ULTRA Study Needs Ultrarunners to Study
Most of us who like to train have been asked from time to time by our non-running friends or relatives, “Isn’t all that running hard on your body?”
We assure them that no, it’s great. We might even confess that if we weren’t able to run, we would likely find some less healthy way of shaking off the bad moods, anxiety, and general craziness.
The fact is, that while there is good science showing the benefits of high volumes of exercise in general, the data regarding the impacts of ultra-distance training is muddled.
You now have the opportunity to help inform the debate with your in-laws about the impact of all your running.
Over the past several years, Dr. Marty Hoffman, himself an accomplished ultrarunner, has focused his research on applied exercise physiology (i.e., what happens when you train or workout). He’s now working on a study to follow ultrarunners over a long period of time to identify the effects of high-mileage running. You can read some of his prior work here and here.
Also, if you are thinking of training for a 100-mile race, you really owe it to yourself to read the seminal Variables Associated With Odds of Finishing and Finish Time in a 161-km (100-mile) Ultramarathon (seriously).
This new study is called the Ultrarunners Longitudinal TRAcking (ULTRA) Study, and he is looking for participants who have completed at least one ultramarathon (50 K or longer).
If you are interested in taking part in the study, you will be asked to fill out an initial web-based questionnaire that Hoffman says will take around 30-minutes. There will then be periodic, follow-up questionnaires over the course of many years.
If you would like to participate in the study, click here to begin. For more information, you can contact Dr. Hoffman at (916) 843-9027 or martin.hoffman@va.gov.
Dr. Hoffman is associated with the VA Northern California Health Care System.
How all that time you spend training effects your personal relationships, will be the subject of a different study.