Aerobic and anaerobic contribution to Wingate test performance in sprint and middle-distance runners

We investigated the aerobic and anaerobic contributions to performance during the Wingate test in sprint and middle-distance runners and whether they were related to the peak aerobic and anaerobic performances determined by two commonly used tests: the force-velocity test and an incremental aerobic exercise test. A group of 14 male competitive runners participated: 7 sprinters, aged 20.7 (SEM 1.3) years, competing in 50, 100 and 200-m events and 7 middle-distance runners, aged 20.0 (SEM 1.0) years, competing in 800, 1,000 and 1,500 m-events. The oxygen uptake (\(\dot V{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} \)) was recorded breath-by-breath during the test (30 s) and during the first 20 s of recovery. Blood samples for venous plasma lactate concentrations were drawn at rest before the start of the test and during the 20-min recovery period. During the Wingate test mean power (\(\dot W\)) was determined and three values of mechanical efficiency, one individual and two arbitrary, 16% and 25%, were used to calculate the contributions of work by aerobic (\(\dot W\)_{aer,ind,16%,25%}) and anaerobic (\(\dot W\)_{an,ind,16%,25%}) processes. Peak anaerobic power (\(\dot W\)_an,peak) was estimated by the force-velocity test and maximal aerobic energy expenditure (\(\dot W\)_aer,peak) was determined during an incremental aerobic exercise test. During the Wingate test, the middle-distance runners had a significantly greater\(\dot V{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} \) than the sprinters (P < 0.001), who had significantly greater venous plasma lactate concentrations (P < 0.001). Moreover,\(\dot W\)_{aer,ind,16%,25%} were also significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the middle-distance runners [\(\dot W\)_aer,ind 45 (SEM 4) % vs 28 (SEM 2) %;\(\dot W\)_aer,16% 30 (SEM 3) % vs 19 (SEM 2) %;\(\dot W\)_aer,25% 46 (SEM 3) % vs 29 (SEM 2)%];\(\dot W\)_{an,ind,16%,25%} in the sprint runners (P < 0.05) [\(\dot W\)_an,ind 72 (SEM 3) % vs 55 (SEM 4) %;\(\dot W\)_an,16% 81 (SEM 2) % vs 70 (SEM 3) %;\(\dot W\)_an,25% 71 (SEM 2) % vs 54 (SEM 3) %]. The\(\dot W\)_aer,ind/\(\dot W\)_aer,peak and\(\dot W\) ×\(\dot W\)_an,ind/\(\dot W\)_an,peak ratios, however, were not significantly different between the two groups of athletes. These results would indicate that the sprinters and middle-distance runners used preferentially a metabolic system according to their speciality. Nevertheless, under the conditions of its experiment, they seemed to rely on the same percentage of both peak anaerobic and peak aerobic performance for a given exercise task.