The Differences in Pacing Among Age Groups of Amateur Cross-Country Skiers Depend on Performance The pacing was primarily examined for runners, but little runners is not known. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of performance and age on pacing in cross-country skiing. All finishers (women, n = 19'375; men, n = 86'190) of the “Engadin Ski Marathon” (42 km) between 1998 and 2016 were 10 km (A), 20 km (B) in terms of percentage speed change.and 35 km (C) analyzed. They were divided into performance groups after quartiles of average race speed (Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4) and age groups of 5 years (<20, 20-24, 25-29 … 85-89 years).Men were + 14.3% faster than women (15.2 ± 4.0 vs. 13.3 ± 3.3 km). In women and men, a minor influence of the interaction between age group and power group was reflected on the change of A, where Q1 slowed down and Q4 weakened the speed reduction with age. However, the influence of the interaction of the age group × performance group on changes B and C was insignificant.Based on these findings, the conclusion was drawn that the differences in pacing between the age groups depend on the level of performance.
Therefore, the coaches should cooperate with passers, advise their athlete, to consider both age and performance. The whole work can be found under https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/hukin-2018-0055