Runners prefer the same pace, regardless of distance – study

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. So, regardless of the distance you travel, you run in such a way that you burn the least amount of fuel per distance travelled Scott Delp, Stanford University Scientists had previously thought that runners burn the same amount of calories for a given distance no matter how fast they run, because the energy used depends mostly on the weight of the runner and time ran. “So, regardless of the distance you travel, you run in such a way that you burn the least amount of fuel per distance travelled.” What surprised the team most was the consistency they found across the two groups. “We intuitively assume that people run faster for shorter distances and then would slow their pace for longer distances,” says first author Jessica Selinger, a neuromechanics researcher at Queens University in Ontario, Canada. Researchers suggest that from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that people would run at the speed that uses the least amount of energy, and this caloric conservation is something observed across the animal kingdom.