—Amanda Ares, Morgan Koskela, Allison Petry (Mentor: Summer Cook)
Carbon-fiber plated (CFP) shoes improve running efficiency, performance, and gait, and minimize fatigue in elite runners. However, the effects of CFP shoes on recreational runners are less clear. It is also unknown whether CFP shoes affect sex differences in pacing. The purpose of this study was to compare running performance and fatigue, gait variables, and sex differences in pacing during a 5 km time trial in recreational runners wearing CFP running shoes and non-CFP running shoes. Twenty-one participants (11 females, 10 males) aged eighteen to thirty-five who trained 15-30 miles per week performed two 5 km time trials on a treadmill. Participants were blinded to speed, distance, and time, completing one time trial in a CFP and one in a non-CFP shoe in a randomized order. Speed changes, heart rate, subjective rating of effort, and gait variables were recorded, and leg muscle strength was assessed pre and post. Participants ran faster in CFP with no increase in workload of the heart, subjective rating of effort, or fatigue compared to non-CFP. Furthermore, females slowed less than males and paced more evenly in non-CFP with no differences in CFP. In CFP, contact time decreased and stride length increased compared to non-CFP, with no differences in foot strike or step rate.
