Can you measure changes in fatigue resistance?

Can you measure changes in fatigue resistance?

You may be familiar with the term stamina, which is similar to, but not the same as fatigue resistance:

👉🏼 Stamina – your ability to sustain effort for a longer duration

👉🏼 Fatigue Resistance – your body’s ability to resist the effects of fatigue

This post focuses on fatigue resistance, starting with a simple question.

What happens when you fatigue?

When you fatigue (while running):

• you’ll probably slow down
• your gait or form may change
• you may experience mental sluggishness
• you may have an increased risk of injury

To avoid, or reduce the impact of fatigue, work on your fatigue resistance.

But how do you do that? And how do you know you’ve improved your fatigue resistance?

Is there a way to measure your fatigue resistance so that you can monitor how it’s changing?

How can you measure your fatigue resistance?

According to Steve Palladino, one way to measure your fatigue resistance is to use metrics that measure gait or form, looking for changes in those metrics over the course of a run.

There are a few metrics he’s investigated. One of them is available with any kind of power meter – Running Effectiveness.

In a FaceBook post, Steve outlines a couple of ways to measure fatigue resistance using higher-intensity sections in long runs.

How can you improve your fatigue resistance?

It’s one thing to be able to measure fatigue resistance, but how can you improve it?

Through a well-structured training plan integrated with strength & conditioning.

And to check that your fatigue resistance is improving, you could use reference runs to compare RE from one run to RE from another.

RE provides an objective way to assess improvements in fatigue resistance.

For more information on how to use Running Effectiveness, see Understanding ‘Running Effectiveness’ and its uses (Palladino)