Background/Purpose In general, it has been determined that runners will naturally select a stride frequency- stride length combination that results in the lowest VO2.The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between energy cost and stride pattern (frequency and length) during different running speed.
Method Twenty-one male physical education students (23.00±1.85 yrs; 1.81±4.14 m; 79.40±9.62 kg) and nineteen female students (21.00±1.24 yrs; 1.68±4.25 m; 59.91±6.72 kg) completed 9-minute runs on a horizontal treadmill. Subjects completed running condition of 80, 85 and 90% of their maximal speeds. During each 3-minute run, subjects ran 11.57, 12.30, 13.02 km/sa and 7.75, 8.24, 8.72 km/sa, for male and female respectively. Subjects were allowed to freely select a preferred stride frequency.
Analysis/Results Repeated measured ANOVA were used to test for differences in each dependent variable (stride length, stride frequency, running speed) across speeds. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for combination stride parameters and V02.
Conclusions In this study, male students selected same stride frequency at the different speed. Female students however, preferred increased stride characteristics in total running performance (p<.01). Rate of oxygen consuption increased with faster running speeds, but there was no interaction effect between VO2 and stride frequency.