A new study suggests that sleep deprivation and pacing tactics may help a runner complete longer runs less tiring than shorter runs.
Jonas Saugy, lead author of the study from the Institute of Sports Science at the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, and his team analyzed how athletes manage to survive a 50-hour run such as ultra marathons.
The researchers analyzed the performance of the top 25 participants of last year’s Tor des Geants --one of the world’s toughest endurance events where runners are required to finish a 210-mile run or 336 kilometers in the Italian Alps. They checked if sleep deprivation affects their performance during the run and tested the condition of their muscles after the run to measure inflammation or muscle fatigue.
They also compared the results of their analysis on another race which has a shorter distance than Tor de Geants. This ultra marathon was the 166-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. Their evaluation revealed that those who participated in the 200-mile event had lesser muscle inflammation which means the shorter race was more tiring than the longer race.
So how did it happen that it was better to take on a longer distance? Saugy wrote in the report that this surprising conclusion led them to the secret of surviving long runs—pacing and sleep deprivation.
"They didn't sleep much, if at all, simply trying to run as far as they could in the shortest amount of time. As the race progressed, though, the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation forced them to decrease their speed and intensity, helping to preserve muscle tissue.
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"Moreover, in the latter stages of the race they tended to sleep more—the sleep periods again helping them to preserve their muscle tissue," said Saugy in the report.
This study was published in an online journal PLOS One.
