How Do Humans Control Physiological Strain during Strenuous Endurance Exercise?

BACKGROUND: Distance running performance is a viable model of human locomotion. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To evaluate the physiologic strain during competitions ranging from 5–100 km, we evaluated heart rate (HR) records of competitive runners (n = 211). We found evidence that: 1) physiologic strain (% of maximum HR (%HRmax)) increased in proportional manner relative to distance completed, and was regulated by variations in running pace; 2) the %HRmax achieved decreased with relative distance; 3) slower runners had similar %HRmax response within a racing distance compared to faster runners, and despite differences in pace, the profile of %HRmax during a race was very similar in runners of differing ability; and 4) in cases where there was a discontinuity in the running performance, there was evidence that physiologic effort was maintained for some time even after the pace had decreased. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The overall results suggest that athletes are actively regulating their relative physiologic strain during competition, although there is evidence of poor regulation in the case of competitive failures.