Biomedical Engineering, Universidade Federal do ABC, Sao Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
PeerJ. 2022 Mar 25;10:e13192. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13192. eCollection 2022.
The goal of the present study was to investigate possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-distance running training.
This is a retrospective study with a within-subject design. We analyzed 10,703,690 records of running training during 2019 and 2020, from 36,412 athletes from around the world. The records were obtained through web scraping of a large social network for athletes on the internet. A potential long-distance runner was defined as a user of the social network who had a record of running at least one of the six World Marathon Majors by 2019.
In 2020, compared with 2019, in total there was a 3.6% decrease in the number of athletes running, a 7.5% decrease in the distance and 6.7% in the duration of running training. There were large variations in these variables throughout 2020, reaching 16% fewer athletes running weekly and 35% lower running distance (Cohen's = 0.34, < 0.001) and 33% lower running duration (Cohen's = 0.30, < 0.001) in September 2020. The beginning of the decrease in running training in the first quarter of 2020 coincides with the beginning of the adoption of measures to restrict the COVID-19 pandemic; but as of the second quarter of 2020, running training appears to have undergone variations unrelated to the preventive measures. Among the ten most represented countries in the dataset, running training in Brazil appears to have been the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and restriction measures.
The wide variations in long-distance running training throughout 2020 are likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As for the total volume, the observed decreases of up to 7.5% in the outcome variables related to running training in 2020 could also be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, but other factors such as injury, illness or lack of interest, may also have contributed to these decreases.
本研究旨在探讨 COVID-19 大流行对长跑训练的可能影响。
这是一项回顾性研究，采用自身前后对照设计。我们分析了 2019 年和 2020 年来自全球 36412 名运动员的 10703690 条跑步训练记录。这些记录是通过网络抓取一个大型运动员社交网络获得的。潜在的长跑运动员被定义为 2019 年至少有一次参加过六大世界马拉松大满贯赛的社交网络用户。
与 2019 年相比，2020 年跑步运动员人数减少了 3.6%，跑步距离减少了 7.5%，跑步训练时间减少了 6.7%。2020 年全年这些变量变化较大，每周跑步的运动员减少了 16%，跑步距离减少了 35%（Cohen's = 0.34，<0.001），跑步时间减少了 33%（Cohen's = 0.30，<0.001），2020 年 9 月降幅最大。2020 年第一季度跑步训练减少与开始采取限制 COVID-19 大流行的措施相吻合；但自 2020 年第二季度以来，跑步训练似乎出现了与预防措施无关的变化。在数据集十个代表性最强的国家中，巴西的跑步训练似乎受到 COVID-19 大流行和限制措施的影响最大。
2020 年全年长跑训练的广泛变化可能与 COVID-19 大流行有关。就总训练量而言，2020 年与跑步训练相关的结果变量观察到的减少高达 7.5%也可能归因于 COVID-19 大流行，但其他因素，如受伤、疾病或缺乏兴趣，也可能导致这些减少。
