The relation between oxygen requirement and speed in running

A. V. Hill and his co-workers (1) have emphasised that the relation existing between the average speed at which a race can be run and the distance to be covered depends mainly upon three factors:(a) the oxygen requirement of the exercise,( b) the oxygen intake of the subject while running, and(c) the oxygen debt incurred by the subject. Their experiments have shown that the general type of relation that exists between speed and oxygen requirement is likely closely to resemble that found by Furusawa (2) in the case of standing-running. The results obtained hitherto, however, are of limited application. In the first place, their observations were made on a variety of subjects who used a track which was too small to permit of a high speed being readily obtained, and, in the second, their subjects were compelled to carry a large Douglas bag during the performance of the exercise. The conical Douglas bags used to collect the expired air during exercise weigh, complete with mouthpiece and rubber connections, about 10 lb.; in addition to their weight they are extremely cumbersome and hinder the free action of the subject to a marked degree. In order to arrive at some more definite conclusions as to the nature of this relationship, the whole question was re-examined, with the idea of obtaining accurate data, not hitherto available, on one trained subject under carefully controlled conditions.