All resulting papers were searched for related citations. A literature search was performed in PUBMED ( ) using the terms ‘anthropometry’, ‘training’, ‘performance’, ‘endurance’, ‘ultra’, and ‘athlete’ by the end of April 2013. This narrative review intends to focus on the association between anthropometric and training characteristics with ultra-endurance race performance. Ultra-endurance races such as ultra-swimming, ultra-cycling, ultra-running and the combination of these disciplines in multi-sports disciplines such as duathlon and triathlon have become of increasing popularity in recent decades. These longer events rely particularly on long-term preparation, sufficient nutrition, accommodation of environmental stressors, and psychological toughness. In contrast to an endurance performance, an ultra-endurance performance is defined as an event exceeding six hours in duration. maximum oxygen uptake, anaerobic threshold, lactate threshold, ventilatory threshold) have been identified as important predictor variables for race performance. speed during training units, duration of training units, training volume) and physiological variables ( i.e. body mass, body fat, skin-fold thicknesses, body height, length and circumferences of limbs), training characteristics ( i.e. In endurance and ultra-endurance athletes, a variety of different anthropometric characteristics ( i.e. In conclusion, the most important predictor variables for ultra-endurance athletes were a fast personal best time in shorter races, a low body fat and a high speed during training units.
Ultra-endurance athletes seemed to prepare differently for their races compared to endurance athletes where ultra-endurance athletes invested more time in training and completed more training kilometers at lower speed compared to endurance athletes. Further multi-variate regression analyses including additionally the aspects of previous experience such as personal best times showed that mainly previous best time in shorter races were the most important predictors for ultra-endurance race times. Multi-variate regression analyses including anthropometric and training characteristics reduced the predictor variables mainly to body fat and speed during training units. Additionally, training variables such as volume and speed were also bi-variately associated with race performance. Anthropometric characteristics such as skin-fold thicknesses, body fat, circumferences and length of limbs, body mass, body height, and body mass index were bi-variately related to race performance in endurance athletes such as swimmers in pools and in open water, in road and mountain bike cyclists, and in runners and triathletes over different distances.
A variety of anthropometric and training characteristics have been identified as predictor variables for race performance in endurance and ultra-endurance athletes.
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