as Running economy (RE) and
We have presented a balanced overview, based on scientific literature, of some key aspects of endurance running training for recreational athletes
Summary
Endurance running has been suggested to be a biological trait associated with the survival of our species [1,2]. As current scientific evidence on endurance running was developed from studies observing recreational and professional athletes of very different levels (from untrained to elite), it is unclear how recreational runners can effectively use all the available information. The aim of this review is to present a selection of scientific evidence regarding recreational runners to identify best practices and to present a starting point for further studies regarding this population This narrative review will focus, based on our practical experience, on some key aspects, such as periodization, training methods and monitoring, performance prediction, running technique, and prevention and management of injuries associated with endurance running. Adapting all of this information should be performed on an individual basis while assuming that some specific topics could be missing
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