[Ironman Triathlon]

Abstract

Every year, thousands of triathletes try to qualify for the «Ironman Hawaii» (3,8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42,195 km running), the World Championship of long-distance triathletes. In this overview, we present the recent findings in literature with the most important variables with an influence on Ironman triathlon performance. The most important performance-influencing factors for a fast Ironman race time for both women and men are a large training volume and a high intensity in training, a large volume being more important than a high intensity, a low percentage of body fat, an ideal age of 30–35 years, a fast personal best in the Olympic distance triathlon (1,5 km swimming, 40 km cycling and 10 km running), a fast personal best in marathon running and origin from the United States of America.

Keywords: Geschlecht; Laufen; Radfahren; Schwimmen; course à pied; cycling; cyclisme; natation; running; sex; sexe; swimming.