The Influence of Mid-Event Deception on Psychophysiological Status and Pacing Can Persist across Consecutive Disciplines and Enhance Self-paced Multi-modal Endurance Performance

Purpose: To examine the effects of deceptively aggressive bike pacing on performance, pacing, and associated physiological and perceptual responses during simulated sprint-distance triathlon. Methods: Ten non-elite, competitive male triathletes completed three simulated sprint-distance triathlons (0.75 km swim, 500 kJ bike, 5 km run), the first of which established personal best “baseline” performance (BL). During the remaining two trials athletes maintained a cycling power output 5% greater than BL, before completing the run as quickly as possible. However, participants were informed of this aggressive cycling strategy before and during only one of the two trials (HON). Prior to the alternate trial (DEC), participants were misinformed that cycling power output would equal that of BL, with on-screen feedback manipulated to reinforce this deception. Results: Compared to BL, a significantly faster run performance was observed following DEC cycling (p < 0.05) but not following HON cycling (1348 ± 140 vs. 1333 ± 129 s and 1350 ± 135 s, for BL, DEC, and HON, respectively). As such, magnitude-based inferences suggest HON running was more likely to be slower, than faster, compared to BL, and that DEC running was probably faster than both BL and HON. Despite a trend for overall triathlon performance to be quicker during DEC (4339 ± 395 s) compared to HON (4356 ± 384 s), the only significant and almost certainly meaningful differences were between each of these trials and BL (4465 ± 420 s; p < 0.05). Generally, physiological and perceptual strain increased with higher cycling intensities, with little, if any, substantial difference in physiological and perceptual response during each triathlon run. Conclusions: The present study is the first to show that mid-event pace deception can have a practically meaningful effect on multi-modal endurance performance, though the relative importance of different psychophysiological and emotional responses remains unclear. Whilst our findings support the view that some form of anticipatory “template” may be used by athletes to interpret levels of psychophysiological and emotional strain, and regulate exercise intensity accordingly, they would also suggest that individual constructs such as RPE and affect may be more loosely tied with pacing than previously suggested.