A 100 km Run Does Not Induce Persistent Predominance of Sympathetic Activity During 24-Hour Recovery in Amateur Male Athletes

Previous studies analyzing this effect included professional athletes. The aim of this study was to ver-ify the effect of a long-lasting run on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activ-ity in amateur athletes (taking physical ac-tivity according to their own regimen and without comprehensive monitoring). The research protocol was approved by the In-dependent Review Board of Gdansk Med-ical University. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.The study included 17 healthy ama-teur, volunteer, male athletes (aged 42 ± 15 years), taking part in a 100 km run on a flat route. The participants practiced long distance running recreationally, which dis-tinguished them from professional ath-letes. However, all athletes used a similar training regimen: training sessions were not regular (especially during summer, where running training was replaced with swimming or cycling), included 50-90 km per session, and were performed 5-6 times per week. There was no special prepara-tion for competitions or any comprehen-sive monitoring of training sessions.All examined athletes ran the 100 km distance in an average time of 614 ± 45 minutes (range 567-692 minutes). The as-sessment of ANS activity (10-minute re-cording of systolic arterial pressure and heart period) was performed twice: the day before and the next day after the event in the same order, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.