NCT06282341

Fatigue and Recovery: a Comparison Between Trail and Marathon

• Status: Terminated
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 46 (actual)
• Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Road marathon is a famous running race known for hundreds of years. Trail running is an emerging running discipline which count new runners every year. Trail running and road marathon are two running endurance disciplines which differed by variation of elevation and nature of the terrain. While marathon is essentially run on flat roads, trail races are realized on steep paths (mountain, desert…) with an important variation of elevation. Neuromuscular, biomechanical and physiological consequences are different depending on the discipline, especially with a greater eccentric contribution in trail running. In spite of this characteristic, trail runners take part in several races longer than 40 km per year, while road runners participate in one to two marathons per year.

Detailed description

Some studies focused on fatigue and recovery following 30-to-40-km trail races or marathon but no direct comparison between both disciplines have been done yet. A direct comparison between marathon and trail would aim to better understand if the occurrence of fatigue is more important or if the recovery is longer in one of the two disciplines. The comparison is also a way to better understand mechanisms involved in fatigue and recovery following a trail and a marathon. Then, this research could be applied to improve specificity of training and prevent risk of injuries. This project aims to compare fatigue and recovery following a trail and a marathon.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Race: Simulated marathon	Participants will take part in a race: simulated marathon. Before, during, immediately after and the month after the race, neuromuscular, physiological and biomechanical assessments will take place.
OTHER	Race: Simulated trail	Participants will take part in a race: simulated trail. Before, during, immediately after and the month after the race, neuromuscular, physiological and biomechanical assessments will take place.
OTHER	Race: Trail in nature	Participants will take part in a race: trail in nature. Before, during, immediately after and the month after the race, neuromuscular, physiological and biomechanical assessments will take place.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-12-28
• Primary completion: 2025-12-03
• Completion: 2025-12-17
• First posted: 2024-02-28
• Last updated: 2026-03-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France