Lower Baseline Vo2max Associated With Greater Decrements In Running Economy In Female Runners After COVID19

Early research on COVID19 in athletes focused primarily on safe return to competition, but a more robust understanding of physiological implications is now underway. Existing research supports that cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) provides a general protective health effect; however, whether this benefit is applicable in the setting of COVID19 is less understood. It remains unknown if baseline CRF relates to changes in running economy (RE) following infection in endurance athletes. PURPOSE: Determine the relationship between baseline VO2max on change in RE after acute COVID19 infection in runners. METHODS: 42 runners (23 M, 19F; 35.8 ± 10.3 yrs) without history of asthma who performed graded maximal cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET) before (baseline; 53.2 ± 28.5 days) and after (post; 50.7 ± 28.8 days) COVID19 diagnosis were selected from a cohort of 218 subjects in an ongoing study of runners and multisport athletes. CPET protocol was dictated by self-selected half marathon race pace with 1 km/hr increments every 3 min until volitional fatigue. RE was defined as VO2 at race pace. Change in RE between conditions was calculated as ((post – baseline)/baseline*100). Pearson correlations assessed the relationship between baseline VO2max and percent change in RE. RESULTS: VO2max at baseline (M: 53.2 ± 7.6 ml/kg/min; F: 46.3 ± 6.1) was not significantly related to change in RE after COVID19 for the entire group (r = -.30, p = .05) or males (r = -.07, p = .77). However, a moderate and significant relationship was detected for females (r = -.51, p = .03, Figure 1). CONCLUSION: Lower baseline VO2max is associated with greater decrements in RE in females following an acute COVID19 infection. Higher baseline CRF may be protective against losses in RE. This study received funding from Apple Inc. The funding source had no role in the analysis and interpretation of the data or in the submission of this abstract.