Original title: In-race continuous glucose monitoring in highly trained male distance runners: a context-dependent reversal of the glucose–performance association between training and competition
The researchers tracked glucose in 59 highly trained male distance runners during training sessions and official races. Glucose was much higher during races, and the gap was already there before the start. In training, runners who met their goal time had lower glucose than those who missed it; in races, successful runners had higher glucose. The pattern remained after accounting for pre-exercise glucose, but the study cannot tell what caused it.
Imagine cooking the same meal on a quiet evening and during a busy dinner party. The meal may turn out differently because the setting changes what you do and what is happening around you. In this paper, training is the quiet evening and competition is the dinner party: glucose levels and their link to meeting a time goal differ between the two settings.
Runners and coaches may be tempted to treat glucose readings as a simple sign of whether training is going well. These results show that the same glucose–performance relationship can reverse in competition, so training readings may not explain what happens on race day.
The study does not establish why glucose is higher in competition or what causes its opposite links with performance. In-race carbohydrate intake was not measured, and stress, exercise intensity, pre-event nutrition, or other competition-specific factors could contribute. Training and competition data came largely from different athletes; in the 14 observed in both, the competition-side association alone was not significant. The results concern highly trained male distance runners.
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In-race continuous glucose monitoring in highly trained male distance runners: a context-dependent reversal of the glucose–performance association between training and competition — Taira Kajisa, Toshiyuki Sakai — Scientific Reports — doi:10.1038/s41598-026-74914-5
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.