Much of the previous research efforts aimed at determining those physiological characteristics that contribute to distance running success have centered around distances greater than 1500 meters with little attention to events such as the 800 meter run. Therefore, this investigation examined the relationship between selected physiological and body composition, characteristics and performance in an 800 meter run. Measurements of body composition, VO2max, running economy, and performance times for 100 and 300 meter dashes were obtained on 11 male track athletes. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed using 800 meter race time as the dependent variable. Although the combination of 300 and 100 meter run times, percent body fat, running economy and VO2 max as independent variables accounted for the greatest amount of total variance (r2 = .89), the additional variance explained by the model did not increase significantly (p greater than 0.05), when VO2max, percent body fat, and running economy were added to a model which contained 300 and 100 meter run time (r2 = .85) as the explanatory variables. These data offer additional support for the notion that much of the intramuscular ATP produce and utilized during an 800 meter run comes from anaerobic metabolic pathway.

Pulse oximeters are being widely used for non-invasive, simultaneous assessment of haemoglobin oxygen saturation. They are reliable, accurate, relatively inexpensive and portable. Pulse oximeters are often used for estimating heart rate at rest and during exercise. However, at present the data available to validate their use as heart rate monitors are not sufficient. We evaluated the accuracy of two oximeters (Radiometer, ear and finger probe; Ohmeda 3700, ear probe) in monitoring heart rate during incremental exercise by comparing the pulse oximeters with simultaneous ECG readings. Data were collected on eight men (713 heart rate readings) during graded cycle ergometer and treadmill exercise to volitional fatigue. Analysis by linear regression revealed that general oximeter readings significantly correlated with those of ECG (r = 0.91, P less than 0.0001). However, comparison of heart rate at each level of work showed that oximeter readings significantly (P less than 0.05) under-estimated rates above 155 beats/min. These results indicate that the use of pulse oximeters as heart rate monitors during strenuous exercise is questionable. This inaccuracy may well originate from the instability of the probes, sweating, other artefacts during exercise, and measurement of different components in the cardiovascular cycle.

Powers, S. K. FACSM; Lawler, J.; Criswell, D.; Dodd, S.; Grinton, S.; Ayers, D.; Silverman, H. Author Information

Iyriboz, Y.; Powers, S.; Morrow, J.; Lawler, J.; Rome, P.; Ayers, D. Author Information