Abstract
The role of age and performance level has been investigated in runners such as marathoners, but not in multi-sports athletes such as duathletes (running, cycling, and running). Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the combined effects of aging and performance level on pacing of duathletes competing in two different race distances. Pacing (defined as the relative contribution of cycling time, %, to the overall race time) was analyzed for 6,671 duathletes competing from 2003 to 2017 in the short distance race (10 km first run, 50 km cycling and 5 km second run) or long distance race (10 km first run, 150 km cycling and 30 km second run) of “Powerman Zofingen,” the “ITU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon World Championships.” Men were faster, older, and spent less time (%) in cycling than women in both distances races (p < 0.001). Younger age groups spent more time (%) in cycling than their older counterparts in women (both short and long distance, p = 0.036, ηp2 = 0.031, p = 0.025, ηp2 = 0.044, respectively) and men (long distance race, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.016). Fast performance groups spent more time (%) in cycling than their slower counterparts in short (women, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.057; men, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.035) and long distance (women, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.070; men, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.052). A small age group × performance group interaction on cycling time (%) was observed in the men’s short distance (p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.020) – but not in the long distance or in women – with smaller differences between performance groups in the older than in the younger age groups. Women, young and fast duathletes were relatively slower in cycling than men, old and slow duathletes; that was, old duathletes were relatively faster in cycling than in running. Moreover, there was indication that the difference in pacing among performance groups might be attenuated with aging. Since fast duathletes were relatively faster in running than in cycling, slow duathletes should be encouraged to cycle slower and run faster.
Highlights
Pacing in endurance performance describes how an athlete invests energy during performance and the pacing strategy during a race can considerably influence the outcome of the race (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017b)
The aim of the present study was to investigate the combined effects of aging and performance level on pacing of elite duathletes competing in two different race distances in the “ITU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon World Championships” held at “Powerman Zofingen” in Switzerland
We examined the effect of age on pacing of duathletes competing in the short distance race (i.e., 10 km first run, 50 km cycling and 5 km second run) or long distance race (i.e., 10 km first run, 150 km cycling, and 30 km second run)
Summary
Pacing in endurance performance describes how an athlete invests energy during performance and the pacing strategy during a race can considerably influence the outcome of the race (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017b). Pacing during endurance performance has been mainly investigated for runners (Diaz et al, 2018; Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2018b), swimmers (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017c; Rodriguez and Veiga, 2018), cyclists (Bossi et al, 2018; Granier et al, 2018) and multi-sports athletes such as triathletes (Angehrn et al, 2016; Knechtle and Nikolaidis, 2016). The abovementioned studies focused on the variation of pacing by aspects such as sex, age and performance level and provided practical information for coaches in these sports in order to develop optimal pacing strategies for their athletes. Studies investigating marathoners found that fast master runners (i.e., older than 35 years) pace differently than slow master runners (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017a,b). Older runners with a similar race time pace differently than younger runners with smaller changes during the race (Nikolaidis and Knechtle, 2017b)
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