Accumulation of the fatigue after the match in university Ekiden runners

An intensive training performed by athletes causes accumulation of physical fatigues, which leads to immunity depression and overtraining syndrome. Especially in endurance sports, physical fatigue tends to accumulate as it takes time to recover from physical conditions after the race or intensive training. In this study, we have investigated the conditions of marathon runners after one week of Ekiden (relay road race) according to the levels of muscle enzymes and serum opsonic activity (SOA). Subjects were 28 top male runners in Japanese University Ekiden. Out of all 28 subjects, 11 of them who had a race before a week of investigation were considered as the race group, and the rest were considered as the control group. Although no significant difference were found in running distance and duration of training among the two groups, muscular enzyme levels were significantly high (p<0.05), and SOA levels of LgCL, PH and AUC tended to be higher in the race group than the control group. This showed the higher damage of the muscle, and a possibility that it may have reflected the increase in ROS production in the race group compared to the control group. In conclusion, there was a possibility that the endurance of athletes were not fully recovered from the muscle fatigue causing increase of ROS production even after a week of the race. Therefore, long-distance runners were suggested to carry out a reduced amount of less-intense, less-frequent training with sufficient rests at least for a week after a race competition.