Document Type
Dissertation
First Faculty Advisor
Trunzo, Joseph
Keywords
heart rate; monitor; neuroticism; performance; triathlete; personality; triathlon; athlete
Publisher
Bryant University
Abstract
Triathlon, a sport that consists of swimming, biking and running, is growing in popularity throughout the country and the world. There is a large percentage of athletes that rely on the use of a heart rate monitor to gauge effort, but there is also a group of athletes that do not use this technology. The purpose of this research was to determine if personality, specifically neuroticism, played a role in determining which athletes use heart rate monitors and whether these variables had any effect on performance. Ninety-eight triathletes were surveyed from 2 half iron distance triathlons in the summer of 2010. There proved to be no interaction effect between neuroticism and heart rate monitor usage on performance [F 2 = 1.830, p = 0.168]. Interestingly, the data showed that there was no significant relationship between heart rate monitor usage and performance. This finding is interesting because heart rate monitors are widely used in the triathlon community, and these data show that perhaps heart rate monitors are not the best tool for gauging effort.
