Optimizing Competitive Long-Distance Running Performance: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Physiological, Behavioral, and Nutritional Inputs

Abstract

This paper examines three keys to successful performance in competitive distance running: maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂MAX), lactate threshold, and running economy. Although these are each influenced by genetics, certain controllable factors affect the extent of each input that a runner can use in a race. This review looked at research on the following seven such factors: hydration, nutrition, sleep and recovery, mental strategy, warm-up and mobility, supplementation and strength training. The findings were then organized into recommendations for: (a) before, (b) during and (c) after a race. First, before a race, a strong body of evidence supports the effectiveness of carbohydrate loading, extra sleep during the taper, a dynamic warm-up and dietary nitrate. Next, during a race, sodium-containing carbohydrate drinks help limit dehydration and maintain blood glucose, previous strength training improves running economy and motivational self-talk reduces perceived exertion. Finally, after a race, carbohydrate and protein intake and adequate sleep support recovery. This paper also identified two limitations: beetroot juice seems to benefit highly trained runners less than the average results in the literature suggest, and sweat-rate testing, while effective, is difficult for most runners to do without laboratory access. Therefore, recommendations should take into account a runner’s training level and the resources available to them.

Introduction

Competitive distance runners perform very close to their metabolic limits. At the highest levels of the sport, a runner’s performance is very much dependent on three physiological factors: maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂MAX), lactate threshold and running economy (Midgley et al., 2007). While genetics play a role in all three, how much of his or her potential a runner actually uses on race day depends to a meaningful extent on factors he or she can control.

Two of the most widely studied of these factors are fluid and fuel intake. We know that when dehydration exceeds about 2% of body mass, plasma volume falls, heart rate rises, and thermoregulation is impaired, all of which have the effect of slowing down the runner (von Duvillard et al., 2004; Casa et al., 2010). In the case of fuel, loading carbohydrate 36 to 48 hours before a marathon increases muscle glycogen stores (Burke, 2019), and runners who take in enough carbohydrate during the race are more likely to maintain their pace (Jiménez-Alfageme et al., 2025).

Strength training also makes a difference. Heavy lifting or plyometrics two to three times a week increases tendon stiffness and improves neuromuscular signaling, which can make runners more efficient without adding much muscle mass (Blagrove et al., 2018). On race day, a proper warm-up prepares these muscles without fatiguing them, and a small number of universally permitted supplements, like beetroot juice and beta-alanine, may provide an additional benefit.

Recovery becomes the final piece. Sleep, along with practices such as compression, easy active recovery, and heat or cold exposure, allows the body to adapt to training. Chronically obtaining poor amounts of sleep reduces the body’s ability to store carbohydrates, raises cortisol, and has been linked to higher injury risk (Fullagar et al., 2015). Getting extra sleep before a long event may even help. In a survey of more than 1,100 mountain ultramarathon finishers, runners who slept more in the week before the race reported fewer falls caused by sleepiness, although it should be noted they did not finish any faster (Kishi et al., 2024).

The research question for this paper is therefore: what are the main performance inputs for competitive distance running, and how does each one contribute before, during, and after a race? To answer it, this paper reviews a range of evidence on hydration, diet, sleep and recovery, mental strategy, warm-up and mobility, supplements, and strength training, and then the paper combines the findings into a practical framework covering the full race cycle.

Literature Review

Hydration Strategies and Fluid Balance

It is known that runners reduce their body temperature through sweating, and that during long races quite a significant amount of fluid is lost this way. One study pointed out that once fluid losses exceed about 2% of body mass, aerobic capacity starts to decline (von Duvillard et al., 2004). The reason for this was due to a drop in plasma volume, which results in lower stroke volume and causes the heart rate to rise to compensate, while less blood is available to carry heat to the skin.

Casa et al. (2010) noticed these effects in a study of runners on a very hot trail course, where dehydrated runners showed faster increases in core temperature and greater physiological strain. The actual beverage consumed during a race must be looked at. In events lasting several hours, simple water does not replace the electrolytes lost in sweat or provide energy, and in fact drinking large amounts of water can actually lead to terrible stomach discomfort or exercise-associated hyponatremia.

Drinks containing 4–8% carbohydrate and some sodium are more effective than plain water, because sodium speeds up fluid absorption in the gut and helps maintain plasma volume, while the carbohydrate works to ensure that blood glucose is kept up (von Duvillard et al., 2004). But, many runners do not follow these guidelines. O’Neal et al. (2011) surveyed half- and full-marathon runners and found that many did not correctly judge how much they needed to drink, followed arbitrary schedules, or waited until they were thirsty. Sweat-rate testing and drinking plans based on race pace could really help correct this.

Nutritional Interventions and Carbohydrate Optimization

Because distance running requires large amounts of energy, people should plan fueling needs before, during and after races. At easy, not-too-intense paces, fat provides much of this energy, but at or above lactate threshold carbohydrate becomes the main fuel. From a biological perspective, because the liver and muscles can store only a limited amount of glycogen, the extent of this storage largely determines when a runner “hits the wall.”

Burke (2019) recommends that fueling strategies be customized directly to race distance and conditions, rather than following a single approach. For shorter races, normal pre-race meals and a carbohydrate mouth rinse, which appears to stimulate the central nervous system, are generally sufficient. In contrast, for the marathon, a carbohydrate-loading phase over the 36 to 48 hours before the race is needed to fully saturate muscle glycogen (Burke, 2019).

Data from actual races support this. In a study of 160 runners in the Seville Marathon, Jiménez-Alfageme et al. (2025) found that runners who consumed the recommended 60–90 g of carbohydrate per hour during the race were more likely to finish in under three hours, although interestingly intake before and after the race was not related to finish time. We should not overlook day-to-day diet as well. Craddock et al. (2025) analyzed food diaries from Australian ultramarathon runners and found that many ate too little fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and too much discretionary food, resulting in only moderate diet quality scores. 

Rest, Recovery, and Sleep Architecture

The recovery phase is when adaptations to training mainly take place. High mileage causes muscle micro-damage, central fatigue, and low-grade inflammation, and a significant amount of the repair process occurs during sleep. In a review of sleep research on marathon and ultramarathon runners, Nikolaidis et al. (2023) reported that good sleep was associated with fewer injuries and infections and that sleep becomes more important to performance in proportion to actual race distance. Short or fragmented sleep has the effect of slowing this recovery.

Fullagar et al. (2015) reviewed research on sleep loss in athletes, and several of their findings apply to distance runners. Sleep restriction impairs glycogen storage, which can reduce the benefit of a carbohydrate load. It also increases cortisol, a hormone that promotes muscle breakdown, and slows reaction time, and in fact both of these have been linked to a higher risk of injury (Fullagar et al., 2015).

Mental Game, Cognitive Pacing, and Strategy

Psychological strategies also can impact endurance performance. McCormick et al. (2015) concluded that motivational self-talk, goal setting and imagery consistently brought down runners’ rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Since the same effort felt easier, it turned out that runners lasted longer before reaching their exhaustion limits and they performed time trials even more effectively, despite no changes to cardiovascular measures (McCormick et al., 2015). Brick et al. (2014) explained how successful endurance athletes are able to switch between monitoring their own bodies and focusing externally on the race while actually in performance mode.

Warm-up Modalities and Mobility Protocols

Ideally, a warm-up should really prepare the body for race pace without using up energy needed for the race itself. A warm-up’s main goals are known to be to raise muscle temperature, increase blood flow to the muscles and improve neuromuscular response while not using up much glycogen at all. Historically speaking. static non-dynamic stretching was used to warm up, but we now know that holding a stretch for more than about 60 seconds per muscle group can actually temporarily reduce muscle-tendon stiffness and force output (Behm & Chaouachi, 2011).

Therefore, now warm-ups are dynamic and include mobility drills and race-specific activation. Exercises like leg swings, high knees, walking lunges and progressive strides involve more motor units and prepare the nervous system, and they also loosen muscles and tendons, which all together has the effect of improving range of motion and stride mechanics. Blazevich et al. (2018) found that when a full dynamic warm-up was used, neither using nor not using short static stretches made a measurable difference in performance.

A warm-up also helps prepare the cardiovascular system. In a study of highly trained middle-distance runners, ending the warm-up with a sustained 200 meter run at race pace improved 800 meter time-trial performance by about one second compared with just using strides alone (Ingham et al., 2013). The most likely explanation is that starting the race with oxygen uptake already raised reduces the oxygen deficit early in the race. 

Ergogenic Aids and Physiological Supplementation

While training volume is the main determinant of aerobic capacity, some supplements can provide a small additional benefit. The IOC consensus statement concludes that only a few supplements have strong evidence of improving performance (Maughan et al., 2018). Of these, dietary nitrate, usually taken as beetroot juice, and beta-alanine, are in fact the most relevant to distance runners. Also, magnesium may be useful for athletes with low magnesium levels.

Beetroot juice is a concentrated source of nitrate, and the body converts it into nitric oxide. What happens is that nitric oxide widens blood vessels, increasing blood flow to working muscles, and reduces the oxygen usage of the body while it works (Jones, 2014). Then, this improves running economy and is most useful in middle- and long-distance events, where oxygen delivery is a main limitation on performance.

Beta-alanine functions through a different mechanism. It is the precursor to carnosine, a buffer inside muscle cells and regular supplementation actually causes an increase of muscle carnosine levels. This helps neutralize hydrogen ions during hard efforts and delays the acidosis that limits a runner’s finishing speed (Saunders et al., 2017). Magnesium, on the other hand, supports muscle relaxation, nerve conduction, and energy production, and supplementation appears to help mainly in athletes who are deficient (Volpe, 2015).

Neuromuscular Strength Training and Biomechanical Efficiency

The conventional wisdom has been that distance runners should avoid strength training because of concerns that extra muscle mass would slow them down. But, more recent research does not support this concern, since strength training combined with high-volume running produces neuromuscular improvements without significant muscle growth.

As noted earlier, endurance performance depends on VO₂MAX, the percentage of it a runner can sustain (lactate threshold), and running economy (Midgley et al., 2007). In a systematic review of strength training studies in middle- and long-distance runners, Blagrove et al. (2018) concluded that heavy, explosive, or plyometric training only two to three times per week actually improved running economy. Because VO₂MAX and blood lactate profiles stayed pretty much the same, the conclusion was that the improvement came from neural and structural changes (Blagrove et al., 2018).

Heavy and explosive training improves signaling between the brain and muscles, and increases motor unit synchronization and makes tendons stiffer. Biology tells us that a stiffer tendon works more like a spring, storing elastic energy when the foot lands and then releasing it during push-off. 

Discussion

To apply these findings, it is useful to divide race preparation into phases, because performance depends on decisions made in three different phases, consisting of before, during and after race day.

In the weeks and more importantly the days before a race, the main priorities must be fueling, sleep and preparation. A carbohydrate load 36 to 48 hours before a race works to fill liver and muscle glycogen stores (Burke, 2019). Long amounts of sleep during the last seven to ten days of the taper period helps offset the poor sleep many runners experience the night before a race (Fullagar et al., 2015), and in ultramarathon runners it was associated with fewer sleep-related falls (Kishi et al., 2024). Right before a race, runners should really avoid long static stretches and instead use dynamic mobility exercises and strides, which raise muscle temperature, involve motor units, and reduce the early oxygen deficit (Behm & Chaouachi, 2011; Blazevich et al., 2018; Ingham et al., 2013). Consuming beetroot juice (for its nitric oxide) two to three hours before the start can also lower the oxygen amount used to maintain race pace (Jones, 2014).

During the race, the focus then shifts to maintaining fluid balance and energy supply and keeping mental focus. Runners should drink a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution containing sodium at planned times instead of relying solely on water (von Duvillard et al., 2004). This beverage strategy helps keep fluid losses below 2% of body mass and maintains the supply of glucose to the muscles (Casa et al., 2010; Jiménez-Alfageme et al., 2025). Strength training completed in the months before the race also helps here, because stiff muscle-tendon units lower the energy cost of each stride (due to the spring mechanism referred to above) and conserve glycogen (Blagrove et al., 2018). Mentally, during the race, runners should make the attempt to switch between monitoring their bodies and focusing on the race around them which has proven to be an effective strategy (Brick et al., 2014), and motivational self-talk can lower perceived exertion, which reduces early pacing errors and the mental fatigue associated with hitting the proverbial wall (McCormick et al., 2015; Meijen et al., 2023).

After the race, recovery becomes a huge priority. Eating high glycemic carbohydrate with lean protein within about 30 to 60 minutes post-race speeds glycogen replacement and begins tissue repair (Burke, 2019). Because a marathon can disrupt a racer’s autonomic regulation and sleep for several nights after a race, getting quite a lot of sleep during this post-race period is vital (Nikolaidis et al., 2023). Easy active recovery, compression and light mobility work increase the flow of blood and help prepare the body for the next training cycle.

Although the research provides fairly clear guidance for each phase, not all runners benefit the same way. Two areas in particular show this limitation.

The first is dietary nitrate. Much of the improvement in running economy attributed to beetroot juice comes from studies of recreational and moderately trained runners, whose lower baseline nitric oxide efficiency leaves more room for improvement (Jones, 2014). In contrast, highly trained runners, whose vascular and mitochondrial systems are already hyper-efficient, tend to show smaller and less consistent responses, which is consistent with the individual variation in supplement response linked to training status, genetics and diet (Maughan et al., 2018). As a result, a plan based on the average effect reported in the literature would probably not yield the same benefit for the well-trained runners this paper focuses on, and coaches should rely on individual trials instead.

The second area of limitation is hydration. Individual sweat-rate testing is the most effective way to close the gap between hydration guidelines and what runners actually do, but it requires detailed body mass measurements before and after exercise and, ideally, sweat sodium analysis (O’Neal et al., 2011), which often requires specialized tools. This is realistic for a professional marathoner with access to sports science staff, but not for most “regular” amateur runners who train on their own. Simpler methods, such as standing on a bathroom scale before and after runs and paying attention to thirst over several weeks of training, are less precise but much more practical.

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