Affective feelings and perceived exertion during a 10-km time trial and head-to-head running race

Purpose:
Our aim was to verify the affective feelings (AF) and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) responses during a 10-km competitive head-to-head (HTH) and compare it to a time-trial (TT) running race.
Methods:
Fourteen male runners completed 2 x 10-km runs (TT and HTH) on different days. Speed, RPE and AF were measured every 400-m. For pacing analysis races were
14 divided into four stages: I) first 400 m (F400); II) 401m to 5000m (M1); III) 5001m and 9600m (M2) and; IV) the last 400m (final sprint [FS]).
Results:
Improvement of performance was observed (39:32 ± 02:41 min:s vs 40:28 ± 02:55 min:s; p = 0.03; ES = - 0.32) in HTH compared to TT. There were not differences in either pacing strategy or RPE between conditions. AF were higher during the HTH,being different in M2 when compared to TT (2.09 ± 1.81 vs 0.22 ± 2.25; p = 0.02; ES = 0.84).
Conclusion:
AF are directly influenced by the presence of opponents during a HTH race and a more positive AF could be involved in the dissociation between RPE and running speed and consequently, the overall race performance.