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Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women

Background and Objective: The increased popularity of marathons and half-marathons has led to a significant increase in the number of master runners worldwide. Since the age-related decrease in performance is dependent on race duration, pacing in long distance running might also vary by race distanc...

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Autores principales: Cuk, Ivan, Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros, Markovic, Srdjan, Knechtle, Beat
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6723688/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31416198
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina55080479
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author Cuk, Ivan
Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros
Markovic, Srdjan
Knechtle, Beat
author_facet Cuk, Ivan
Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros
Markovic, Srdjan
Knechtle, Beat
author_sort Cuk, Ivan
collection PubMed
description Background and Objective: The increased popularity of marathons and half-marathons has led to a significant increase in the number of master runners worldwide. Since the age-related decrease in performance is dependent on race duration, pacing in long distance running might also vary by race distance in both men and women. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to assess pacing differences between marathon and half-marathon runners with regard to the runners’ age group, and independently for men and women. Materials and Methods: In total, 17,465 participants in the Vienna City marathon in 2017 were considered for this study (marathon, N = 6081; half-marathon, N = 11,384). Pacing was expressed as two variables (i.e., pace range and end spurt). Results: All runners showed positive pacing strategies (i.e., a fast start with gradual decrease of speed). However, marathon runners showed greater variability in pacing than half-marathon runners. Furthermore, women showed no differences in pace variability in regard to the age group, whereas men younger than 30 years of age, as well as older men (over the age of 60), showed a greater variability in pace than other age groups. Finally, younger half-marathon men and women showed the fastest end spurt compared to older age groups and marathon runners. Conclusions: The presented findings could help sports and medicine practitioners to create age specific training plans and pacing strategies. This approach could help long distance runners to improve their physical fitness, achieve better race times, reduce the potential risk of musculoskeletal injuries and increase the overall pleasure of long distance running.
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spelling pubmed-67236882019-09-10 Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women Cuk, Ivan Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros Markovic, Srdjan Knechtle, Beat Medicina (Kaunas) Article Background and Objective: The increased popularity of marathons and half-marathons has led to a significant increase in the number of master runners worldwide. Since the age-related decrease in performance is dependent on race duration, pacing in long distance running might also vary by race distance in both men and women. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to assess pacing differences between marathon and half-marathon runners with regard to the runners’ age group, and independently for men and women. Materials and Methods: In total, 17,465 participants in the Vienna City marathon in 2017 were considered for this study (marathon, N = 6081; half-marathon, N = 11,384). Pacing was expressed as two variables (i.e., pace range and end spurt). Results: All runners showed positive pacing strategies (i.e., a fast start with gradual decrease of speed). However, marathon runners showed greater variability in pacing than half-marathon runners. Furthermore, women showed no differences in pace variability in regard to the age group, whereas men younger than 30 years of age, as well as older men (over the age of 60), showed a greater variability in pace than other age groups. Finally, younger half-marathon men and women showed the fastest end spurt compared to older age groups and marathon runners. Conclusions: The presented findings could help sports and medicine practitioners to create age specific training plans and pacing strategies. This approach could help long distance runners to improve their physical fitness, achieve better race times, reduce the potential risk of musculoskeletal injuries and increase the overall pleasure of long distance running. MDPI 2019-08-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6723688/ /pubmed/31416198 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina55080479 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cuk, Ivan
Nikolaidis, Pantelis Theodoros
Markovic, Srdjan
Knechtle, Beat
Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women
title Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women
title_full Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women
title_fullStr Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women
title_full_unstemmed Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women
title_short Age Differences in Pacing in Endurance Running: Comparison between Marathon and Half-Marathon Men and Women
title_sort age differences in pacing in endurance running: comparison between marathon and half-marathon men and women
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6723688/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31416198
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina55080479
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