The effect of sex, age and performance level on pacing of Ironman triathletes The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of gender, age and performance level on the pacing of Ironman triathlets. The section times in swimming, cycling and running as well as the total time of 343'345 athletes who participated between 2002 and 2015 at 253 different Ironman triathlons were analyzed. The participants were divided into nine performance groups after their total time. The times when swimming, cycling, running and changing zones were specified as a percentage of the total time.Women turned relatively little time (%) when swimming, running and changing as well as more time (%) when cycling than men. The fastest power group was relatively faster during running (34.8 ± 1.4 compared to 40.3 ± 3.0%) and the change zone (0.9 ± 0.3 compared to 2.2 ± 0.6%) and relatively slowerWhen swimming (10.2 ± 0.8) against 9.8 ± 1.5%) than the slowest power group. The athletes of the younger age groups were relatively faster when swimming, and in the change zone, but relatively slower when cycling.
In summary, the fastest Ironman triathlets were the relatively fastest while running and changing zone. Therefore, at an Ironman triathlon, racing tactics should aim to save energy when swimming and cycling for the running split. The work can be found under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30418036/