Resilience is the fourth performance factor
Medium confidence
Two runners can start a marathon equally fit and finish minutes apart. The difference is resilience: who holds that fitness over 2 to 4 hours, and who fades. Researchers now count it as a fourth performance factor, though how to train it directly is still being worked out.
Why it works
How best to build resilience is not settled. The review suggests that years of consistent, high-volume training, regular long sessions (especially ones with race-pace or progressively faster segments), and heavy strength and jump training might help. It cites unpublished data in which runners used to runs over 90 minutes lost less economy late in a long run.
What it means in practice
For a marathon, regular long runs, some with race-pace or faster segments, are the most likely way to build resilience, alongside strength work. A plan with no long runs past about 90 minutes may leave this piece underbuilt, though the trial evidence is still thin. For the half marathon and below, it matters less.
The evidence
-
Resilience, the ability to preserve running economy and neuromuscular function late in prolonged exercise, is a performance factor distinct from start-line VO2max, lactate threshold, or fresh-state economy, and the review asks whether it can be trained. Data are scant, but the authors suggest that years of consistent, high-volume training, regular prolonged sessions (especially with race-pace or faster bouts or a progressive increase in intensity), and heavy strength and plyometric work might promote it. They cite an unpublished 2024 PhD thesis (Zanini) in well-trained male runners matched on VO2max and 10K performance: those who regularly ran long runs over 90 minutes showed a 3.1% rise in oxygen cost across a 90-minute run at ~80% VO2max, versus 6.0% in less-accustomed runners. On specificity, they suggest building resilience at race pace may require training at race pace, including long aerobic intervals such as the 15 x 1000m sessions Kipchoge practices; as a narrative review of a recent concept, its prescriptions run ahead of the trial evidence.
Why we call confidence medium
Jones 2025, a narrative review, puts resilience forward as a recently recognized fourth factor alongside VO2 max, threshold and economy, built on theory and observation. It also says data on how to train resilience are scant, so the training advice is still ahead of the trials.
Where it applies
Marathon and ultra-distance runners. It matters less for races under 60 to 90 minutes.
Does not apply to: short-duration events (5K and below) where pre-fatigue values dominate.
Last reviewed Oct 14, 2026. See how we score.