From Progression to Regression: How Running Performance Changes for Males and Females Across the Lifespan

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The work offers the opportunity to analyze performances throughout the life span, however, I find it incorrect to put together all ages and find differences. The period of adolescence includes a different range, performances in very young athletes I believe should not be compared to other runners. As regards physiology and sport, important considerations must be made for female athletes.
For these reasons I consider it not suitable for publication

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

The authors thank the reviewer for their time in reading our manuscript. While the authors appreciate the reviewer’s perspective, we believe an overall view of running development was necessary to capture aspects of running that change across the lifespan. We have not intended to directly compare children with adults, though some may interpret the data that way. And while a number of authors have compared sex differences in performance of various groups, none that we know of have put this in the context of development or again, so discussed the physiology underlying the differences.

The authors have made substantial changes to all aspects of the paper and updated the developmental stages based on several sources and consultation with pediatric physicians to delineate between general early stages. Comparison with older runners was necessary to provide some anchor of context. Additional text has been added regarding females and their response to acute and chronic exercise. The authors hope the reviewer will find the revisions helpful.

General Response:

After some review and additional references, the authors have revised the developmental stages (see below) and provided some graphical depictions of changes in testosterone and estrogen across the life span with some more discussion on potential implications. We acknowledge that our understanding of the orle of female sex hormones on performance, especially estrogen, is limited and at times speculative. Age groups are listed below and, where applicable on figures, modified as noted. Figures utilizing ages now include a representation of age groups, as well.

• Childhood (Chd) from age 5 – 10 yo, which are typically the years preceding puberty
• Adolescence (AD) from age 11 – 18 yo, typically marks the beginning of puberty to early adulthood. Where appropriate, we delineate early AD (EAD) as 11 – 15 yo and late (LAD) as 15 – 18 yo to better capture pubertal changes.
• Early Adulthood (EA) from age 19 – 35 years. This is the period where running performance peaks and is generally maintained for both elite and age-group athletes.
• Middle Adulthood (MA) from age 36 – 55 years. During this period most athletes can maintain a very high level of performance with minimal performance loss.
• Late Adulthood (LA) from age 56 years and beyond. During this is the period where performance declines become more noticeable, with significant and accelerated declines after age 70 Specific responses are noted below.

The authors have also made significant revisions and corrections to figures, as well as adding an additional figure summarizing major changes in sex hormones across the lifespan.

• Line 18; …age 5-105

Comment: in every part and in all pictures never is described 105 years old, why consider this range of age?

The authors have corrected this throughout and limit age to 89, as any running or research data beyond is sparse and potentially misleading.

Table 2: there is the symbol DELTA for early adolescence and adulthood, but there isn’t for late adolescence and late adulthood,

Corrected.

• Line 78-87: the authors have described the group : “ They have relied on population- based age ranges that are common within the literature as related to youth world record running performances:

Comment: the group from line 78 are different respect the description on paper:

For example: early adolescence finished at 12 years old as the authors have described on line 78: here in the table 2 the information are 3-5 years old! Are they early adolescences too? 6-10, 11-14 , 15-17 , other column are together 18-74 years old ? why is necessary to describe different group on young people and after in adulthood 18-74 are evaluated all together?

I ask to reconsider these table respect the characteristics of group or respect line 78-87

Thank you, this was helpful. We have revised these areas and, where ages are more specific noted the relevant age group or context if needed.

• Several line: The authors use: mini-puberty (line 212), infancy (line 212), puberty (line 243, 379) prepubertal children (line 244), boys aged 5-12 (line 376)

Comment: for this type of paper it is necessary to consider standardizing the division into groups, maintaining it in the text, tables and figures to avoid confusion of age

As noted above, we have tried to address, leaving only a few specifics regarding ages prior to what we define as childhood, eg, mini-puberty, which occurs well before childhood but still has a significant impact.

• Line 303: here “Additionally, higher male testosterone levels contribute to greater increases in heart size (i.e., stroke volume) and Hbmass [97]. “ is an example of information about only male 2

Comment: if the authors write about hormone in male it is necessary to implement with information about female hormone and consider the relation with the performance https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00611.2023

The authors have tried to address this shortcoming and noting some key differences in male vs female development, as well as including a new figure 2 to illustrate differences. We were unsure how to interpret the reviewer’s reference, however.

• Line 310: early adulthood

Comment: who are these?

As noted, the authors have updated the developmental stages, so early adulthood should be clearer.

• Line 385: Figure 1 and Figure 2 (line 392): the acronyms in the legend are: EA = Early Adolescence, MA = Mid-Adolescence, Pb = Puberty, LA = Late Adolescence, Ad = Adulthood, and LAd = Late adulthood.

Comment: it is not clear which are the age of participants respect the group subdivision (line 78-87)

We have revised this accordingly.

• Line 429: the legend of Figure 4 is not clear “… Data indicate that males are faster than female WR from ~age 15 until age 39 in all but marathon (age 19 – 39). “

What means “but marathon”? Marathon at young age?

Thank you for noting this. We have eliminated this sentence as it was confusing and does not alter the overall point being made.

• Line 483: “However, even of the best age-group runners, times are 10-40% slower between 10 and 59 yo “

Comment: is it too large this range of age to make any consideration, I suggest to reconsider this type of number/category/age to put all together

And are they in relation to a Figure?

Thank you for your comment here, as we see the confusion. We have revised this to better articulate our point.

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This manuscript deals with the influence of gender and aging on running performance throughout the lifespan, which is a topic of high interest in the field of sports science, physiology and health.I support the aspiration of the authors to contribute to this field of research in this day and age when hypokinesia is on the rise.

The manuscript is technically well structured.It has all the necessary elements.

I will recommend major Review.

Authors should pay attention to the language, i.e. stylistic errors and clumsy sentences that I notice in the text.The following sentences should be corrected:

• Line 474–475 - "VO₂ Max may be your ticket into the club, but once inside all your other knowledge, skills, and abilities matter more."In this sentence, the idiomatic style ("ticket into the club") may be too colloquial for a scholarly article.
• Line 492–493 - "Our main objective was to summarize to the best of our ability the role that developmental changes have on running performance across the lifespan for men and women."In this sentence, “to the best of our ability” is redundant and seems unprofessional in a scientific tone.It could be rephrased as: “to provide a comprehensive summary of…”
• Line 496 - “Thus, this paper is meant to be foremost a resource for others to review what is generally known…” In this sentence, “meant to be foremost” is awkward;it would be better to say: “is intended primarily as a resource…”
• Line 320–321 - “With physical maturity completed in the early 20s, continued improvements are generally related to refining those key determinants within a specialty and peripheral adaptations.”This long sentence should be divided and simplified for clarity.
• Line 328–329 - “As with sprint events, the rate of progression for men and women is roughly similar, and their remains a persistent performance gap…” There is a grammatical error in this sentence: “their” should be “there”.
• Line 335 - "giving them a greater cardiovascular delivery ceiling."Here, the term "delivery ceiling" is not common and can be confusing;proposal: "capacity for cardiovascular output".
• Line 426–429 - "Data indicate that males are faster than female WR from ~age 15 until age 39 in all but marathon..." Here the abbreviation WR for "world records" is not previously defined;the sentence could be more precise.

Here are some other parts that should also be paid attention to:

• Citation of tables and figures.

Additionally emphasize methodological weaknesses, especially in connection with the use of a non-systematic literature review If the author corrects this, I think the manuscript will be acceptable for publication.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Authors should pay attention to the language, i.e. stylistic errors and clumsy sentences that I notice in the text.The following sentences should be corrected:

• Line 474–475 - "VO₂ Max may be your ticket into the club, but once inside all your other knowledge, skills, and abilities matter more."In this sentence, the idiomatic style ("ticket into the club") may be too colloquial for a scholarly article.
• Line 492–493 - "Our main objective was to summarize to the best of our ability the role that developmental changes have on running performance across the lifespan for men and women."In this sentence, “to the best of our ability” is redundant and seems unprofessional in a scientific tone.It could be rephrased as: “to provide a comprehensive summary of…”
• Line 496 - “Thus, this paper is meant to be foremost a resource for others to review what is generally known…” In this sentence, “meant to be foremost” is awkward;it would be better to say: “is intended primarily as a resource…”
• Line 320–321 - “With physical maturity completed in the early 20s, continued improvements are generally related to refining those key determinants within a specialty and peripheral adaptations.”This long sentence should be divided and simplified for clarity.
• Line 328–329 - “As with sprint events, the rate of progression for men and women is roughly similar, and their remains a persistent performance gap…” There is a grammatical error in this sentence: “their” should be “there”.
• Line 335 - "giving them a greater cardiovascular delivery ceiling."Here, the term "delivery ceiling" is not common and can be confusing;proposal: "capacity for cardiovascular output".
• Line 426–429 - "Data indicate that males are faster than female WR from ~age 15 until age 39 in all but marathon..." Here the abbreviation WR for "world records" is not previously defined;the sentence could be more precise.

Author Response

Reviewer 2

The authors appreciate the reviewer’s comments which we found inciteful and helpful. We believe we have either addressed the concerns raised, provided revisions to accommodate some comments, or, in some cases, corrected and revised areas which we believe were lacking.

General Response:

After some review and additional references, the authors have revised the developmental stages (see below) and provided some graphical depictions of changes in testosterone and estrogen across the life span with some more discussion on potential implications. We acknowledge that our understanding of the orle of female sex hormones on performance, especially estrogen, is limited and at times speculative. Age groups are listed below and, where applicable on figures, modified as noted. Figures utilizing ages now include a representation of age groups, as well.

• Childhood (Chd) from age 5 – 10 yo, which are typically the years preceding puberty
• Adolescence (AD) from age 11 – 18 yo, typically marks the beginning of puberty to early adulthood. Where appropriate, we delineate early AD (EAD) as 11 – 15 yo and late (LAD) as 15 – 18 yo to better capture pubertal changes.
• Early Adulthood (EA) from age 19 – 35 years. This is the period where running performance peaks and is generally maintained for both elite and age-group athletes.
• Middle Adulthood (MA) from age 36 – 55 years. During this period most athletes can maintain a very high level of performance with minimal performance loss.
• Late Adulthood (LA) from age 56 years and beyond. During this is the period where performance declines become more noticeable, with significant and accelerated declines after age 70 Specific responses are noted below.

 The authors have also made significant revisions and corrections to figures, as well as adding an additional figure summarizing major changes in sex hormones across the lifespan.

• Line 474–475 - "VO₂ Max may be your ticket into the club, but once inside all your other knowledge, skills, and abilities matter more."In this sentence, the idiomatic style ("ticket into the club") may be too colloquial for a scholarly article.

Revised.

• Line 492–493 - "Our main objective was to summarize to the best of our ability the role that developmental changes have on running performance across the lifespan for men and women."In this sentence, “to the best of our ability” is redundant and seems unprofessional in a scientific tone.It could be rephrased as: “to provide a comprehensive summary of…”

Revised

• Line 496 - “Thus, this paper is meant to be foremost a resource for others to review what is generally known…” In this sentence, “meant to be foremost” is awkward;it would be better to say: “is intended primarily as a resource…”
• Line 320–321 - “With physical maturity completed in the early 20s, continued improvements are generally related to refining those key determinants within a specialty and peripheral adaptations.”This long sentence should be divided and simplified for clarity.

Revised

• Line 328–329 - “As with sprint events, the rate of progression for men and women is roughly similar, and their remains a persistent performance gap…” There is a grammatical error in this sentence: “their” should be “there”.

Revised

• Line 335 - "giving them a greater cardiovascular delivery ceiling."Here, the term "delivery ceiling" is not common and can be confusing;proposal: "capacity for cardiovascular output"

Revised

• Line 426–429 - "Data indicate that males are faster than female WR from ~age 15 until age 39 in all but marathon..." Here the abbreviation WR for "world records" is not previously defined;the sentence could be more precise.

Corrected

Here are some other parts that should also be paid attention to:

• Citation of tables and figures.

We have noted the table and figures within the text. Refs added to figures.

• Additionally emphasize methodological weaknesses, especially in connection with the use of a non-systematic literature review If the author corrects this, I think the manuscript will be acceptable for publication.

Noted in the limitations.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,
I saw that you made the changes I asked for.
in the bibliographic entries I find n.21 unclear: "our sport 2025"

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have corrected the errors I mentioned. I think the paper can be accepted.