Environmental and Topographical Factors Affecting Male "Middle-of-the-Pack" Duathlon Performance

Duathlon performance in male "middle-of-the-pack" (MMP) athletes was examined for 13 races held in Oregon and British Columbia during 1990. The primary objectives was to investigate the relationship between topographic and race-day weather variability on MMP duathlon performance. Regression models were created to help explain MMP performance for each duathlon segment (first 5 km run, 30 km bicycle, second 5 km run), overall, and 5 km run disparity. A suite of topographic and raceday weather variables were considered as possible explanatory variables. First 5 km ~un performance is primarily a function of the topographic difficulty of the course. Wind speed is the sole explanatory variable for the 30 km bicycle segment. Models with R2 .90 were developed for the second 5 km run segment using a combination of run and bicycle course topography variables and wind speed. No significant models were created for overall performance due to a lack of variability in race times. Run course topography and wind speed explain greater than 87 percent of the variability in 5 km run disparity times. The results suggest that second 5 km run performance is the best indicator of overall course difficulty.