Mood, illness and injury responses and recovery with adventure racing

Abstract

Objective. - Exercise stress, immune status, and mood are interrelated. The stress of adventure racing is unique; exercise is very prolonged and competitive, with severe sleep deprivation and sustained cognitive demands, usually in arduous terrain and environmental conditions. The purpose of this prospective, descriptive study was to identify mood changes along with symptoms of illness and injury during and in the weeks following an international-level adventure race. Methods. - Mood, sleep, injury, and illness data were collected using questionnaires before, during, and for 2 weeks following New Zealand's Southern Traverse Adventure Race in November 2003. Results. - Mood was variable between athletes, but peaks of altered mood subscores were evident (P