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Researching the "Physiology of Adventure Racing" During ARWC 2009

29.10.2009

A research team from two of Sweden's top universities (Umeå University and Karolinska Institutet/The Swedish School of Sport and Health Science) will be collecting data for their research, focusing on how the body reacts to extreme endurance exercise such as adventure racing, during the 2009 ARWC. PhD-student Emma Wichardt will be in Portugal during the ARWC 2009 to collect this data via two different surveys.

Since 2005 this research team has studied the impact of adventure racing on the human body. The team collected data during the 2006 ARWC in Sweden and at several other races in Sweden over the past few years. Among other things the research group looks at muscle breakdown and how the heart is affected during races.

During the ARWC 2009 in Portugal, racers will be asked to fill out a survey at registration, and again directly after the race (i.e., before the prize ceremony). The surveys will look at the profile of adventure racing athletes, and at how common it is to ingest some kind of pain killer (NSAID) during a race, and the reasons to do so.

All racers are asked to individually fill out this survey to help us improve our understanding of how the human body - and a racer's performance - is affected by, among other things, the ingestion of pain killers.

To read more about the project; www.gih.se/multisport (unfortunately only in Swedish)

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