Individual differences in subjective assessment of physical conditioning in long-distance runners

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the individual differences of subjective condition assessment.Off-season endurance runners were asked to complete daily subjective condition assessments for one monthand during the same season of the following year. The correlation structure among the evaluated items wasexamined. The results indicated that the correlation structure was unstable both within and betweenindividuals. Because the off-season is considered to have less conditioning variability compared with thetraining and last spurt periods, some ingenuity to calibrate athlete’s sensation is required to complete thesubjective evaluation effectively.