A new running study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has come to two interesting and unexpected conclusions:
1) The optimal running speed for the group tested was about 8.3 mph (about a 7:13 minutes per mile) for males and 6.5 mph (9:08 min/mile) for females. For the sake of the study the optimal running speed is defined as the speed that used the least amount of energy to cover one mile.
2) At slower speeds, about 4.5 mph (13 min/mile), the metabolic efficiency was at its lowest. At this speed, halfway between a walk and a jog, the runner's gait can be awkward and unnatural.
What that means is that there is an optimal speed that will get you there the cheapest," said Karen Steudel, a zoology professor at Wisconsin who was one of the authors of the new study.
According to Yahoo News:
"For years, it has been thought that humans have a constant metabolic energy rate.
It was assumed that you would require the same total energy to run one mile, no matter if you ran it in 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Even though your energy burn rate would be higher at faster speeds, you would get there in half the time.
Turns out, however, that each person has an optimal running pace that uses the least amount of oxygen to cover a given distance.
Steudel's team tested both male and female runners at six different speeds on a treadmill while measuring their oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output. As expected, each runner had different levels of fitness and oxygen use but there were ideal speeds for each runner that required the least amount of energy."
For more information you can read the study HERE.