Following the endurance exercise, there was a subsequent reduction in some types of white blood cells.<\/strong> These perturbations of the immune system returned to normal with 24 hours of recovery. Interesting, but what does this show?<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is a relationship between the intensity and duration of runs and immune function. Moderately intense workouts tend to strengthen the immune system. For most people, this means an hour run at a steady pace. Running 10 miles or more or running to exhaustion can actually temporarily weaken the immune system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This impairment of immune function generally lasts only for a few hours. But for certain people, it may take several days, especially for those with an already weak immune system. Marathon runners have been observed to be up to six times more likely to get the common cold after a race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What Does It All Mean For Sprinters and Marathoners?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
According to the study explained above, we see that running at a moderately intense pace for shorter amounts of time is more helpful and safer for the immune system. It may sound like sprinting can fall under this category. However, running at a sprinting speed for longer than necessary can cause burnout which can lead to the reduction in white blood cells and a weakened immune system.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMarathoners can last longer while running because of the slower pace, but due to the extended time and distance (a marathon is about 26miles), after the amount of time running, it can create the same exhaustion leading to a reduction in white blood cell and again, a weakened immune system which can leave it\u2019s effects long after the marathon is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now imagine combining the two sports – sprinting in a marathon. Your body will go into overdrive, quicker increase in heart rate for longer, muscles working harder and longer to keep up, and no more stored fat or glycogen to burn. <\/strong>The whole process would physically wear your body out to the point of illness, where it may cause long-term or chronic disease because of the shock and impact on the lymphatic system. The immune system would become compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn short–even if we had enough physical energy to sprint a marathon, the other systems in our body would fail. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy Sprinters Can\u2019t Manage Long Distance Runs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
This is because marathons are aerobic, and sprinting is anaerobic. Aerobic exercise is an exercise that depends on oxygen intake to sustain the generation of energy. Anaerobic exercise uses energy stored within the body, usually by burning fat (from carbs) already stored within the body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you go past the capacity of your body to take in and use oxygen, the burning of carbohydrates produces lactates. It quickly impacts the ability of the muscles to continue producing energy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn other words, sprinting drains your body’s resources quickly<\/strong>–while long-distance running slow burns those resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\nYou can train your body to release energy more efficiently (anaerobic production by enabling more rapid use of muscles over a short time) within limits. You want to train your body to take in and use oxygen more efficiently (aerobic production by providing more continuous energy, which enables more efficient use of the muscles over a longer duration).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both sprinters and marathoners can strive for running at the edge,<\/strong> finishing with an empty tank but running at peak capacity for the required distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe see videos of sprinters collapse at the end of their race after exhausting all their stored energy. Yet, we also see marathoners collapse at the end because they change from aerobic running to end the race anaerobically in a sprint finish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The difference is that the sprinter ran at high speed during their race, while the marathoner ran at a slower pace over a much longer distance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nCan You Be A Sprinter and Marathoner?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It is possible to be both a sprinter and a long-distance runner. It is best not to try and combine both sports. However, if you train accordingly by focusing on powering your body\u2019s muscles groups for each experience, you can achieve both, not simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s important to give remember the time and effort depending on your focus at specific phases. Your body can take significant negative impact and injury if you are not careful or switch too often between the two without correct form, but especially without sufficient rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sprinting and running marathons and two different sports, regardless if they are both a part of running and use the same muscle groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They require different efforts of body power, and endurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trying to sprint a marathon may seem awesome, but it’s just now how the body works–it is simply not physically possible or safe. Perhaps someday humans will figure out a way to develop their bodies in such a way to make it possible. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems like if you’re running a race that you would need to sprint to win it! I mean, that\u2019s typically how sprinters win races. But what about marathons? Is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":36,"label":"Running"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Marathon-Runners-1024x643.jpg",640,402,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Peter","author_link":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/author\/outsidedecider\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":36,"name":"Running","slug":"running","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":36,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":52,"count":38,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":36,"category_count":38,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Running","category_nicename":"running","category_parent":52}],"tag_info":false,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6878,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874\/revisions\/6878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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