Editorial: Special Issue on Modeling in Endurance Sports

Abstract

Analysing and predicting sports performance to optimise training and competition is a wide and complex field. To date, most methods heavily rely on the subjective experience of trainers and athletes. Nevertheless, objective mathematical methods and computer-based solutions have become increasingly popular over recent years and offer a wide range of research topics. This research is by nature interdisciplinary, involving sport and exercise science together with computational science and engineering. One major challenge of this research is handling the non-linear processes occurring in real-world settings. Additionally, most models are abstract and parameters cannot be measured directly. For instance, the capacity of individual energy stores within whole body physiological models can only be determined implicitly by external measurements. In designing training programs the major difficulty is the appropriate application of load and recovery phases to obtain an optimal adaptation process and reach peak performance. Unfortunately, to date there is limited research which has directly aimed to solve this problem using mathematical methods. In September 2016, a workshop, entitled Modeling in Endurance Sports, was held at the University of Konstanz, Germany. It aimed at mathematical, physiological, and computer science related approaches to analyse performance and physiological processes in endurance sports, such as running, cycling, rowing, skiing, and swimming. The topics addressed included data acquisition and visualisation, analysis and optimization of endurance training, modeling and simulation of performance, optimization of performance parameters, and modeling of physiological processes, including V ̇ O 2 kinetics, fatigue, and critical power. The workshop brought together experts, student researchers, and practitioners in sport science, exercise physiology, applied mathematics, and computer science. It was supported by the German Society of Sport Science (DVS) Section Sport Informatics, by the German National Science Foundation (DFG), and by the University of Konstanz. workshop topics,