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Re: Stride pattern of runners article comment

Dear Editor,

In the article about how older runner's strides are shorter which I have included below my comment, one has to seriously take into account the body fat percentage of each runner otherwise such a test won't mean that much.

Most of us tend to put on more weight as we get older. Weight has a serious effect on stride length. It has a serious effect on stride length regardless of age. But even great athletes put on weight as they get older. Weight destroys stride length big time.

Body fat weight percentage needs to be seriously taken into account when doing such an analysis.

I personally would like to see a test on runners stride length based on body fat percentage because I seriously feel this is something whose effects are completely underestimated.

Dr Dyson
Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
University of Chichester
College Lane
Chichester, PO19 6PE
West Sussex
UK
email: r.dyson@chi.ac.uk

Objective: To investigate the stride pattern of different age groups of veteran runners in a marathon road race.

Methods: This kinematic study investigated the stride pattern (stride length, stride period, velocity, stance time, and non-stance time) for 151 runners (78 men aged up to 75-80, 73 women aged up to 60-64) at the 7 mile point.

Results: Significant declines for men with aging were found for mean stride length (from 2.4 m at age 40-49 to 2.0 m at age 60+), velocity, and non-stance time (p<0.05), whereas stride period changed little. The findings indicate that the lower velocities of older runners are associated with shorter strides whereas cadence changes little. However, when a statistical adjustment was made for the variation in runners' velocity, it was found that older runners did not have a significantly shorter stride length at any given velocity.

Conclusion: Although a shorter stride is the mechanical route by which older runners lose velocity, the shorter stride may not be the fundamental cause of the velocity reduction with age. This has implications for researchers and coaches when investigating and training veteran distance runner.