A BIOMECHANICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF EFFICIENCY AT DIFFERENT RUNNING PACES

Authors

  • K. M. Price
  • J. D. Wilkerson

Keywords:

running, efficiency

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between several biomechanical and physiological variables associated with two different paces in treadmill running. The treadmill speed was adjusted to simulate an easy warm-up pace and a race pace for a 5000 m run. Another purpose was to study the contribution of both biomechanical and physiological variables toward total efficiency. The biomechanical variables included: (a) stride frequency, (b) stride length, (c) time of stride, and (d) percent of support. The physiological variables included: (a) heart rate, (b) R value, (c) V02, (d) percent of V02max, and (e) blood lactate. Nine intercollegiate distance runners from the north Texas area were filmed twice (5 min and 15 min) .from a sagittal view with a 16 mm high speed camera operating at 100 fps during two running paces. Joint segment markers were attached to the runners and one complete stride was digitized. The X/Y coordinates were used to determine the work per stride. Since physiological data were being collected simultaneously during the treadmill protocol, these were matched to the 5 min and 15 min film data intervals to determine total efficiency. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA was utilized with two paces and two times to investigate the biomechanical, physiological, and efficiency variables. Maximum experimentwise error control for Type I errors was necessary since ten dependent variables were utilized and the correlation matrix indicated that the data were nonorthogonal. A Bonferroni inequality test was also used and produced a modified alpha level of .005. No significant interactions for time by pace were found for any of the dependent variables. However, a trend does exist for several of the variables.

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