This article looks at the effect of swim pacing strategies on overall triathlon performance
What’s the deal?
How should you pace your swim during a sprint distance triathlon (750m swim, 20km cycle, 5km run) and can it affect your overall triathlon performance?
What did they do?
9 triathletes performed 3 sprint distance triathlons, one week apart. The swim phase total duration was fixed for each athlete based on their personal average swim speed (e.g. 15 minutes), but the pacing within was manipulated. Triathletes either had to perform negative splits, (start slow, finish fast), positive splits (start fast, finish slow), or swim at an even pace. The cycle and run components were performed without restriction.
What happened?
Triathletes achieved their fastest sprint triathlon completion time when they did positive swim splits (start fast, finish slow), compared to negative splits or even pacing. The improvement was roughly 80-110 seconds and almost all of the benefit came during the cycling stage.
What can you tell me about the people?
All participants were male, with an average age of 26 years, and an average VO2 max of 63 ml/kg/min. They were experienced, competitive triathletes and had previously achieved a sprint triathlon time below 70 minutes.
What else should I know?
Swimming was performed in a pool and pacing was enforced by an experimenter walking alongside the pool giving vocal cues. Negative splits increased steadily in pace from 73% to 92% of participants’ average pace, whilst positive splits decreased from 92% to 73%. Steady pacing was performed at 82.5%.
What will I do differently?
I have never participated in a triathlon, but I really want to. The swimming stage has always put me off, but at least now I know how to pace it!
Acknowledgements
This research was published in August 2016 by SSX Wu and colleagues from the University of Tasmania, Australia.
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Abstract Athlete 