Training patterns and negative health outcomes in triathlon: longitudinal observations across a full competitive season.

摘要

AIM: Despite heavy training requirements, triathlon is a sport that is rapidly increasing in popularity. Yet, there is limited research detailing the relationship between training, the incidence of injuries and illness, psychological stress, overtraining and athlete burnout amongst triathletes. Six hypotheses relating inter-individual differences to training factors were generated to evaluate change in self-reported measures of these negative health outcomes over a training year. METHODS: Thirty, well-trained, triathletes (males n=20: age=27.1+/-9.1 years and females n=10: age=27.4+/-6.6 years) from a local triathlon club participated in this study. The study commenced during pre-season training, and involved weekly monitoring of each athlete until the end of the competitive season 45 weeks later. Linear Mixed Modelling was used for the analysis. RESULTS: Signs and symptoms of injury and illness (SAS) were significantly associated with increases in training factors (P0.05) but rather increases in psychological stressors (P