OK, this study is based on marathon runners but the implications for other endurance sportsters such as cyclists could be significant.
In a paper, researchers used Strava data to analyse more than 15 million activities performed by 292,323 runners who had each completed multiple marathons between 2014 and 2017. Using the accepted wisdom that a marathon requires ‘12-16 weeks of consistent training’, researchers went looking for periods of ‘complete cessation’ in runners’ activity – training disruptions – in the 16 weeks leading up to race day, and analysed these in light of the runners’ finishing times.
