Open day for Marathon runners

Published 8 October 2012

The University of Brighton is offering local runners and fitness athletes the chance to shave minutes off their performance times.

Researchers have developed an assessment programme that gives runners a better understanding of the physiological processes involved in running and to identify markers that constitute fitness, allowing them to train better. One participant recently improved his time by 15 minutes.

The “Marathon Support Unit” (MSU) is now offering to help anyone planning to run in marathons next spring including the London and Brighton marathons.

The MSU is led by sport scientist Alex Bliss in the university’s School of Sport and Service Management in Eastbourne. He is supervising Sport and Exercise Science BSc(Hons) students who assist with the assessments and gain practical experience in the process. Alex said: “The assessment programme gives marathon runners a better understanding of the physiological processes and markers that constitute fitness, allowing them to train more intelligently as well as providing a sensible and realistic target finish time.”

He said the MSU offers a consultation on participants’ current training to help identify areas for improvement and laboratory-based fitness assessments which  create precise data to help  them improve.

One runner, Dave Rogers, used the MSU last year and later beat his personal best by 15 minutes at the Brighton marathon. He said: “I found it very useful. It gave me the science behind the theory and provided me with a focus.”

Last year the MSU accurately predicted within two minutes a finishing time for another Brighton marathon runner, Tom Morris. He said: “The MSU was a thorough education in how to train effectively, using concrete reference points.”

Alex said: “We predicted the race time by looking at Tom’s physiological statistics that were acquired from the lab assessments. Certain output variables such as the lactate threshold will give the sport scientist an indication of what the athlete is potentially capable of in terms of race pace for a marathon. After assessing Tom in the labs we predicted a time, which was very close to what he actually ran.”

The MSU runs from October to April and can help anyone running a spring endurance event. Alex said: “We can help anyone running  10k upwards, who maybe running their first event, is stuck in a performance slump, trying to achieve a new personal best or looking for a comprehensive support structure to help meet their training goals.”

The MSU will be holding an open day on Saturday 20 October.