Influence of exercise variation on the retention of a pacing strategy

The aim of this study is to establish whether the introduction of an exercise bout of different distance, would affect the retention of the pacing schema stored from a prior exercise bout. Furthermore, to identify whether the ‘internal clock’ can be calibrated to absolute distance, and whether this is disrupted by exercise requiring a different pacing strategy. Sixteen highly trained male cyclists were randomly allocated into a control (CON) or experimental group (EXP) and completed four time trials (TT) of two different distances (2 × 4 km and 2 × 6 km), separated by 17 min. The participants in the CON group completed both distances in a sequential order whereas the EXP group completed both distances in a variable order. No significant differences in completion time or mean PO were observed (p > 0.05). The CON group showed a significant improvement in their estimation of distance completed in both the 4 km (24.6 ± 18.2 vs. 8.2 ± 5.5%) and 6 km (15.2 ± 7 vs. 8.6 ± 3%) distances (t ₇ = 2.791, t ₇ = 3.118, p < 0.05). No significant differences in distance estimation were observed in the EXP group (p > 0.05). In conclusion, participants in the CON group displayed a significant improvement in their judgement of distance completed, despite no improvement in completion time. This suggests that a learned pacing schema is robust and not negatively affected by subsequent pacing variation. The internal clock shows an ability to be calibrated to absolute distance, although this does not improve performance.