Product Code Database
Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength.
Within endurance running come two different types of respiration. The more prominent side that runners experience more frequently is aerobic respiration. This occurs when oxygen is present, and the body can utilize oxygen to help generate energy and muscle activity. On the other side, anaerobic respiration occurs when the body is deprived of oxygen, and this is common towards the final stretch of races when there is a drive to speed up to a greater intensity. Overall, both types of respiration are used by endurance runners quite often, but are very different from each other.
Among , humans are well adapted for running significant distances, particularly so among . The capacity for endurance running is also found in animal migration and a limited number of terrestrial carnivores, such as bears, dogs, wolves, and hyenas.
In modern human society, long-distance running has multiple purposes: people may engage in it for physical exercise, for recreation, as a means of travel, as a competitive sport, for economic reasons, or cultural reasons. Long-distance running can also be used as a means to improve cardiovascular health.
Endurance running is often a component of physical military training. Long-distance running as a form of tradition or ceremony is known among the Hopi people and Tarahumara people, among others. Running in Hopi History and Culture. Hopi Cultural Preservation Office/Northern Arizona University. Retrieved 11 April 2013.Lonergan, J. E. The ecology of servitude in Tarahumara ritual tesgüinada . International Society for Gesture Studies. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
In the sport of athletics, long-distance events are defined as races covering and above. The three most common types are track running, road running, and cross country running, all of which are defined by their terrain – all-weather tracks, roads, and natural terrain, respectively.
Accessibility of long-distance running has helped it become a lasting trend of the 2020s. The sport being easily accessible and one you can complete alone allowed for it to gain popularity during the Covid-19 Pandemic. This rise in popularity during a time of isolation gave people individual goals to focus on. After the pandemic, running became interconnected with a larger community, with the emergence of run clubs becoming more common. Today, marathon signups are up the highest they have been in decades, with more and more people taking up the sport to gain a sense of community and achieve physical health goals.
Running messengers are reported from early Sumer, were named lasimuThe Assyrian Dictionary L (Chicago: The Oriental Institute), 104–108. 1973 as military men as well as the king's officials who disseminated documents throughout the kingdom by running.Deane Anderson Lamont, Running Phenomena in Ancient Sumer" Journal of Sport History, Vol.22, No. 3 (Fall 1995). Ancient Greece was famous for its running messengers, who were named hemerodromoi, meaning "day runners". One of the most famous running messengers is Pheidippides, who according to the legend ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory of the Ancient Greece over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. He collapsed and died as he delivered the message "we won". While there are debates around the accuracy of this historical legend,Lovett, C. (1997). Olympic Marathon: A Centennial History of the Games' Most Storied Race. Retrieved from http://www.marathonguide.com/history/olympicmarathons/prologue.cfm whether Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens or between other cities, how far this was, and if he was the one to deliver the victory message,The" Hemerodromoi": Ultra Long-Distance Running in Antiquity. The Classical World , Vol. 68, No. 3 (November 1974), pp. 161-169. the Marathon of 26.2 miles / 42.195 km is based on this legend.
Aerobic capacity depends on the transportation of large amounts of blood to and from the lungs to reach all tissues. This in turn is dependent on having a high cardiac output, sufficient levels of hemoglobin in blood and an optimal vascular system to distribute blood. A 20-fold increase of local blood flow within the skeletal muscle is necessary for endurance athletes, like marathon runners, to meet their muscles' oxygen demands at maximal exercise that are up to 50 times greater than at rest.
Elite long-distance runners often have larger hearts and decreased resting heart rates that enable them to achieve greater aerobic capacities. Increased dimensions of the heart enable an individual to achieve a greater stroke volume. A concomitant decrease in stroke volume occurs with the initial increase in heart rate at the onset of exercise. Despite an increase in cardiac dimensions, a marathoner's aerobic capacity is confined to this capped and ever-decreasing heart rate.
The amount of oxygen that blood can carry depends on blood volume, which increases during a race, and the amount of hemoglobin in the blood.
Other physiological factors affecting a marathon runner's aerobic capacity include pulmonary diffusion, mitochondria enzyme activity, and capillary density.
A long-distance runner's running economy is their steady state requirement for oxygen at specific speeds and helps explain differences in performance for runners with very similar aerobic capacities. This is often measured by the volume of oxygen consumed, either in liters or milliliters, per kilogram of body weight per minute (L/kg/min or mL/kg/min). the physiological basis for this was uncertain, but it seemed to depend on the cumulative years of running and reaches a cap that longer individual training sessions cannot overcome.
Long-distance runners generally practice carbohydrate loading in their training and race preparation.
"… an evolutionary perspective indicates that we did not evolve to run long distances at fast speeds on a regular basis. As a result, it is unlikely there was a selection for the human body to cope with some of the extreme demands runners place on their bodies."
The impact of long-distance running on human health is generally positive. Various organs and systems in the human body are improved: bone mineral density is increased, and cholesterol is lowered.
However, beyond a certain point, negative consequences might occur. Older male runners (45-55) who run more than per week face reduced testosterone levels, although they are still in the normal range. Running a marathon lowers testosterone levels by 50% in men and more than doubles cortisol levels for 24 hours. Low testosterone is thought to be a physiological adaptation to the sport, as excess muscle caused may be shed through lower testosterone, yielding a more efficient runner. Veteran, lifelong endurance athletes have been found to have more heart scarring than control groups, but replication studies and larger studies should be done to firmly establish the link, which may or may not be causal. Some studies find that running more than per week yields no lower risk for all-cause mortality than non-runners, although these studies are in conflict with large studies that show longer lifespans for any increase in exercise volume.
Elite-level long-distance running is associated with a three to seven times higher risk of the knee osteoarthritis later in life compared to non-runners.
The effectiveness of has been contested. Memory foam and similar shoe inserts may be comfortable, but they can make foot muscles weaker in the long term. Running shoes with special features, or lack thereof in the case of minimalist designs, do not prevent Running injuries. Rather, comfortable shoes and standard running styles are safer.
The most prominent long-distance running sports are grouped within the sport of athletics, where running competitions are held on strictly defined courses, and the fastest runner to complete the distance wins. The foremost types are long-distance track running, road running and cross-country running. Other less popular variants such as fell running, trail running, mountain running, and tower running combine the challenge of distance with a significant incline or change of elevation as part of the course. 60-Second Guide: Fell Running . Runner's World (25 March 2008). Retrieved 13 April 2013.
frequently include endurance running. Triathlon, as defined by the International Triathlon Union, may feature running sections ranging from to the marathon distance (42.195 kilometres, or 26 miles and 385 yards), depending on the race type. Getting Started in Triathlon. International Triathlon Union (28 December 2012). Retrieved on 2013-04-13. The related sport of duathlon is a combination of Bicycle racing and distance running. About Duathlon . USA Triathlon. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Previous versions of the modern pentathlon incorporated a three or four-kilometre (1.9–2.5 mi) run, but changes to the official rules in 2008 meant the running sections are now divided into three separate legs of one kilometre each (0.6 mi).
Depending on the rules and terrain, Orienteering such as foot orienteering and rogaining may contain periods of endurance running within the competition. Variants of adventure racing may also combine navigational skills and endurance running in this manner. Adventure Racing Basics . Adventure Sports Online. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
The sport of road running finds its roots in the activities of footmen: male servants who ran alongside the carriages of aristocrats around the 18th century, and who also ran errands over distances for their masters. Foot racing competitions evolved from Gambling between aristocrats, who pitted their footman against that of another aristocrat in order to determine a winner. The sport became professionalised as footmen were hired specifically on their athletic ability and began to devote their lives to training for gambling events. The amateur sports movement in the late 19th century marginalised competitions based on the professional, gambling model. The 1896 Summer Olympics saw the birth of the modern marathon and the event led to the growth of road running competitions through annual public events such as the Boston Marathon (first held in 1897) and the Lake Biwa Marathon and , which were established in the 1940s. The Running boom in the United States made road running a common pastime and also increased its popularity at the elite level. Road running – Introduction . IAAF. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
The marathon is the only road running event featured at the World Athletics Championships and the Summer Olympics, although there is also the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships held every two years. The marathon is also the only road running event featured at the World Para Athletics Championships and the Summer Paralympics. The World Marathon Majors series includes the six most prestigious marathon competitions at the elite level – the Berlin Marathon, Boston Marathon, Chicago Marathon, London Marathon, Tokyo Marathon, and New York City marathons. The Tokyo Marathon was most recently added to the World Marathon Majors in 2012.
Ekiden contests – which originated in Japan and remain common there – are a relay race variation on the marathon, in contrast to the typically individual sport of road running.
The history of the sport is linked with the game of paper chase, or hare and hounds, where a group of runners would cover long distances to chase a leading runner, who left a trail of paper to follow. The Crick Run in England in 1838 was the first recorded instance of an organised cross-country competition. The sport gained popularity in British, then American schools in the 19th century and culminated in the creation of the first International Cross Country Championships in 1903. Cross country – Introduction . IAAF. Retrieved 27 May 2010. The annual World Athletics Cross Country Championships was inaugurated in 1973 and this remains the highest level of competition for the sport. A number of continental cross country competitions are held, with championships taking place in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North America and South America. The sport has retained its status at the scholastic level, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. At the professional level, the foremost competitions come under the banner of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
While cross country competitions are no longer held at the Olympics, having featured in the athletics programme from 1912 to 1924, it has been present as one of the events within the modern pentathlon competition since the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Fell running, trail running, and mountain running can all be considered variations on the traditional cross country which incorporate significant uphill and/or downhill sections as an additional challenge to the course.
Beyond these, records and stand-alone achievements, rather than regular events, exist for individuals who have achieved running goals of a unique nature, such as running across or around (see lists of runners: America, Australia) or running around the world.
Record-breaking performances have become more common within long-distance running, with athletes able to get the most out of the technology available and current knowledge regarding training adaptations. Record improvements have increased since 2016, with some questioning performances and the possible effects of technological doping. With long-distance running improvements at the elite level resulting from marginal gains and super shoes introducing around a 5% increase in performance and increased running economy over a long distance, percentage increases in performance can be felt and seen. Performances were called into question, and in 2021, World Athletics determined stricter regulations for shoes used in competition, with a limit of 20mm in stack height. Super shoes have had a great impact on long-distance running, with elite runners able to get closer to world records never thought to be achievable, and amateur runners able to get closer to their own long-distance personal records while using super shoes.
|
|
