Relationship Between Training Volume and Mood States in Japanese College Female Long-distance Runners

Abstract

Athletes in endurance sports such as long distance running must perform excessive training loads to reach their full athletic potential. This form of conditioning is often referred to as overtraining (Morgan, et al., 1987). Empirical studies showed that mood states disturbances increase in a dose-response manner as the training load increased, and they returned to baseline with reduction of the training load. However, limited studies concerning overtraining were conducted with Japanese endurance athletes, and several studies found no change in their mood throughout an athletic season. PURPOSE: The intent of this study was to examine the relationship between training volume and mood disturbances in Japanese college female long distance runners. METHODS: 12 national level collegiate female long distance runners ranging in age from 19 to 22 years (S.D. = 1.07) were participated in this study. Mood disturbances associated with training loads were assessed weekly by using the Training Distress Scale (Raglin & Morgan, 1994) for 11-month training period consisting of 9-month track season and 2-month "Ekiden" season. Each season was divided into three phases of training periods (early season: easy training; mid-season: hard training; late season: easy training). Training distance was also measured each week of the 11-month training period. RESULTS: Repeated measures of ANOVA revealed that both in the track and Ekiden seasons, amount of training distance during mid-season was significantly larger (p<.05) than baseline (early season) and late season, but mood disturbances were unchanged (p>.05) across training phases in the track season. In the case of the "Ekiden" season, mood disturbances in the early season were greater than others (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that Japanese collegiate female long distance runners might respond differently to the excessive training loads due to the cultural factors or others. Further studies with larger sample size will be needed to clarify these findings.