Discussion: No Decline in Running Economy for Older Runners

A report with this slightly provocative title is available at this url.
I thought this might be of general interest.

http://unh.edu/news/campusjournal/2011/Nov/30runne...

Logically the older runners must be more efficient in some other respects apart from strength, power and flexibility, in order to be equally efficient. This seems to be an even more interesting area to research, or have I missed something?

I think that the efficiency that they are referring to - as they state " running economy " - is a separate variable from the list of strength power and flexibility. Their oxygen consumption does not go up with age and that is pretty cool.

Thank you, that was my understanding as well. If true, it is surprising that the older better runners had similar running economy.

Flexibility, power and strength are generally considered amongst the factors effecting running economy and the research shows for the same lower running speed the older athletes have the same running economy, but are also inferior in some of the key areas considered to improve economy. My thought is that suggests they are more efficient in some of the other factors that effect running economy. The runners tested were the better runners in each age group, suggesting the older runners may well have been running for many years and probably for longer than the younger runners. During those years they might have developed greater efficiency in other areas.