AEROBIC AND ANAEROBIC CONTRIBUTION TO WINGATE TEST-PERFORMANCE IN SPRINT AND MIDDLE-DISTANCE RUNNERS

We investigated the aerobic and anaerobic contributions to performance during the Wingate test in sprint and middle-distance runners and whether they were related to the peak aerobic and anaerobic performances determined by two commonly used tests: the force-velocity test and an incremental aerobic exercise test. A group of 14 male competitive runners participated: 7 sprinters, aged 20.7 (SEM 1.3) years, competing in 50, 100 and 200-m events and 7 middle-distance runners, aged 20.0 (SEM 1.0) years, competing in 800, 1,000 and 1,500m-events. The oxygen uptake (VO2) was recorded breath-by-breath during the test (30 s) and during the first 20 s of recovery. Blood samples for venous plasma lactate concentrations were drawn at rest before the start of the test and during the 20-min recovery period. During the Wingate test mean power (W) was determined and three values of mechanical efficiency, one individual and two arbitrary, 16% and 25%, were used to calculate the contributions of work by aerobic (W-aer,W-ind,W-1.6%,W-25%) and anaerobic (W-an,W-ind,W-1.6%,W-25%) processes. Peak anaerobic power (W-an,W-peak) was estimated by the force-velocity test and maximal aerobic energy expenditure (W-aer,W-peak) was determined during an incremental aerobic exercise test. During the Wingate test, the middle-distance runners had a significantly greater VO2 than the sprinters (P<0.001), who had significantly greater venous plasma lactate concentrations (P<0.001). Moreover, W-aer,W-ind,W-16%,W-25% were also significantly higher (P<0.05) in the middle-distance runners [W(aer,ind)45 (SEM 4) % vs 28 (SEM 2) %; W(aer,16%)30 (SEM 3)%vs 19 (SEM2) %; W(aer,25%)46 (SEM 3) % vs 29 (SEM 2)%]; W-an,W-ind,W-16%,W-25% in the sprint runners (P<0.05) [W(an,ind)72 (SEM 3) % vs 55 (SEM 4) %; W(an,16%)81 (SEM 2) % Vs 70 (SEM 3) %; W-an,W-2.5% 71 (SEM 2)% vs 54 (SEM 3) %]. The W-aer,W-ind/W-aer,W-peak and W x W-an,W-ind/W-an,W-peak ratios, however, were not significantly different between the two groups of athletes. These results would indicate that the sprinters and middle-distance runners used preferentially a metabolic system according to their speciality. Nevertheless, under the conditions of its experiment, they seemed to rely on the same percentage of both peak anaerobic and peak aerobic performance for a given exercise task.