Fatigue Resistance

Fatigue resistance is the ability to maintain equal power output throughout the duration of an endurance event. The more resistant you are to fatigue onset, the less your performance will deteriorate in the latter portion of your event. 

Two athletes who have the same Vo2 max or lactate thresholds may end up finishing hours apart from one another in a race if one athlete is more resistant to fatigue. Fatigue resistance refers to the physical aspect of your muscles breaking down and having the inability to create equal amounts of power output as you were able to at the start of your event, as well as the cognitive aspect of your brain telling yourself you are tired and unable to continue at this effort level.

While genes do play a factor in determining how resistant you are to fatigue, there are many ways you can train to specifically improve fatigue resistance (see below).

1. Improve running economy: Add in dynamic warmups and form drills like the A/B/C’s of running and incorporate uphill strides 

2. Fuel and hydrate properly: Replenishing your glycogen stores prior to depletion will inhibit the “bonk”, thus allowing you to continue equal power output for a longer duration

3. Strength train: Improves muscular endurance, power, and cognitive function

4. Add in short, fast intervals at the end of a long run: For example, in the last 30 minutes of a long run, include 10x1’ on/1’ off at threshold pace

5. Include downhill tempo workouts: Pushing yourself downhill massively improves fatigue resistance in the quadriceps, which are often a muscle that seizes or fatigues quickly in longer events, especially those with lots of downhill (Note that this style of workout has more impact on the body and should be done with extreme caution as to not overdo it and cause an injury)

6. Mix up your training weeks with different types of stimulus (vo2 max, threshold, tempo, long run, flat, vert, etc.): If you always run at the same pace, your body will get used to it and won’t adapt as much anymore. If this happens, you will notice your fitness plateau. If you frequently mix up the paces and distances that you run, your muscles and aerobic system will be constantly working, thus building more fatigue resistance

7. Train your mind: Become a mentally resilient athlete by strengthening your mind, which will improve your cognitive ability to fight fatigue

8. Get lucky with the gene pool (can’t win ‘em all!!): Sadly, one area that we can’t train but by doing all of the above suggestions, gene’s aren’t the be-all end-all when it comes to performance.